Smarter Balanced Assessment
Consortium
On Track and Moving Forward
Joe Willhoft, Executive Director
Urban District Leadership Networks
May 21-23
Tampa, FL
A Next Generation of Assessments
 Align to Common Core State Standards in mathematics
and English language arts/literacy
 Rigorously assess progress toward “college and career
readiness”
 Use common cut scores across the Consortium
 Provide achievement and growth information
 Tests that are valid, reliable, and fair for all students
(except those with “significant cognitive disabilities”)
 Use multiple measures of student performance
 Use online technologies
 Be operational in the 2014-15 school year
A Balanced Assessment System
Common
Core State
Standards
specify
K-12
expectations
for college
and career
readiness
Summative:
College and career
readiness
assessments for
accountability
Teachers and
schools have
information and
tools they need to
improve teaching
and learning
Formative
resources:
Supporting
classroom-based
assessments to
improve instruction
Interim:
Flexible and open
assessments, used
for actionable
feedback
All students
leave
high school
college
and career
ready
Score Reports for ELA/Literacy
Overall Claim for Grades 3-8
“Students can demonstrate progress toward college and
career readiness in English Language arts and literacy.”
Overall Claim for Grade 11
“Students can demonstrate college and career readiness in
English language arts and literacy.”
Claim #1 - Reading
“Students can read closely and analytically to comprehend
a range of increasingly complex literary and informational
texts.”
Claim #2 - Writing
“Students can produce effective and well-grounded writing
for a range of purposes and audiences.”
Claim #3 - Speaking and
Listening
Claim #4 - Research/Inquiry
“Students can employ effective speaking and listening
skills for a range of purposes and audiences.”
“Students can engage in research and inquiry to
investigate topics, and to analyze, integrate, and present
information.”
Score Reports for Mathematics
Overall Claim for Grades 3-8
Overall Claim for Grade 11
“Students can demonstrate progress toward college and career
readiness in mathematics.”
“Students can demonstrate college and career readiness in
mathematics.”
Claim #1 - Concepts &
Procedures
“Students can explain and apply mathematical concepts and
interpret and carry out mathematical procedures with precision and
fluency.”
Claim #2 - Problem Solving
“Students can solve a range of complex well-posed problems in pure
and applied mathematics, making productive use of knowledge and
problem solving strategies.”
Claim #3 - Communicating
Reasoning
“Students can clearly and precisely construct viable arguments to
support their own reasoning and to critique the reasoning of others.”
Claim #4 - Modeling and Data
Analysis
“Students can analyze complex, real-world scenarios and can
construct and use mathematical models to interpret and solve
problems.”
Purposes and Users for the
Summative Assessments
Grades
Tested
3-8 and 11
11
9, 10, 12
3-8 and 11
Purpose
User
School/District/State
Accountability
Federal
ESEA/NCLB
Student Readiness for Creditbearing College Coursework
Higher Ed.
Institutions
State Designed End-of-Course,
State Option
Graduation Requirements, etc.
Teacher/Principal
Accountability
State/District
Option
A State-led Assessment Consortium:
Test Development
•
•
•
•
26 member
states and
territories
representing
39% of K-12
students
21 Governing
States, 4
Advisory States,
1 Affiliate
Member
Washington
state is fiscal
agent
WestEd provides
project
management
services
A State-led Assessment Consortium:
Sustainability for 2014-15 and Beyond
•
Future
affiliation with
the National
Center for
Research on
Evaluation,
Standards, &
Student
Testing
(CRESST) at
UCLA
Major Milestones in Development of
Summative Assessments
✔
Cognitive
Labs
Apr – Aug
2012
✔
Small
Scale
Trials
Mar – Nov
2012
✔
Pilot
Feb –
May 2013
Early Q.C. of items & software; no student results
Field Test
Mar –
June
2014
Full system
run-through;
Establish
performance
standards;
some results
Deploy For
Operational
Use
Sep 2014
Pilot Testing
•
•
•
•
Began February 20; ends May 24
Sample of about 10% of students in Consortium
Recruited 1 million students in 5,000+ schools
Purpose: Evaluate the efficacy of our first 5,000 items &
tasks…
 Do our Performance Tasks that involve real-world
problem-solving work well?
 Can we computer-score open-ended questions?
 Can students use the online tools?
 Have we avoided bias in our items/tasks?
 How well are we measuring grade-to-grade
growth?
Practice Test available May 2013
Field Testing
•
•
•
•
Begins March 2014; ends June 2014
Sample of about 25% of students in Consortium
 2.5 million students in selected schools
Purpose: Evaluate items and tasks to establish the
Smarter Balanced pool…
 Statistical data analysis of 44,000+ items
 Separate items/tasks into secure (summative) pool
and open (interim) pool
 Conduct standard setting for different performance
levels (“cut scores”)
States & USED developing ways to avoid double testing
Technology Requirements:
Responding to School Needs
•
•
•
•
•
Standards have been established for new and existing
hardware
Online “Readiness Tool”
– Schools and districts can evaluate technology readiness
Schools do NOT need one-to-one computers
– Illustrative example: A 600-student school can be supported by a
single 30-computer lab
Pencil-and-paper option available for three-year
transition period
Practice test with full array of tools and features
available starting in May 2013
Educator Recruitment:
Test Development Activities
•
•
•
•
•
Pilot scoring – Range finding
Pilot data review
Field Test item writing
Field Test passage review
Committees – Content;
Bias & Sensitivity; Accessibility
May 14-28
May 23 – June 6
May16-30
May23 – June 6
June 14 – July 17
Point of Contact: State’s “Teacher Involvement
Coordinator”
Educator Recruitment:
Design of Formative and PD Tools
•
•
State Leadership Teams (SLT)
recruited and selected (8-12 per state)
Apr 6-May 17
State Network of Educators (SNE)
members recruited and selected
(avg. of 100 per state)
May 5-June6
Point of Contact: State’s “State Leadership Team”
Lead
Learn More and Stay Engaged
•
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www.smarterbalanced.org
•
•
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