Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/458422
STATE COUNCIL A workgroup of CTA's Testing and Assessment Committee met for two months to properly prepare the recommendations for State Council. The goal, said Committee Chair Jen Pettey, "is that assessments are used to improve student learning and instruction, not as a comparison tool between schools or districts." With nearly unanimous approval including cheers and applause, State Council voted on these recommendations. • Delay adopting the Academic Performance Index (API) for one year. SB 1458 altered the API, changing criteria by which schools are held accountable. Scheduled to take effect in 2016, these changes cannot be implemented until one year after adoption by the State Board of Education. Delaying adoption gives districts and teachers a full year of teaching Common Core standards, working with new interim assessments, and using Smarter Balanced Digital Library resources. • Limit the weights of statewide assess- ments in the API. State assessments should count only 25 percent for high schools and 40 percent for elementary and middle grades. Other weightings and indicators should be locally determined with teacher participation. • Determine local indicators for the API. The selection and use of other indicators should be based on the needs and growth of student learning over time and should ensure API elements are aligned to and support LCAP priorities. "The API should indicate what local educators say is important," said Pettey. • Eliminate decile rankings. Using decile rankings as a metric to understand the relative performance of schools is misleading. While AB 484 sunsets the decile rankings, the State Board will set state perfor- mance goals and decide how to report and monitor school performance at the statewide level. State Council first-timers include members of the Ethnic Minority Early Identification and Development (EMEID) program. (Back row) Jessica Gomez, Angela Pascual, Stephanie Tellez, Claudia Lopez Floes, Lisa Dinwiddie, Angela Normand, Jade Matthews, Karen Shatola, Jenny Perez and Oscar Lopez. (Front row) Carla Hamilton Yates, Gabriela Rodriguez, Charmae Woods, Maya Walker, Bertha Ramos, Julie Trail, Jessica Riley and Juan Alvarez. Find out about the EMEID program at cta.org/emeid. S P A R T O F C T A' S G O A L to take control of the teaching profession, State Council of Education delegates enthusiastically approved six recommendations concerning assessment and testing at the January meeting in Los Angeles. These recommendations will be sent to the State Board of Education and will guide CTA's legislative agenda for the upcoming session. A State Council CTA & You 54 www.cta.org