Updated: 2/8/2016
Smarter Balanced Communication Toolkit
ASSESSMENT RESULTS
Overview
As you know, the New Hampshire statewide assessment system has changed to accurately measure student mastery of the
updated New Hampshire (NH) College- and Career-Ready Standards in mathematics and English language arts. Having a
common measurement throughout the state helps parents, educators, students, policymakers and the general public to
understand how students are doing against similar benchmarks. It provides one measure that can help all of us determine
how well the educational system is working – whether or not we are providing for an adequate and equitable education for all
students and where supports are needed.
This document as well as the sample templates and resources attached are focused on messaging assessment results. The
following toolkit can help districts and educators communicate accurately and consistently about New Hampshire’s Smarter
Balanced Assessment system. It will be important to prepare for how to appropriately interpret the new achievement levels
and scores associated with the Smarter Balanced Assessment. We will also provide some messaging information regarding the
state’s new alternate assessment, Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM), by early October.
Individual score reports are available in the Online Reporting System, found on the NH Smarter Balanced Portal
(http://nh.portal.airast.org/district-coordinators/). A guide to downloading the reports can be found under Reporting
Reporting Resource in the ORS Reporting System User Guide. It is at the district/school discretion when score reports are
released to parents and in what format, either electronic or print, that best meets the needs of all your families. The public
release of the Smarter Balanced aggregated results will be held in November once you have had time to validate the student
information, after we have applied the business rules (including demographic information obtained through End-of-Year
enrollment submissions), and after we have received and validated the score information from the DLM assessment.
It is critical to remember that the results received by Superintendents and/or their designees on September 8, are
PRELIMINARY in regards to school, district and state results. The NH DOE needs you review the students designated to your
school to validate the information before a public release can be made. If you have any concerns, please contact Dr. Scott
Mantie (scott.mantie@doe.nh.gov).
At the same time, the NH DOE will be applying our traditional and any revised business rules and using the End-of-Year data to
ensure students are within the appropriate subgroups for reporting purposes. All of this is a part of the validation process.
Please see the “media opportunities” section below for more information and suggestions for discussions with our media
partners during this preliminary phase.
This tool kit includes:
WITHIN THIS DOCUMENT
An Elevator Speech
Media Request
Opportunities
See below.
See below.
VARIOUS TEMPLATE DOCUMENTS ATTACHED AND LOCATED ON THE NH SMARTER BALANCED PORTAL http://nh.portal.airast.org/resources/?section=reporting-resources
NH Key Messages
This document provides the top six key messages (with backup informational bullets)
regarding the Smarter Balanced Assessment results. Key messages on the exact analysis of
the results will come before the November release.
NH Talking Points
This document breaks down the key messages into shorter bullets that can be used for
quotes, presentations, or other materials developed by the district or school.
District FAQ
This document provides a list of the most commonly asked questions so far regarding the
Smarter Balanced Assessment Results. We will update this document as necessary with
additional questions. The most recently updated date will be located in the top right corner.
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Updated: 2/8/2016
Smarter Balanced
Presentation Template
District Robo Call Script
Template
This is a draft presentation (originally develop by the Connecticut Department of Education
and adapted to New Hampshire’s context) that can be adapted and used with parents,
school board members or the community at large.
If your district uses a robo call system, this script may be helpful in your communication to
parents.
FAMILY MATERIALS
Commissioner’s Letter –
Smarter Balanced Results
Sample Family Letter from
a District or School
NH Score Report Guide
Smarter Balanced Guide for
Teacher Conversations
Family Guide to the
Smarter Balanced
Assessment Results
PLEASE INCLUDE WITH SCORE REPORTS TO FAMILIES (either printed or posted). This letter
is a message from Commissioner Barry to parents explaining the purpose of assessment and
what parents can expect.
This is a sample letter that would need to be personalized for each student assessed.
This guide provides an overview of the individual student score reports generated for the
Smarter Balanced assessments in English language arts/literacy and mathematics. It may be
used by teachers and administrators to help interpret a student’s assessment scores as seen
in the Online Reporting System (ORS).
This guide was developed by Learning Heroes, a partner to NH DOE and the Smarter
Balanced Consortium and adapted by the NH DOE to fit our state’s context. It was developed
for teachers based on the most common questions from parents who participated in focus
groups regarding the score reports. This document is intended to help teachers have
conversations with families around the score report.
This document is a quick two pager on some popular questions that may arise from families.
HELPFUL REPORTS / MATERIALS LOCATED ON THE NH SMARTER BALANCED PORTAL http://nh.portal.airast.org/resources/?section=reporting-resources
NH Assessment Glossary
This document provides definitions for the most common terms on the score report.
for Smarter Balanced
Online Reporting System
This user guide provides information about the Online Reporting System (ORS), including
(ORS) User Guide [pdf]
instructions for viewing score reports, test management resources, creating and editing
rosters, and searching for students.
Cheat Sheet for Accessing
the Online Reporting
System
Reporting Achievement
Level Descriptors [pdf]
This document will assist you in accessing the Online Reporting System, as well as how to
print/post the score reports for families.
Smarter Balanced
Achievement Level Scale
Scores [pdf]
This document outlines the scale score ranges for each achievement level by grade and
content area for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments. It can be used to help
analyze student scale scores provided on Individual Student Reports from the Online
Reporting System.
Achievement Level FAQ
This document provides information about the development and use of Achievement Levels
on the Smarter Balanced Assessment
This report helps show why it is important to move to a higher quality assessment.
Proficient vs. Prepared:
Disparities Between State
Tests and the 2013
National Assessment of
Education Progress (NAEP)
Making Good Use of New
Assessments: Interpreting
and Using Scores From the
Smarter Balanced
Assessment Consortium
This document contains Achievement Level Descriptors for the Smarter Balanced Summative
Assessments in English language arts/literacy and mathematics.
This report reviews the background of the Smarter Balanced development as well as the
process used to set the achievement level descriptors and suggestions for interpreting and
using the assessment results.
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Updated: 2/8/2016
Please keep in mind that all messages and templates provided should be put into your local context. These messages may be
adapted to meet audience needs and used for any type of communication including presentations, newsletters to parents and
websites. We are only providing these materials as a service and are not requiring the use of the documents. The only
exception is we do request that the Commissioner’s Letter is attached to all postings/printings of the score report for
families.
For information regarding the score reports, achievement level descriptors and claims, assessment implementation
methodology and/or feedback, results interpretation and/or validation of student information, please contact Dr. Scott
Mantie (scott.mantie@doe.nh.gov).
For information regarding messaging, communication about results, discussions with the media or additional materials that
would be helpful, please contact Heather Gage (heather.gage@doe.nh.gov).
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Updated: 2/8/2016
Elevator Speech: 30-second Overview
The State of New Hampshire has adopted higher expectations for what our students should know and be able to do at each
grade level. Called the New Hampshire College- and Career-Ready Standards in mathematics and English language arts, these
updated learning expectations will prepare students for the next stage of their lives. In addition, we have new assessments to
measure how students, schools, districts and the state are doing in meeting the higher expectations. These new online
assessments, called Smarter Balanced, use more advanced questioning and performance tasks to enable students to
demonstrate the critical thinking, analytical writing and problem solving skills needed to succeed in today’s world.
Media Requests for Preliminary Data
The NH DOE understands that you may receive requests from the media regarding the preliminary results that you are
receiving in early September. It is important that we all help media partners understand the messaging around the results and
the difference between preliminary and final results. The results for schools, districts and the state that can be accessed by
school and district personnel in September are only preliminary because the NH DOE cannot complete the business rules to
finalize the data until we have received the End-of-Year enrollment data from the field (Oct 1). In addition, we are currently
going through the verification process regarding approved exemptions, out of school placements with sending schools and
providing each district and school team the ability to verify their students in the preliminary information. As with every other
year, this process does take some time and it is critically important to accurate.
The NH Right to Know law requires the sharing of data shared with the media or members of the public unless exempted in
NH RSA 91-A:5:
91-A:5 Exemptions. – The following governmental records are exempted from the provisions of this
chapter:
…
IX. Preliminary drafts, notes, and memoranda and other documents not in their final form and not
disclosed, circulated, or available to a quorum or a majority of the members of a public body.
Therefore, the NH DOE would not expect any district to share the preliminary data until we collectively have the
opportunity to verify the information. Although the individual student data (for score reports to families) is in its final form
and can be shared with families, individual data cannot be shared with the public to uphold our commitment to student
privacy. Families should be made aware that the school, district and state data provided on the report is preliminary and will
likely change as the collective data is verified.
You now have several different forms of the same or similar messages regarding the Smarter Balanced Assessment in the
documents explained above. We encourage you to talk to the media about these messages and you should also always feel
free to ask your media connections to reach out to the NH DOE (Heather Gage or Lori Temple to start). In addition, to help
provide information to the media, the NH DOE will be hosting a few media presentations over the next couple of months in
preparation for the public release in November. We will share that information with you as we finalize that process.
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