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Washington’s academic standards are based on the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and math. For its assessments, the state uses the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.
The state also administers a Common Core-aligned alternative assessment to students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. Washington can improve its plan by describing how it will meet the 1 percent participation cap for these assessments.
Washington defines languages other than English that are present to a significant degree as any student population that exceeds 1,000 students. Under these parameters, the state identified 12 languages.
As a member of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia, Washington’s math assessment is translated fully into Spanish. The test also offers a glossary for 11 other languages. The state’s science test is offered in the top five languages in the state other than English. It is unclear what accommodations the state will provide on its English language arts assessment.
For its English language proficiency assessment, Washington will use the English Language Proficiency Assessment for the 21st Century (ELPA21), a new English language proficiency assessment designed by the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing at the University of California, Los Angeles. This test is aligned with a common set of English language proficiency standards that correspond with the Common Core State Standards.