Starting Smarter

Free Education Resources for Parents in California

No one knows your child or their needs more than you. With Starting Smarter, you now have access to information about your child’s education that goes beyond just grades. You can use our test score reports to see the areas your child is excelling and where they can improve. All of this can begin a conversation with your child’s teacher about offering better learning support at home and all year long.

A student shows her parents her class project during their parent-teacher conference.

Check out the Test Questions

Enter your child’s grade and select a subject and area to see descriptions of the skills and sample test questions in each performance area.

Understanding the Score Reports and Areas

It’s natural for every student to have academic strengths as well as areas where they may need more support and improvement. The tests your child takes are meant to measure the most important skills in each subject. For all tests, we break down the score reports into different performance areas—like reading and problem solving—to identify where your child is excelling or needs more support.

Please Choose a Score Report above…

Families will also receive more information on their child’s reading and math performance with the new Lexile and Quantile report. A Lexile measure shows the level of text your child can read and understand. A Quantile measure shows what math skills your child knows and is ready to learn next. Learn how to use the scores to support reading and math.

  • Three students sit at a table. Two students are reading, the third is on a laptop.

    CAASPP is System of Tests for All Students

    The CAASPP System has resources for students who need them, including those with disabilities and those learning English. Learn more about these resources.

    Learn About Accessibility

Additional Free Resources Available to Support Your Child's Learning

Use this information to have a meaningful conversation with your child’s teacher about the skills and content in the grade level and to support your child’s learning at home.

  • Be a Learning Hero!

    Visit the Learning Heroes website to find resources and tools to help your child thrive in school.
  • Plan for your Parent-Teacher Conversations

    Use this tool to have a meaningful conversation about your child’s test results and to co-create a learning plan with the teacher.

     

  • Check out the test in action

    Visit the CAASPP practice test to try out live, interactive questions and the testing features students can use.