§ 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]