Title 34

SECTION 462.40

462.40 Must a State have an assessment policy

§ 462.40 Must a State have an assessment policy?

(a) A State must have a written assessment policy that its local eligible providers must follow in measuring educational gain and reporting data in the NRS.

(b) A State must submit its assessment policy to the Secretary for review and approval at the time it submits its annual statistical report for the NRS.

(c) The State's assessment policy must -

(1) Include a statement requiring that local eligible providers measure the educational gain of all students who receive 12 hours or more of instruction in the State's adult education program with a test that the Secretary has determined is suitable for use in the NRS;

(2) Identify the pre- and post-tests that the State requires eligible providers to use to measure the educational functioning level gain of ABE, ASE, and ESL students;

(3)(i) Indicate when, in calendar days or instructional hours, eligible providers must administer pre- and post-tests to students;

(ii) Ensure that the time for administering the post-test is long enough after the pre-test to allow the test to measure educational functioning level gains according to the test publisher's guidelines; and

(iii) Specify a standard for the percentage of students to be pre- and post-tested.

(4) Specify the score ranges tied to educational functioning levels for placement and for reporting gains for accountability;

(5) Identify the skill areas the State intends to require local eligible providers to assess in order to measure educational gain;

(6) Include the guidance the State provides to local eligible providers on testing and placement of an individual with a disability or an individual who is unable to be tested because of a disability;

(7) Describe the training requirements that staff must meet in order to be qualified to administer and score each test selected by the State to measure the educational gains of students;

(8) Identify the alternate form or forms of each test that local eligible providers must use for post-testing;

(9) Indicate whether local eligible providers must use a locator test for guidance on identifying the appropriate pre-test;

(10) Describe the State's policy for the initial placement of a student at each NRS educational functioning level using test scores;

(11) Describe the State's policy for using the post-test for measuring educational gain and for advancing students across educational functioning levels;

(12) Describe the pre-service and in-service staff training that the State or local eligible providers will provide, including training -

(i) For staff who either administer or score each of the tests used to measure educational gain;

(ii) For teachers and other local staff involved in gathering, analyzing, compiling, and reporting data for the NRS; and

(iii) That includes the following topics:

(A) NRS policy, accountability policies, and the data collection process.

(B) Definitions of measures.

(C) Conducting assessments; and

(13) Identify the State or local agency responsible for providing pre- and in-service training.

(Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control number 1830-0027) (Authority: 29 U.S.C. 3292) [73 FR 2315, Jan. 14, 2008, as amended at 81 FR 55552, Aug. 19, 2016]

---