Smarter Balanced Releases Back to School Assessment Playbook
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (July 23, 2020) – Smarter Balanced released the Back to School Assessment Playbook, which offers educators in Smarter Balanced member states guidance and recommendations regarding how they can use the new Tools for Teachers website, as well as nearly 150 interim assessment blocks, to accelerate learning this coming school year. The Playbook, developed in collaboration with Smarter…
UC Regents Vote to Conduct Feasibility Study; Includes Smarter Balanced As Option
(Santa Clara, Calif., May 21, 2020) – The University of California Regents approved a college entrance exam proposal today, voting to suspend its current standardized test requirement (ACT and SAT) for undergraduate admissions until 2024. Starting this summer, UC will conduct a feasibility study, which includes whether to modify a current test, such as Smarter Balanced, as part of its…
Newly Released Sample Questions Can Help Support Instruction
The Smarter Balanced Sample Items Website now includes 104 newly released test questions that previously appeared on the year-end (summative) math and English language arts tests in grades 3-8 and high school. Educators can use the sample test questions to better understand how Smarter Balanced measures college and career ready content and what students need to know and do. The newly released questions add to the nearly…
New Starting Smarter Website Launches
Resources to Help Parents Understand Score Reports and to Boost Learning at Home Last week, Smarter Balanced released the new Starting Smarter Website, which helps parents of children in grades 3-8 and high school use state score reports to better understand their child’s strengths and areas in need of improvement. This empowers parents to start a meaningful…
Nevada First Smarter Balanced State to Meet Federal Peer Review
Nevada became the first Smarter Balanced member state to meet all federal peer review requirements for the Smarter Balanced grades 3-8 math and ELA/literacy assessments, the Nevada State Department of Education announced Thursday, August 2. Nevada’s peer review letter from the United States Department of Education (USED) serves as a notification that Smarter Balanced meets all of…
Analysis of 2017 Test Scores Finds No Issues With the Test
An analysis of 2017 test scores from Smarter Balanced member states found no technical issues with the assessment, Smarter Balanced announced today. The results of the analysis were affirmed by the Smarter Balanced Technical Advisory Committee and by the Center for Assessment, which conducted an independent review. “Based on the analysis, we believe that the test scores accurately…
Smarter Balanced Strategic Plan: Maintaining Quality, Exploring Innovation
(FEBRUARY 1, 2018) During a yearlong process, Smarter Balanced member states collaborated to build a five-year Strategic Plan that guides the Consortium to maintain its high-quality assessment system while also continuing to innovate and evolve in response to a changing education landscape. The Strategic Plan 2017-2022 can be downloaded here. Based on conversations with a wide variety of stakeholders, Consortium…
RELEASE: Smarter Balanced Partners with UC Santa Cruz
April 27, 2017For Immediate Release UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Extension will serve as the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium’s new fiscal agent. The transition will begin immediately as we conclude our three-year stay at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. “The mission of UCSC Silicon Valley Extension includes supporting K-12 education through high-quality curriculum…
Smarter Balanced, MetaMetrics Partner to Provide More Specific Info About Students’ Reading Abilities
Smarter Balanced and MetaMetrics, developer of the Lexile Framework for Reading and Quantile Framework for Mathematics, collaborated to link the Smarter Balanced assessment system to the Lexile and Quantile Frameworks. This alignment provides the option for Smarter Balanced members to report a student’s reading ability as a Lexile measure and his or her mathematical ability as a Quantile measure. By reporting Lexile…
National Evaluations Again Confirm Quality and Alignment of Smarter Balanced End-of-Year Test
Two more external evaluations have declared Smarter Balanced to be a high-quality test strongly aligned with the Common Core State Standards. The Smarter Balanced high school test received the highest possible ratings. The extensive alignment studies—conducted in grades 5 and 8 by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and in high school by the Human Resources…
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