FAQ

What subject areas are assessed by C-PAS?

Currently, C-PAS assessments are written for mathematics and English/language arts courses.

How does EPIC choose partners to help field test C-PAS?

The Urban Assembly schools in New York are the original C-PAS partners. They have engaged in development, piloting and field-testing since the fall of 2006. The Early College High School network in California has been added as a partner network of schools starting in the spring of 2008. As C-PAS is refined, more partners will be included in field-testing. Many factors are taken into consideration when expanding C-PAS partnerships, including the school environment, support of the leadership, and performance of the students. EPIC is not actively recruiting more partners, but anyone interested in field-testing C-PAS may contact a project staff member by emailing cpas@epiconline.org.

Do teachers have to use C-PAS tasks exactly as written?

No. EPIC hires secondary and post-secondary content experts across the country to write performance tasks that are based on assignments they already use in their classrooms. If these assignments do not fit exactly into the curricula of teachers who implement C-PAS, teachers may submit requested modifications to EPIC for approval. Prompts and work products in the task that are specifically written to measure the Key Cognitive Strategies must, however, remain the same.

How are C-PAS tasks scored?

Teachers use a common scoring guide to assess students in each subject area at one of four benchmark levels. Scoring guides are available at four benchmark levels: 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grade. Students who are not in a benchmark year are assessed against the benchmark one grade level above. For instance, 7th graders are assessed at the 8th grade benchmark and 11th graders are assessed at the 12th grade benchmark. By assessing students at a higher level, they are given feedback for growth so that all students are encouraged to work toward the 12th grade benchmark, which represents college-readiness.

Why does EPIC require teachers to submit student work?

As a reliability measure, EPIC requires teachers who implement C-PAS to submit their C-PAS student work samples to EPIC. These work samples receive a second C-PAS score from an independent trained scorer. Teachers then receive a report on how their scores compared to the scores of the scoring moderator for reliability. EPIC also uses the submitted work samples to find exemplar documents that can help students and teachers better understand the expectations that are required of students at each benchmark level.