The CSU augmentation to the CSTs consists of:

• 9 scored Algebra II items
• 1 Algebra II pretest item
• 4 scored Geometry items
• 1 Geometry pretest item

These items would be appended to both the California Standards Test (CST) for Algebra II and the CST for Summative High School Mathematics exams, which typically are taken by students at the end of their junior year of high school. The purpose of the augmentation is to better assess whether a student's knowledge of Algebra and Geometry is deep enough to be able to retain these skills, at least at the level of passing the Entry Level Mathematics (ELM) test, if the student does not take any additional math courses during the senior year. To this end, the CSU augmentation is intended to measure the depth of a student's understanding of Algebra II and Geometry rather than focusing only on recall of specific content knowledge. Items may range over the ELM Algebra II item types (4.1-4.7) and the ELM Geometry item types 5.1-5.4, 6.1-6.3, and 7.1-7.5. These ELM item types align with the following California Standards for Algebra II and Geometry:

• Algebra II: 1,2,3,4,7,8,10,12,15
• Geometry: 3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,15,17,20,21

Note: The operational CST Algebra II and Summative High School Math exams contain items that have been excluded from EAP scoring (e.g., proof, logarithms, and probability) as well as items testing content that is not part of the ELM specifications (e.g., polynomial long division, complex numbers, and conic sections).

October 2004

CSU Entry Level Mathematics Developmental Committee

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