CASAS Assessment
All LBSA students are required to complete both a pre and post CASAS test to enroll and maintain standing as a student. This test is done yearly and is federal requirement to maintain our funding which allows our program to be free for students. All students begin with a Pre-CASAS Reading Assessment. Students who score at and above a 237 on the Reading Assessment will immediately take the Pre-CASAS Math Assessment.
The California Department of Education (CDE), requires all eligible adult literacy program providers to use the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems (CASAS) standardized assessment instruments, and Tracking of Programs and Students (TOPSpro®) Enterprise data collection and reporting software to report educational gain benchmarks by educational functioning levels.
Standardized, ongoing assessment of learner progress is essential to ensure that all learners become proficient in literacy and language skills. In California, adult literacy providers use CASAS assessment data to place learners at appropriate levels of instruction, to diagnose learner strengths and weaknesses, to monitor progress, and to certify learner mastery at specific levels of instruction or readiness to exit adult education.
Using CASAS assessments ensures accuracy in adult learner placement (appraisal tests), to diagnose learner strengths and weaknesses, to inform instruction (pre-tests), to monitor progress (post-tests), and to certify learner mastery (certification tests). Standardized administration of tests and assessment results provide the basis for state and federal accountability reporting. CASAS designed standardized progress tests to assess learning along a continuum, from beginning literacy and English language acquisition through the completion of secondary level skills.
All learners with 12 or more hours of instruction must have a valid CASAS pretest for placement into the NRS Federal Tables. The CDE has established a statewide performance goal of at least 50 percent paired test scores. Post-test learners using an alternate form occurs at the end of a semester, term, quarter, or other substantial block of instruction to document learning gains. Students will have at least a pre-test and one post-test (minimum) in either reading or math.
At LBSA, students are ready for their post-test after 40 attendance hours. In order to maintain program enrollment, all students will post-test as instructed by their teacher, or risk being dropped from their program. Students will not be completed from their program (HSD, HiSET) or advance to the next level (ESL, ABE) without a post test. Each student with a pre and post test positively effect our persistence data which helps to maintain our funding to continue providing free programs to students.