-generation assessments.
Teachers and students will have two opportunities to experience the assessments prior to implementation in the 2014-15 school year. Begining in late February, Smarter Balanced will conduct a Pilot Test of the assessment system. A broader Field Test will follow in spring 2014.
At the start of the 2014-15 school year, the interim assessment item bank will be fully accessible to schools and teachers. In addition, teachers will have access to a digital library of formative assessment strategies and practices, including instructional best practices and professional development on assessment literacy. The end-of-year summative assessment will start in spring 2015.
Alignment to the Common Core State Standards
The Smarter Balanced assessment system will cover the full range of college- and career-ready knowledge and skills in the Common Core State Standards. To do this, each test item is associated with assessment targets and overall content claims. Content claims are major categories for looking at student performance. The assessment targets were developed to ensure item writers and reviewers address the standards, learning progressions, and the range of thinking possible. The sample items reflect the expectations for rigorous content and application of knowledge contained in the Common Core.
As part of the development of the Consortium’s content specifications, Smarter Balanced member states approved content claims in English language arts/literacy and mathematics:
- Claims for the Mathematics Summative Assessment (PDF)
- Claims for the English Language Arts/Literacy Summative Assessment (PDF)
Developed with Educators
In 2012, Smarter Balanced Governing States recruited K-12 teachers and higher education faculty to write and review assessment items and performance tasks guided by the Consortium’s item/task specifications and review guidelines. Item writers participated in trainings on the Consortium’s specifications and assessment design principles. Educators will continue to be involved in the development and implementation of the assessments, as well as professional development activities.
Item and Task Types
The Smarter Balanced assessment system includes a variety of item types. Smarter Balanced is exploring different response options for mathematics problems, including innovative uses of tablet technology. The response formats included in the sample items will be updated based on findings from cognitive labs and small scale trials being conducted this fall, as well as additional information gathered during pilot testing in early 2013.
- Selected-response items prompt students to select one or more responses for a set of options.
- Technology-enhanced items take advantage of computer-based administration to assess a deeper understanding of content and skills than would otherwise be possible with traditional item types. Technology-enhanced items capitalize on technology to collect evidence through a non-traditional response type, such as editing text or drawing an object. Selected-response and technology-enhanced items can be scored automatically.
- Constructed-response items prompt students to produce a text or numerical response in order to collect evidence about their knowledge or understanding of a given assessment target.
- Performance tasksmeasure a student’s ability to integrate knowledge and skills across multiple standards—a key component of college and career readiness. Performance tasks will be used to better measure capacities such as depth of understanding, research skills, and complex analysis, which cannot be adequately assessed with selected- or constructed-response items. Some constructed-response items and performance tasks can be scored automatically; many will be hand-scored by professionally trained readers.These tasks will be delivered as part of the interim and summative components of the assessment system, with more extended tasks available in the digital library as part of the Smarter Balanced-developed exemplar instructional modules and inventory of currently available reso