60604. (a) The Superintendent shall design and implement, consistent with the timetable and plan required pursuant to subdivision (b), a statewide pupil assessment system consistent with the testing requirements of this article in accordance with the objectives set forth in Section 60602.5. That system shall include all of the following:
(1) Exclusive of the consortium assessments, a plan for producing or adopting valid, fair, and reliable achievement tests as recommended by the Superintendent and adopted by the state board pursuant to the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) established by Article 4 (commencing with Section 60640).
(2) A plan for administering the consortium summative assessment as outlined by the joint agreement of the consortium.
(3) Statewide academically rigorous content and performance standards that reflect the knowledge and complex skills that pupils will need in order to succeed in the information-based, global economy of the 21st century. These skills shall not include personal behavioral standards or skills, including, but not limited to, honesty, sociability, ethics, or self-esteem.
(4) A statewide system that provides the results of testing in a manner that reflects the degree to which pupils are achieving the academically rigorous content and performance standards adopted by the state board.
(5) The alignment of assessment with the statewide academically rigorous content and performance standards adopted by the state board.
(6) The active, ongoing involvement of parents, classroom teachers, administrators, other educators, governing board members of school districts, business community members, institutions of higher education, and the public in all phases of the design and implementation of the statewide pupil assessment system.
(7) A plan for ensuring the security and integrity of the CAASPP assessments.
(8) The development of a contract or contracts with a contractor for the development or administration of achievement tests and performance tasks aligned to state-adopted content standards, including summative assessments or assessments that employ matrix sampling or population sampling methods.
(b) The Superintendent shall develop and annually update for the Legislature a five-year cost projection, implementation plan for the CAASPP, and a timetable for implementing the system described in Section 60640. The annual update shall be submitted on or before March 1 of each year to the Department of Finance, the state board, and the respective chairpersons of the appropriate fiscal subcommittees considering budget appropriations and the appropriate policy committees in each house. The update shall explain any significant variations from the five-year cost projection for the current year budget and the proposed budget.
(c) The Superintendent shall make resources available that are designed to assist with the interpretation and use of the CAASPP results to promote the use of the results for purposes of improving pupil learning and educational programs across the full curriculum. The Superintendent shall consider information already provided by assessment consortia to which California belongs or assessment contractors when fulfilling this requirement.
(d) The Superintendent shall make information and resources available to parents, teachers, pupils, administrators, school board members, and the public regarding the CAASPP, including, but not necessarily limited to, system goals, purposes, scoring systems, results, valid uses of assessments, and information on the relationship between performance on the previous state assessments and the CAASPP.
(e) The Superintendent and the state board shall consider comments and recommendations from teachers, administrators, pupil representatives, institutions of higher education, and the public in the development, adoption, and approval of assessment instruments.
(f) The results of the achievement tests, exclusive of the consortium summative assessments, administered pursuant to Article 4 (commencing with Section 60640), shall be returned to the local educational agencies within the period of time specified by the state board.
(Amended by Stats. 2014, Ch. 327, Sec. 18. (AB 1599) Effective January 1, 2015.)