Essential Questions & Answers for Parents and Primary Caregivers Just Posted!

Learn answers to the following questions:

• Where do I find my students' DCAS score from the most recent assessment?
• What do the scores mean?
• Will these scores affect my student's report card grades?
• How will my student's teachers use these scores?
• and more...

http://www.christina.k12.de.us/DCAS/pdf/ParentInfoSheet-EssentialQuestions.pdf

DCAS Testing Dates

View the 2010-2011 DCAS Testing Dates:  http://www.christina.k12.de.us/DCAS/pdf/2010-2011_Schedule.pdf

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New State Assessment Contract Awarded

A five-year contract has been awarded by the Delaware Department of Education (DDOE) to the American Institutes for Research (AIR), located in Washington, D.C., to begin the immediate development and piloting of a new statewide assessment system for public school students in grades 2-10, known as the Delaware Comprehensive Assessment System (DCAS).

Beginning with the 2009-2010 school year, AIR will pilot:

• online testing in reading and mathematics for grades 3-8,
• end-of-course online testing for high school students in English language arts, mathematics and science,
• online testing in science and social studies in selected grades, and
• online benchmark testing in reading and mathematics in grades 2-10 to help teachers plan instruction according to the students' needs and show student growth towards Delaware standards.

The DCAS will become fully operational for the 2010-2011 school year.  The total cost of the five year contract is $24.6 million effective until June 30, 2014. The DDOE reserves the right to extend the contract for as many as five additional one-year extensions if it is deemed to be in the best interest of the State of Delaware.

Because the state is obliged to continue school accountability in the present school year for federal No Child Left Behind legislation, the current DSTP assessment will continue to be administered in March 2010 in grades 2-10 for reading and mathematics and in May, 2010 in grades 8 and 11 for science and social studies.

View DDOE press release

What is DCAS?

The Delaware Comprehensive Assessment System (DCAS) is an online, web-based scoring system for reading/English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies that will replace the current statewide testing program, the Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP), in 2011.  The DCAS will provide a more accurate measure for student growth and more timely and detailed information to educators for planning and improving educational programs at the school, district and state level.  Additionally, DCAS will provide multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate proficiency and will provide academic achievement information to students and parents, including a measure of fall-to-spring and year-to-year individual student growth.

The purpose of the DCAS is four-fold:

• To provide valid and reliable test scores of student achievement of state academic standards;
• To provide valid and reliable information of each student's growth over time along the assessment scale;
• To provide the primary basis for student, school and school district accountability, pursuant to Delaware law and the No Child Left Behind Act (PL 107-110); and
• To provide schools and school districts with timely information useful for instructional program improvement. 

The Delaware online assessment system will consist of three components:

• Summative Assessments for grades 3 through 8 in reading and mathematics; and two grades each for science and social studies;
• Summative End-of-Course Assessments for high school in English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies; and
• Benchmark Growth Assessments for grades 2 through 10 in reading, mathematics and, optionally, science.