2019: STARTING SMARTER HELPS FAMILES UNDERSTAND CHILD’S TEST SCORES

Smarter Balanced develops Starting Smarter for its member states to provide families with information to help them better understand student score reports. With this information about their child’s knowledge and skills, parents are starting smarter conversations with teachers about what they can do to support learning at home.

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2012: ACCESSIBILITY, BIAS AND SENSITIVITY GUIDELINES RELEASED

Smarter Balanced developed item and task specifications, accessibility and accommodations guidelines, and bias and sensitivity guidelines for assessment system. Utilizing the principles of universal design, these accessibility resources include braille, Spanish translations, videos in American Sign Language, glossaries provided in 13 languages and several varieties and dialects, as well as translated test directions in 20…

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2012: Summative Assessment Preliminary Blueprint Approved

Member states approve preliminary blueprint for summative assessment. The Smarter Balanced summative test blueprints describe the content of the English language arts/literacy and math end-of-year tests for grades 3-8 and HS and how that content should be assessed.

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2010: Race to the Top Grant Applications Submitted

30 states submitted a Race to the Top grant application—awarded in September 2010—to create a system that would redefine assessments to feature the following characteristics: (1) conducted online and customizable for students, (2) composed of test questions that measure essential skills such as critical thinking, writing, and problem-solving, (3) provides the widest array of features…

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2020: TOOLS FOR TEACHERS HELPS EDUCATORS IMPROVE LEARNING

Tools for Teachers, a new Website that features teacher-created and easy-to-search lessons and activities designed to save teachers time, debuts in June 2020 and celebrates its grand opening on September 30, 2020. It represents a major milestone in helping teachers help their students. 

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