(a) The department shall develop a three-year plan of activities, with the approval of the state board, supporting the continuous improvement of the assessments developed and administered pursuant to Section 60640. The plan shall include a process for obtaining independent, objective technical advice and consultation on activities to be undertaken. Activities may include, but not necessarily be limited to, a variety of internal and external studies such as validity studies, alignment studies, and studies evaluating test fairness, testing accommodations, testing policies, and reporting procedures, and consequential validity studies specific to pupil populations such as English learners and pupils with disabilities.

(b) Beginning in the school year in which the first full administration of the consortium computer-adaptive assessments in English language arts and mathematics in grades 3 to 8, inclusive, and grade 11 occurs, and every three years thereafter, the department shall contract for a three-year independent evaluation of the assessments. Independent evaluation reports shall include interim annual reports as well as a final report on the activities and analysis of the three-year evaluation including, but not necessarily limited to, recommendations to ensure the quality, fairness, validity, and reliability of the assessments. These validity studies shall take into consideration the purposes of the assessment system and its results, and the timeline for implementation of the assessments, the adoption of new curriculum resources, and the development and delivery of professional development. The department shall not contract for studies that duplicate studies conducted as part of a federal peer review process or studies conducted by any assessment contractor.

(c) The independent evaluation reports and interim annual reports shall be submitted to the Governor, the Superintendent, the state board, and the chairs of the education policy committees in both houses of the Legislature by October 31 each year.

(d) Notwithstanding Section 60601, this section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2021, and, as of January 1, 2022, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2022, deletes or extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.

(Repealed and added by Stats. 2013, Ch. 489, Sec. 26. (AB 484) Effective January 1, 2014. Inoperative July 1, 2021. Repealed as of January 1, 2022, by its own provisions.)