Interpreting Results

The SSR shows the student’s results on the Summative ELPAC or Summative Alternate ELPAC, the state tests of ELP. The Summative ELPAC and Summative Alternate ELPAC provide information about the student’s annual progress toward ELP. The student’s 2021–22 Summative ELPAC results can be compared to Summative ELPAC results from as far back as the 2018–19 administration, when available, because the threshold scores and reporting levels are the same.

Summative ELPAC Scale Scores

Scale scores are important measures for the Summative ELPAC. Reporting levels are assigned on the basis of scale scores for all tests. Scale scores were identified during a process called “standard setting.”

The scale scores for each grade level do not change between administrations, which means they can be used to determine year-to-year gains in students’ ELP. The advantage of the scale score metric is that it allows a particular score—for example, an overall score of 1585 on the grade five Summative ELPAC—to mean the same thing regardless of what items students took for a grade-level, ELP test. Scale scores provide a common reference over the years.

Each Summative ELPAC grade level or grade span has its own scale score range.

Equating and Scaling

When tests are constructed for each grade level or grade span, every effort is made to make the tests parallel and of the same level of difficulty from one year to another. However, even with those efforts, small differences in test difficulty still exist between test forms. A psychometric procedure called equating makes adjustments for test difficulty so that students in one year are held to the same standards as students in another year.

In the case of the 2021–22 Summative ELPAC, grade level or grade span test forms were administered. Then, student item responses were used to put student scores onto the previous year’s scale through the equating process. Details about equating and scaling for operational assessments and information about test development will be described in the Summative ELPAC technical report. ELPAC technical reports are available in the “Technical Documents” section of the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) web page on the CDE website.

Summative ELPAC Student Score Reporting

Scale Score Ranges

Assessments were scaled vertically after the 2016–17 field test, which means that scores for certain questions that were common between adjacent grade levels were linked. This will make it possible to monitor students’ year-to-year progress in ELP and to describe student progress over time across grade levels.

Scale scores offer a more precise way to determine students’ performance on the assessments than reporting levels, which are described in the next subsection, because each reporting level is based on a range of numbers, rather than an individual number like a scale score. Scale score ranges for the Summative ELPAC range from 1150–1950 and are listed in appendix A.

Reporting Levels

ELPAC overall reporting levels are designations given to particular scale score ranges. The minimum and maximum scale scores for each level vary by grade level and grade span. Performance levels for domains are also reported for Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing.

Threshold scores—the maximum scores at Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 by grade level or grade span—determine the scale score ranges for Summative ELPAC reporting levels. These were set based on a standard setting and validation study that used the 2017–‍18 operational ELPAC data. The results allow meaningful comparisons between individual students and group comparisons between schools and LEAs across grade levels.

Overall Reporting Levels

Table 1 lists the four Summative ELPAC reporting levels and describes what students at each level can typically do.

Table 1. Overall Summative ELPAC Reporting Levels
Reporting Level	What Students Can Typically Do at Each Level
Level 4	Students at this level have well developed English skills They can usually use English to learn new things in school and to interact in social situations. They may occasionally need help using English.
Level 3	Students at this level have moderately developed English skills. They can sometimes use English to learn new things in school and to interact in social situations. They may need help using English to communicate on less-familiar school topics and in less-familiar social situations.
Level 2	Students at this level have somewhat developed English skills. They usually need help using English to learn new things at school and to interact in social situations. They can often use English for simple communication.
Level 1	Students at this level are beginning to develop English skills. They usually need substantial help using English to learn new things at school and to interact in social situations. They may know some English words and phrases.

Domain Reporting Levels

The student’s overall score is a combination of two other scores: an oral language composite score that is comprised of the Listening and Speaking domains; and a written language composite score that is comprised of the Reading and Writing domains.

Domain-level performance is reported as Beginning to Develop, Somewhat/Moderately, and Well Developed on the Summative ELPAC SSR.

In cases where a domain exemption was requested for a student with a disability that precludes the student from testing in one or more domains, the student received a score or scores based on the remaining domain or domains assessed.

If a student did not log on to a particular domain assessment, the student received zero points for that domain.

Summative Alternate ELPAC Scale Scores

Scale scores are important measures for the Summative Alternate ELPAC. Reporting levels are assigned on the basis of scale scores for all tests. Scale scores were identified during a process called “standard setting.”

The scale scores for each grade level and grade span do not change between administrations. The advantage of the scale score metric is that it allows a particular score—for example, an overall score of 525 on the grade five Summative Alternate ELPAC—to mean the same thing regardless of what items students took for the grade five Summative Alternate ELPAC. Scale scores provide a common reference over the years for a specific grade.

Each Summative Alternate ELPAC grade level or grade span has its own scale score range.

Equating and Scaling

When the operational field test forms were constructed for grade spans three through five, six through eight, and nine through twelve, every effort was made to make the tests parallel. (These grade spans are mentioned specifically because only one form per grade level was administered for kindergarten, grade one, and grade two because of the small number of students registered to take the operational field test.) However, even with those efforts, small differences in the test forms difficulty still exist between the two test forms. Psychometric procedures called equating and scaling make adjustments for test difficulty so that students assigned one form are held to the same standards as students assigned the other form.

Details about equating and scaling for operational field test and information about test development will be described in the Summative Alternate ELPAC operational field test technical report. ELPAC technical reports are available in the “Technical Documents” section of the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) web page on the CDE website.

Summative Alternate ELPAC Student Score Reporting

Scale Score Ranges

Reporting Levels

Summative Alternate ELPAC overall reporting levels are designations given to particular scale score ranges. The minimum and maximum scale scores for each level vary by grade level and grade span.

Threshold scores determine the scale score ranges for Summative Alternate ELPAC reporting levels. These were set based on the standard setting recommendations and operational field test data. The results allow meaningful comparisons between individual students and group comparisons between schools and LEAs for a grade level.

Overall Reporting Levels

Table 2 lists the three Summative Alternate ELPAC reporting levels and describes what students at each level can typically do.

Table 2. Overall Summative Alternate ELPAC Reporting Levels
Reporting Level	What Students Can Typically Do at Each Level
Level 3	Students at this level are fluent English proficient. They have sufficient English skills to communicate and learn in school. They may need occasional help with English in order to learn grade-level information that has been modified for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.
Level 2	Students at this level are intermediate English learners. They can sometimes use English to communicate and learn in school. They may need frequent help with English in order to learn grade-level information that has been modified for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.
Level 1	Students at this level are novice English learners. They are beginning to develop the English skills they need to communicate and learn in school. They may need substantial help with English in order to learn grade-level information that has been modified for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.