SIRS - p-12 - New York State Education Department

Chapter 4: Testing Rules
Chapter 4: Testing Rules
Testing Students at the Elementary/Middle Level
All general-education students and students with disabilities in grades 3–8, or ungraded
students of equivalent age, must take:
• the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP) in English language arts (ELA)
and mathematics, and the elementary- and middle-level science assessments, in
the appropriate years; or
• if eligible, the New York State Alternate Assessment (NYSAA) in ELA,
mathematics, science, and social studies, in the appropriate years.
All students in these grades or equivalent ages who are also limited English proficient
must take the New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT)
until they achieve proficiency on both the Listening and Speaking and the Reading and Writing
portions of the NYSESLAT.
Testing Nonpublic School Students
Nonpublic schools are encouraged, but are not required, to administer New York State
assessments to students who are placed in the school by a parent or guardian. If a nonpublic
school chooses to administer an elementary- or middle-level ELA, mathematics, or science
assessment to its students, it must administer the assessment to each enrolled student in the
selected grade levels. Public school districts are responsible for ensuring that students with
disabilities placed by the CSE in approved private schools for students with disabilities are
administered New York State assessments according to their grade level or age and their IEP;
these schools are responsible for testing and reporting these students’ results through the
public school district with CSE responsibility. See the “Table of Reporting Responsibility for
School-Age Students” and the “Table of Reporting Responsibility for Preschool-Age Students
with Disabilities” in Chapter 5: Reporting Rules for more information on students placed in
specific types of schools under unique circumstances.
Identifying and Testing Graded and Ungraded Students
All general-education students must be assigned to a grade. Students with disabilities
may be determined by the CSE to be either graded or ungraded for State assessment
purposes. All students designated as eligible for the NYSAA must be reported as ungraded.
The assessment used for participation for elementary/middle-level accountability will be based
on age, not grade, for ungraded students. Ungraded students must take the assessment at the
same grade level as the majority of their chronological peers, as indicated in the table below.
More information about testing students with disabilities may be found in the August 2006
memo, entitled “Revised Guidelines for Participation of Students with Disabilities in State
Assessments for 2006-07,” at:
http://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/policy/ungraded.htm. CSEs must ensure that
parents understand what instruction, curriculum, and assessment their child is receiving and
the impact on graduation.
37 Student Information Repository System Manual for 2010–11 Version 6.2