Desmos, Smarter Balanced Partner on Free, Accessible Online Calculator
Desmos, which has created a free online graphing calculator, announced its new partnership with Smarter Balanced. Desmos won a competitive contract with Smarter Balanced in 2016 to build an online calculator that provides accessible features for students who are blind and visually impaired.
You can watch a video and read about the Desmos-Smarter Balanced partnership at CNN.
Smarter Balanced will offer the calculator, used in grades 6-8 and high school, to all of its members in the fall of 2017. The calculator, which is embedded in Smarter Balanced assessments, will also be available to students for free to use throughout the school year. Many states are already using the calculator in their spring 2017 assessments, but the fully accessible calculator will be available starting in the 2017-18 school year.
Smarter Balanced Executive Director Tony Alpert, quoted in the74million.org, a non-profit education news site, said, “Equity is really important in the testing environment. It really is about making available a resource for all students so they can demonstrate what they know.”