Smarter Balanced and CAST Results Available Beginning May 15

Email Update, May 14, 2025

Dear LEA CAASPP Coordinator:

Thank you for your continued dedication and hard work in completing this year. Because of your efforts, ETS has a sufficient number of completed assessments to conduct quality-control processes and begin releasing test results for the following assessments:

• Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for English language arts/literacy (ELA) and mathematics
• California Science Test (CAST)

Results will be available starting on the following dates:

• May 15, 2025
  • Student Score Data Files in the Test Operations Management System (TOMS)
  • Results in the California Educator Reporting System (CERS)
• May 16, 2025
  • Student Score Reports (SSRs) in TOMS and in the LEA student information system (SIS) vendor parent or student portal

Not all results for an LEA may be included in this first set of results. The data files and additional SSRs will continue to be released every weekday as more assessments are scored and ready for reporting.

TOMS

Authorized users may go through TOMS to find student results and other metrics, such as the percentage of SSRs released and score status information.

• Under the [MyTOMS at a Glance] tab on the TOMS home page, the Student Score Report (SSR) Status widget shows the percentage and number of SSRs released for the LEA.
• The [Score Status] tab of a student's profile in TOMS allows the user to access score status information for an individual student by content area and includes the following details:
  • Score availability date
  • Condition code(s)
  • 2024–25 Security and Test Administration Incident Reporting System Appeals

• The [Reporting] tab of a student's profile in TOMS allows the user to access reporting information for an individual student and includes the following details:
  • Date the SSR was made available
  • Reporting language of the student's SSR
  • A link to download the PDF SSR in English or another language (when available)
  • A link to view the HTML SSRs in English or another language (when available)

Electronic SSRs

Users can access and download PDF SSRs individually or as one large file. The following resources contain instructions:

• Downloading and Viewing SSRs in TOMS video
• How to Bulk Download Student Score Reports quick reference guide

CAASPP PDF SSRs can be provided to parents/guardians electronically through a locally provided parent or student portal or through another secure method of local distribution. Before the LEA can distribute SSRs through a parent portal, the LEA must complete the SIS credentialing process in TOMS. Contact the portal provider for instructions on how parents/guardians can access SSRs within the portal.

LEAs should have a process in place for emails that bounce back to ensure that parents/guardians receive their child's SSR. LEAs must make CAASPP SSRs available to parents/guardians within 20 working days of the LEA receipt of the CAASPP SSRs in TOMS. If the LEA receives the SSRs after the last day of instruction for the school year, the LEA shall make SSRs available to parents/guardians no later than the first 20 working days of the next school year.

For more information about electronic SSRs, refer to the Distributing SSRs chapter of the Scoring and Reporting Guide.

SSRs can also be printed locally. LEAs planning to mail SSRs to parents/guardians should ensure the mailing address is correct and up-to-date.

As a reminder, parents/guardians can receive HTML SSRs through the parent portal for LEAs whose portal provider is set up to receive this file format. Please ask your portal provider to implement HTML SSRs if your LEA is interested in receiving this format.

SSRs combine summative ELA, mathematics, and science results into a single PDF SSR for grades five, eight, and eleven. Note that students who are registered for ELA, mathematics, and science will not receive their SSRs until they have tested in all three content areas or until the LEA testing window ends.

Student Score Data File

The 2024–25 CAASPP Student Score Data File will be available in the [Reports] tab of TOMS. LEA users will be able to download the student data file in two report types:

1. Enrolled LEA file: Data on students who were enrolled in the LEA as of the date the file was created
2. Tested LEA file: Data on students who tested with the LEA during the 2024–25 school year

LEAs can use the Score Available Start Date and Score Available End Date filters to download a subset of the data based on the student's score availability date.

The student data file will include only scores for the computer-based Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for ELA and mathematics and CAST until the other assessments are ready to report. The student data file will not contain student scores for the California Alternate Assessments (CAAs) for ELA, mathematics, and science until fall 2025.

Note that results for the California Spanish Assessment (CSA) are expected to be released in December because of changes detailed in the Changes to the California Spanish Assessment Blueprint email.

On May 15, the 2024–25 CAASPP Student Data File Layout will be available on the SSR and Reporting Resources web page and in TOMS when users select the CAASPP Student Score Data File from the Available Reports list. The student data file layout includes field descriptions, acceptable values for fields, and data sources.

Follow the steps outlined in the CAASPP Student Score Data File subsection of the TOMS User Guide to access the CAASPP Student Score Data File in TOMS. Please note that the score data file for the LEA will be available in Excel format.

If your SIS does not currently have the Student Score Data File Layout, provide the file layout to your SIS vendor.

CERS

CERS houses individual student results and partial aggregated results at the group, school, and LEA levels. Prior to the release of all student results in the fall, the aggregated results available in CERS are partial and may not represent the final aggregated results for the LEA. The partial results are not appropriate for public release but may be used for local planning purposes.

Accessing Information in CERS

LEA users can access CERS using a TOMS user account. Once in CERS, the user can search for results by student, school, or assigned groups from the "Access Assessment Results" section of the CERS home page, depending on the user's role. The following actions are available in CERS:

• To download a file containing student results, an LEA or site coordinator can select the [Custom Aggregate Report] button and customize a yearly, longitudinal, claim/domain, composite score, or target report for an LEA or school.
  • Target reports are available in CERS for Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments. Results for targets with more than 10 items in the total item pool will be reported for groups of 30 students or more.
• To export a CSV file containing all LEA or school assessment results that can be used for analysis in another application, an LEA user can also select the [District/School Exports] button.

For more information, refer to the CERS User Guide. Refer to the Creating Groups in CERS video for a demonstration of how to create groups to allow specific users access to assigned student results.

Status of SSRs for the CAAs and the CSA

The analysis and scoring processes for the CAAs for ELA, mathematics, and science and the CSA are still underway. SSRs for the CAAs will be available in early fall 2025, and SSRs for the CSA are expected to be available in early winter 2025.

For further support, visit the Contact Us web page.

Sincerely,

California Outreach Team
CAASPP & ELPAC Website