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