Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium On Track and Moving Forward

1. Smarter Balanced Assessment ConsortiumOn Track and Moving Forward Urban District Leadership Networks May 21-23 Tampa, FL Joe Willhoft, Executive Director

2. A Next Generation of Assessments • Align to Common Core State Standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy • Rigorously assess progress toward “college and career readiness” • Use common cut scores across the Consortium • Provide achievement and growth information • Tests that are valid, reliable, and fair for all students (except those with “significant cognitive disabilities”) • Use multiple measures of student performance • Use online technologies • Be operational in the 2014-15 school year

3. A Balanced Assessment System Summative: College and career readiness assessments for accountability Teachers and schools have information and tools they need to improve teaching and learning All students leave high school college and career ready Common Core State Standards specify K-12 expectations for college and career readiness Formative resources: Supporting classroom-based assessments to improve instruction Interim: Flexible and open assessments, used for actionable feedback

4. “Students can demonstrate progress toward college and career readiness in English Language arts and literacy.” Score Reports for ELA/Literacy • “Students can demonstrate college and career readiness in English language arts and literacy.” Overall Claim for Grades 3-8 • “Students can read closely and analytically to comprehend a range of increasingly complex literary and informational texts.” Overall Claim for Grade 11 • “Students can produce effective and well-grounded writing for a range of purposes and audiences.” Claim #1 - Reading • “Students can employ effective speaking and listening skills for a range of purposes and audiences.” Claim #2 - Writing • “Students can engage in research and inquiry to investigate topics, and to analyze, integrate, and present information.” Claim #3 - Speaking and Listening Claim #4 - Research/Inquiry

5. “Students can demonstrate progress toward college and career readiness in mathematics.” Score Reports for Mathematics • “Students can demonstrate college and career readiness in mathematics.” Overall Claim for Grades 3-8 • “Students can explain and apply mathematical concepts and interpret and carry out mathematical procedures with precision and fluency.” Overall Claim for Grade 11 • “Students can solve a range of complex well-posed problems in pure and applied mathematics, making productive use of knowledge and problem solving strategies.” Claim #1 - Concepts & Procedures • “Students can clearly and precisely construct viable arguments to support their own reasoning and to critique the reasoning of others.” Claim #2 - Problem Solving • “Students can analyze complex, real-world scenarios and can construct and use mathematical models to interpret and solve problems.” Claim #3 - Communicating Reasoning Claim #4 - Modeling and Data Analysis

6. Purposes and Users for the Summative Assessments

7. A State-led Assessment Consortium:Test Development 26 member states and territories representing 39% of K-12 students 21 Governing States, 4 Advisory States, 1 Affiliate Member Washington state is fiscal agent WestEd provides project management services

8. A State-led Assessment Consortium:Sustainability for 2014-15 and Beyond Future affiliation with the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, & Student Testing (CRESST) at UCLA

9. Major Milestones in Development of Summative Assessments ✔ ✔ ✔ Full system run-through; Establish performance standards; some results Early Q.C. of items & software; no student results

10. Pilot Testing • Began February 20; ends May 24 • Sample of about 10% of students in Consortium • Recruited 1 million students in 5,000+ schools • Purpose: Evaluate the efficacy of our first 5,000 items & tasks… • Do our Performance Tasks that involve real-world problem-solving work well? • Can we computer-score open-ended questions? • Can students use the online tools? • Have we avoided bias in our items/tasks? • How well are we measuring grade-to-grade growth? • Practice Test available May 2013

11. Field Testing • Begins March 2014; ends June 2014 • Sample of about 25% of students in Consortium • 2.5 million students in selected schools • Purpose: Evaluate items and tasks to establish the Smarter Balanced pool… • Statistical data analysis of 44,000+ items • Separate items/tasks into secure (summative) pool and open (interim) pool • Conduct standard setting for different performance levels (“cut scores”) • States & USED developing ways to avoid double testing

12. Technology Requirements: Responding to School Needs • Standards have been established for new and existing hardware • Online “Readiness Tool” • Schools and districts can evaluate technology readiness • Schools do NOT need one-to-one computers • Illustrative example: A 600-student school can be supported by a single 30-computer lab • Pencil-and-paper option available for three-year transition period • Practice test with full array of tools and features available starting in May 2013

13. Educator Recruitment:Test Development Activities • Pilot scoring – Range finding May 14-28 • Pilot data review May 23 – June 6 • Field Test item writing May16-30 • Field Test passage review May23 – June 6 • Committees – Content; Bias & Sensitivity; Accessibility June 14 – July 17 Point of Contact: State’s “Teacher Involvement Coordinator”

14. Educator Recruitment:Design of Formative and PD Tools State Leadership Teams (SLT) recruited and selected (8-12 per state) Apr 6-May 17 State Network of Educators (SNE) members recruited and selected (avg. of 100 per state) May 5-June6 Point of Contact: State’s “State Leadership Team” Lead

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