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Assessment and Accountability Update

April 2, 2026

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS


Division 22 Standards Professional Learning Series: Spring Session

This professional learning series is designed to support district leaders’ understanding and implementation of the requirements within Oregon’s Division 22 Standards for Public Schools. Join virtually on Friday, April 3, from 9:00 - 10:15 a.m. This is admittedly very shortly after the publication of this article. However, the session will be recorded (information below).

The agenda includes the following topics:

  • Division 22 Hot Topics/Updates from ODE Staff
  • New Resources for documenting/communicating about the district K-12 instructional program
  • Instructional requirements for students identified as TAG

A more detailed agenda will be sent to registrants in advance of the meeting.

Registration & Materials

Quarterly District Impropriety Summary Reports

To support DTCs in communicating with their superintendents about test improprieties, ODE will send superintendents a report by the 7th of the month following the end of the quarter. DTCs will be cc’d on these reports. These quarterly reports will continue through the end of the test window in June. If a district does not have any reported test improprieties for a given month, ODE will not send a summary report for that quarter.

The summary report will include a table that lists the following information for each test impropriety reported in a given month:

  • Date Incident Occurred
  • School District
  • School
  • Type of impropriety
  • Whether the impropriety was adult- or student-initiated
  • Number of tests impacted
  • Incident description and rationale
  • Enrolled Grade
  • Test name
  • ODE-approved outcome

If you have any questions, contact Crys Plattner, Administrative Support.


District Test Coordinator (DTC) Webinar Series (REPEAT)

ODE presents the monthly DTC Webinar on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, from 10:00-11:00 AM. To attend, please register for each webinar using this Zoom link. This will give you the option to add the appointment to your calendar. After the webinar, a link for the recording will be available upon request. If you have questions you’d like answered during the webinar’s Q&A session, please submit them through this Smartsheet form.

If you need an interpreter or accommodation to participate in this or future webinars, please contact Crys Plattner, Assessment Administrative Support.

If you have questions, please email ODE Assessment Team.


TEST ADMINISTRATION


2025-26 OSAS Statewide Summative Tests in ELA and Math Now Available for Administration in Grades 3 - 8

The statewide test window for administration of the OSAS English Language Arts (ELA) and Math tests (Grades 3 - 8) opened on March 31, 2026.

  • The test window is open for all versions of the tests: online General (in-person and remote) and Alternate (Oregon Extended; in-person only).

As a reminder, prior to beginning a test session, verify that appropriate student accommodations and supports have been accurately set in TIDE. See the Oregon Accessibility Manual for more information about accommodations and supports.

Please contact your District Testing Coordinator or Regional ESD Partner with any questions regarding test administration.


ODE and Smarter Balanced Assessment Recruitment: English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics Grades 3 - 8 and High School

The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) has partnered with Smarter Balanced for the continued development of new Summative Test items. There will be opportunities to participate in ELA Reading Passage Review, Math Rangefinding and calibration, and both ELA and Math Data Review.

NEW in this year’s application is the opportunity for educators to indicate which events they are interested in participating in (Select all that apply).

Content Development Dates - Virtual Meetings:

Anticipated educator involvement opportunities in 2026 are listed below:

  • ELA and Math Data Review: Early June
  • ELA Passage Review: July 13 - 15
  • Math Rangefinding: July 20 - 23
  • ELA CAT Item Review: August 11 - 13
  • Math Item Review: September
  • ELA PT Item Review: October 6 - 8

Information on the Smarter Balanced Educator Recruitment website also includes an FAQ page. Educators who might have additional questions about the recruitment process can complete the Smarter Balanced Contact Us Form.

After selecting and confirming the participants, Smarter Balanced will work with participants to coordinate virtual attendance. Participants will receive training and all relevant digital materials to support item development. The meetings are expected to occur on Zoom and accessibility accommodations will be available for participants. For support navigating the online application, please contact Tony Bertrand, ELA and Social Sciences Assessment Specialist or Jennifer Bell, Mathematics Assessment Specialist with the Oregon Department of Education.


ELPA


ELPA Windows Close in April

The test window for the in-person and remote English Language Proficiency Assessment (ELPA) Summative test, and the Alt ELPA, closes at the end of the day on 4/10/26.

Please contact Ben Wolcott, ELPA Specialist, with questions regarding ELPA testing.


Early Proficient Reminder

As scores for the 2025-26 English Language Proficiency Assessment (ELPA) Summative become available, districts may see some students scoring Early Proficient. Districts are required to contact families of students who score Early Proficient; the family makes the final decision as to whether the student remains in or exits English learner (EL) status.

Early Proficient results do not appear on unofficial reports appearing in the Centralized Reporting System (CRS). Early Proficient is only indicated on official ODE score reports and data downloads, such as those retrieved from Secure Assessment Reports (SAR) or Accountability Warehouse Extracts (AWE).

Consult Early Proficient Policy and Resources (located in the Guidance accordion of the ELP Assessment page) for details on how to confirm Early Proficient results and required family contact activities.

Please contact Ben Wolcott, ELPA Specialist, with questions regarding ELPA testing.

ELPA Score Reports Batch #1 Update

ODE discovered an error with the first batch of official English Language Proficiency Assessment (ELPA) Summative score reports and data downloads (as found in official ODE data applications such as Secure Assessment Reports and Accountability Warehouse Extracts). This error had two effects.

  1. Individual domain scores were not reported for some students.
  2. Early Proficient results were not reported for some students.

Error (A) has been corrected and official ODE score reports and data downloads should now correctly display individual domain scores.

Work is ongoing for error (B). An article will be published in the A&A Update confirming that the error is corrected.

There are no false Early Proficient results in ODE data systems; districts may act with confidence on reports that confirm an Early Proficient result. When error (B) is corrected, districts should check previous batches to ensure they did not miss any Early Proficient results in previous batches. Correcting error (B) will not change any domain scores. It will only cause the Early Proficient code to correctly appear in the ApprchngProfCd field. The ApprchngProfCd field is located in column ‘EX’ of the Accountability Warehouse Extract file.

Please contact Ben Wolcott, ELPA Specialist, with questions regarding ELPA testing.

SEED Survey


SEED Survey Participation Reminder

Per ORS 329.078 and OAR 581.022.2100, all school districts must make the Student Educational Equity Development (SEED) Survey available to students in grades 3-11. The survey administration window closes on June 12, 2026. District participation levels are publicly reported in the SEED Survey State Report released in the fall. Please ensure that all eligible students have an opportunity to make their voice heard! For support with survey administration, contact Audrey Lingley, Education Specialist for the SEED Survey. Resources for administration are available on the SEED Survey webpage.


ACCOUNTABILITY & REPORTING


ELPA Summative and Alt ELPA Batch 2 Scores Available

English Language Proficiency Assessment (ELPA) scores from February 2026 (batch 2) will be available in the Assessment Record Updating Application (ARUA) on the ODE secure district website and also in the Centralized Reporting System (CRS) on the OSAS Portal as of Tuesday, April 7.

Test scores for students participating in Honoring Student Proficiency on the ELPA Summative and Alt ELPA will be finalized as of Tuesday, April 7. As a reminder, this means that a student’s Proficient performance on one or more domains from a prior year will be inserted into this year’s test, and the scores for all non-exempted domains will be recalculated using that Proficient performance. Please note that scores appearing in the Centralized Reporting System (accessed through the state portal) are unofficial and will not update with final scores due to carried domains. Decisions about retaining or exiting English learner status should be made based on finalized score reports found in official ODE data applications such as AWE and Secure Assessment Reports.

District Test Coordinators may download or review records in the ARUA to edit accommodation or administration codes (see the Test Administration Manual, Appendix C). If you have questions or need assistance with your assessment data, please contact your Regional ESD Partner.


Staff Validations are Open

The Staff FTE and Staff Ethnicity validations opened on Thursday March 26 at 1:00 PM; however, the Staff Retention and Experience validation was postponed due to an issue with the district level aggregation of the Licensed Teachers with more than three years of experience metric. The issue was fixed, and the Staff Retention and Experience validation opened on March 31 at 1:00 PM. All three validations are set to close at 11:59 PM on April 27. A web training was held on March 12, 2026, at 2:00 PM. The training, training slides, and the Staff Validation Manual can be accessed by going to the Staff Position Collection page. If you have any questions, please contact your Regional ESD Partners or Ryan Clark, Research Analyst.


Ninth Grade On-Track Web Training: April 15, 2026

The Ninth Grade On-Track Web Training will be held on April 15, 2026, at 2:00 PM. The Ninth Grade On-Track collection is set to open on May 7 at 1:00 PM. The training can be accessed by going to the District Training page. Resources for the training and collection will be posted ahead of the training on the Ninth Grade On-Track collections page. If you have any questions, please contact your Regional ESD Partners or Ryan Clark, Research Analyst.


Class Schedule Web Training: April 23, 2026

The Class Schedule Web Training will be held on April 23, 2026, at 2:00 PM. The Class Schedule collection is set to open on May 7 at 1:00 PM. The training can be accessed by going to the District Training page. Resources for the training and collection will be posted ahead of the training on the Class Schedule collections page. If you have any questions, please contact your Regional ESD Partners or Ryan Clark, Research Analyst.


2025-26 New School Status Requests due May 1, 2026

Oregon Department of Education annually provides schools an opportunity to request that the ESSA Accountability Detail Sheets take into account boundary changes due to modifications to attendance areas, restructuring of schools (e.g., consolidation, separation, etc.), or changes to grade configurations. Schools may use the Boundary Change Calculator for 2025-26 Accountability Reports to request New School status if they experience a significant change in student enrollment between the 2025-26 and the 2024-25 school year.

If you feel that it would be appropriate to request New School status, please visit the Accountability Details webpage under the “Tools” menu to access 2025-26 Boundary Change Calculator and other pertinent information.

Please submit required materials for New School Status by May 1, 2026. ODE will respond with a decision concerning the request by mid-June.

For questions please contact Elyse Bean, Research Analyst.


Institutions for Accountability Reporting (IAR) Validation

The Institutions for Accountability Reporting (IAR) Validation will open on April 9 at 1 PM for all districts in Achievement Data Insight (ADI) and remain open through May 29. The IAR Validation Training is April 2 at 2 PM. To find more information about the training, including the PowerPoint slides, view the ODE District Data Site Training Home Page. Please contact Amanda Leopard, Research Analyst, for questions.

IN THIS ISSUE:

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Division 22 Standards Professional Learning Series: Spring Session
  • Quarterly District Impropriety Summary Reports
  • DTC Webinar Series (REPEAT)

TEST ADMINISTRATION

  • 2025-26 OSAS Statewide Summative Tests in ELA and Math Now Available for Administration in Grades 3 - 8
  • ODE and Smarter Balanced Assessment Recruitment: English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics Grades 3 - 8 and High School

ELPA

  • ELPA Windows Close in April
  • Early Proficient Reminder
  • ELPA Score Reports Batch #1 Update

SEED SURVEY

  • SEED Survey Participation Reminder

ACCOUNTABILITY & REPORTING

  • ELPA Summative and Alt ELPA Batch 2 Scores Available
  • Staff Validations Are Open
  • Ninth Grade On-Track Web Training: April 15, 2026
  • Class Schedule Web Training: April 23, 2026
  • 2025-26 New School Status Requests due May 1, 2026
  • Institutions for Accountability Reporting (IAR) Validation