California Spanish Assessment (CSA)
The California Spanish Assessment is an optional CAASPP test of Spanish reading/language arts, aligned to the Common Core en español and offered in grades 3–8 and in high school. Because it is optional, each LEA decides whether to administer it; results do not feed the state accountability system.
What it covers
- Three domains: reading, listening, and writing. There is no speaking component.
- Item types include selected response, technology-enhanced items, and constructed responses including a writing task, scored by trained raters using Spanish-language rubrics.
- Computer-based and untimed.
- Intended for students receiving academic instruction in Spanish - dual-language immersion, Spanish literacy programs, and Spanish-dominant students - rather than for novice learners in a world-language course.
Reporting
Results are scale scores with performance levels describing Spanish literacy. The CSA is not used to identify or reclassify English learners; the ELPAC is the instrument the law requires for those decisions.
Worked example
A grade 7 student in a 50/50 dual-immersion program is an English learner who scores well on the CSA. The coordinator proposes using the CSA writing score as the English proficiency criterion for reclassification. Reasoning: no. Education Code 313 requires an English language proficiency assessment (the Summative ELPAC) plus teacher evaluation, parent or guardian opinion, and student performance in basic skills. The CSA measures Spanish literacy, so it cannot substitute for the ELPAC criterion, however strong the score looks. In the same way, a high school may not use the CSA as a placement test for Spanish 1 students, because it is built to grade-level Spanish literacy standards rather than beginner world-language benchmarks.
Traps that cost marks
- Assuming the CSA is required for every Spanish-speaking student; it is optional.
- Substituting CSA results for ELPAC results in identification or reclassification.
- Expecting a speaking score or a speaking task type.
- Testing grade 2 students; the CSA begins at grade 3.
- Using it as a world-language credit exam.