The sample items and performance tasks are intended to help teachers, administrators, and policymakers implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and preparing for next-generation assessments. They provide an early look into the depth of understanding of the CCSS that will be measured by the Smarter Balanced assessment system. While the items and tasks are not intended to be used as sample tests, educators can use them to begin planning the shifts in instruction that will be required to help students meet the demands of the new assessments.
The sample items and tasks can be viewed by grade band (grades 3-5, 6-8, and high school) or content focus. They showcase the variety of item types—including technology-enhanced items and performance tasks—that will be included in the Smarter Balanced assessment system. In addition, items illustrating the connections across grades within the CCSS—as well as the range of student achievement within a computer adaptive test—are also available. Most constructed-response and technology-enhanced items can be scored automatically, and many items include downloadable scoring rubrics.
The sample English language arts/literacy items and performance tasks include a mixture of published and commissioned reading passages and sources. Smarter Balanced has not obtained permission to reprint copyrighted passages and source documents referenced in the sample items. As a result, several items and performance tasks—Planes on the Brain 1-3, Animal Defenses, and Garden—include only the citations for copyrighted material, rather than the complete text. For the operational assessment in the 2014-15 school year, Smarter Balanced intends to use primarily published passages—reflecting the emphasis in the Common Core on exposure to “high-quality, increasingly challenging literary and informational texts”—and the full text of these passages will be available to students.
It is important to note that these samples represent only a small fraction of the more than 10,000 items and tasks currently in development to support the Pilot Test in early 2013. In addition, the samples are displayed using a simulated test platform that does not include accessibility tools and accommodation options that will be available when the assessments are administered to students—such as Braille, translation options, highlighter tools, and the ability to change font size or magnify portions of items.
In the coming months, additional items and performance tasks will be made available. Smarter Balanced welcomes feedback and questions on the sample items and tasks.
Accessing the Sample Items and Tasks
The sample items and performance tasks are compatible with desktop and laptop computers with the following Internet browsers:
- Firefox 3.6 or newer
- Internet Explorer 8 or newer (Certain items don’t work properly on newer versions of Internet Explorer. This will be corrected in the future.)
- Chrome 18 or newer
- Safari 4.1 or newer
** Please note the preferred web browsers for accessing the Practice and Training Tests are Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. The Practice and Training Tests provide a preview of the Smarter Balanced assessments and a more accurate depiction of both the testing environment and item types.
In addition, Android and iPad tablets with 9.5 inch screens (10 inch class) or larger are supported with the following Internet browsers:
- Chrome 18 or newer (Android)
- Safari 4.1 or newer (iPad)
Explore sample items and performance tasks:
Using the Sample Items and Tasks
The Smarter Balanced Theory of Action notes that an effective assessment system must be part of an integrated system of standards, curriculum, assessment, instruction, and teacher development. The sample items and tasks illustrate the knowledge and skills students will be expected to demonstrate on the Smarter Balanced assessments, giving educators clear benchmarks to inform their instruction. They represent the first of many steps to help familiarize teachers, students, and parents with the expectations of the Common Core State Standards and next