Ten Smarter Tools for Ten Years
Smarter Balanced Celebrates a Decade of Supporting Educators Building web-based applications to support teaching has been part of Smarter Balanced’s mission from the beginning. We heard loud and clear that high-quality assessment requires equally high-quality support in the classroom to ensure student learning goals are aligned with state academic standards. The challenging work of teaching…
Celebrating 10 Years of Collaboration
Smarter Balanced Honors Consortium Members and Educators for their Dedication to Developing High-Quality Measurement Tools and Instructional Supports Thank you, educators! As we celebrate Smarter Balanced’s 10th anniversary, we honor your work and the collaboration of hundreds of educators to build a fair, accurate system to measure what our students know and can do. And…
Remote Learning and the Formative Assessment Process
Strategies You Can Use During Synchronous and Asynchronous Learning The nature of remote learning is that there is more student autonomy—it is likely that students will participate with more independence when they are not located in the same space and/or instructional time as their teachers. Distance learning relies on the formative assessment process for success because…
We Are All In This Together (Remotely)
A Shout-Out to Smarter Balanced Performance Tasks Jamie Elliott-Delaney, Guest Blogger5th Grade TeacherAppoquinimink School DistrictMiddletown, Delaware Although I am a fifth grade teacher at heart, I have extreme love for any teacher who teaches grades K-5. The dedication, extreme multitasking, wearing of “several hats” daily, and the pure ability to be flexible in any given situation…
Making Sense of Test-taking by Touch
Smarter Balanced Braille Accommodations Give Visually Impaired Students the Opportunity to Demonstrate What They Know and Can Do, Equitably Braille is a nearly 200 year old, haptic (touch-based) system for reading and writing that has given millions of people with vision impairment the ability to more effectively access education and contribute to the literary canon….
Smarter Balanced Year in Review 2019
Supporting Educators and Students at a Whole New Level This was a busy year—and decade—at Smarter Balanced! We’ll ring out the “teens” invigorated by our commitment to improving learning outcomes for students. And in June, we’ll celebrate our 10th anniversary, when states and territories banded together to develop our world-class assessment system. In 2019, we released a suite of…
Top 5 Instructional Resources Created by Educators, for Educators
NOTE: The Smarter Balanced Digital Library was decommissioned. Please visit Tools for Teachers, the new home for instructional resources and professional learning. Resources to Use in the Classroom for American Education Week (and All Year Long!) November 18-22 is American Education Week. Thank you to all the teachers who make a difference every day in the…
Top Ten Instructional Resources for the Scariest Week of the School Year
NOTE: The Smarter Balanced Digital Library was decommissioned. Please visit Tools for Teachers, the new home for instructional resources and professional learning. From Amontillado to Zombie, the Digital Library has you covered A-Z A round up of creepy, scary, monster-filled Smarter Balanced Digital Library Instructional Resources perfect for classroom use during Halloween week. “Monster” Capitalization Rules (ELA,…
Three Tools to Help You (and Your Students) Get to Know the Summative Test
Training Test, Practice Test, and Sample Items and When to Use Them Elizabeth Johnston, Guest BloggerEnglish Language Arts Teacher (7th Grade) With all the different tools and resources available to help us get familiar with the summative test, it can be confusing what the best use is for each one. Here is a summary of…
Interims + Playlists + Digital Library = Powerful Instruction
NOTE: The Smarter Balanced Digital Library was decommissioned. Please visit Tools for Teachers, the new home for instructional resources and professional learning. How to Use Assessment Data to Identify Gaps in Learning Elizabeth Johnston, Guest BloggerEnglish Language Arts Teacher (7th Grade) We are getting into testing season and everyone wants to make sure their kids have…