California’s Val Verde Unified School District Sees Gains from Interim Assessment Use
District leaders tell the California State Board of Education that educators regularly use interims to improve student learning Note: Video of the Val Verde Unified School District Testimony begins at 04:38:28 On May 9, educators from Val Verde Unified School District (Riverside County, Calif.) told the California State Board of Education that its use of Smarter Balanced interim assessments…
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…
Collaboration, Connections and Digital Library Resources, Oh My!
NOTE: The Smarter Balanced Digital Library was decommissioned. Please visit Tools for Teachers, the new home for instructional resources and professional learning. Educators from around the nation collaborate to connect resources in the Digital Library to interim assessments Teachers are crazy productive. So what happens when you bring 70 educators together over a three-day period and give them…
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…
New Smarter Balanced Desmos Calculators Are Free and Accessible to Students
Smarter Balanced prides itself on innovation and accessibility. All students should have the ability to show what they know and can do on the highest quality assessment system in the nation. Smarter Balanced and Desmos are proud to provide calculators that are free to students and include cutting-edge accessibility features. Students who are visually impaired or blind…
South Dakota to Use Smarter Balanced Scores for College Admissions
Monday, it was announced that South Dakota public high school seniors who earned a Level 3 or 4 on their Smarter Balanced 11th grade math and English language arts tests would receive “guaranteed general acceptance into the state’s public universities and technical institutes.” The proactive admissions initiative is a cooperative effort of the South Dakota Department of…
WA Student Writes About the Value of Smarter Balanced
Elizabeth Min, who just finished her junior year at Decatur High School in Federal Way, Wash., recently wrote an opinion piece about the value of Smarter Balanced in Federal Way Mirror newspaper. Wrote Min: “Taking tests can be challenging, but the results give students like me important information to get the most out of our time…
Idaho District Leader Praises Use of Interim Assessments
In his review of the 2016-17 school year, Gary Pfleuger, superintendent of Boundary County School District 101 in Idaho, mentions his district’s use of Smarter Balanced interim assessments, and how the periodic tests helped students perform better on the year-end test. Wrote Pfleuger in the Bonners Ferry News: “District wide, the ISAT proficiency rates have…
Ready WA Video Highlights State’s Bridge to College Program
Ready Washington released a video on the state’s Bridge to College transition courses, which help to prepare students for success in college-level math and English language arts courses and avoid costly remedial classes. Ready Washington highlighted a group of seniors at Mariner High School in Everett. The seniors told Ready Washington that the courses they took this school year helped them…
Nearly 500,000 California Students Test in One Day
On May 9, nearly 500,000 California students simultaneously signed on to take the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) tests, the highest number of students testing simultaneously during the 2017 spring testing season in the state. Most of the students were taking the Smarter Balanced math or English language arts tests. A May 29 EdSource story states that nearly…