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Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium

Published on Dec 05, 2015

Slideshow for SBAC Parent NIght

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium

and the SBA

national collaboration

The Smarter Balanced Consortium is a group of states, partnering together to develop assessments aligned to the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The Consortium involves educators, researchers, policymakers, and community groups and is funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education and various charitable foundations. It is currently managed by an independent operating unit at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education.
As of this fall, 18 states have joined the Consortium and will be administering the SBA this spring. Other states have made other partnerships or arrangements.

changes...

  • computer adaptive
  • technology enhanced
  • writing at every grade
  • performance tasks
  • interim assessment options
  • faster results
  • flexible schedule
Besides being based on the new national standards, the SBA differs from the MSP, our former state test, in several ways.

* One major difference is that the test is online and, because of this, will be computer adaptive. Based on student responses, the computer program will adjust the difficulty of questions throughout the test. For example, a student who answers a question correctly will receive a more challenging item, while an incorrect answer will generate an easier question.

* The test items will be "technology-enhanced". Students will have a variety of digital tools to use. They will need to drop and drag items, pop up windows, highlight text, right click for definitions, etc.

* In addition to multiple choice and short answer items, there will be performance tasks requiring students to integrate skills across multiple standards. Students will need to collect relevant information from two or more sources, organize notes, and plan and write a longer response.

* Part of the SBA package includes optional shorter assessments which can be administered throughout the year. Oak Harbor teachers have been having students practice with these this month. Other training modules and tools are being made available to teachers through SBAC's digital library.

* Because SBA results will be mostly computer-generated, we should have a faster turn-around. This year we expect to have third grade results back in time to review them with parents and develop individual learning goals.

* Since everyone was taking the same test, the MSP had to be administered on the same days at each school throughout the district. Because SBA is computer adaptive, schools will have more flexibility in scheduling tests. The final or summative test needs to be done any time during the last 12 weeks of school. The only limiting factor for us is the number of devices on which to take the test. This year the district has planned that we will be borrowing Chromebooks from those teachers who applied for grants last fall and sharing them on a rotational basis between schools. So we did have to coordinate a district-wide schedule this year. Hopefully we will move closer to a 1-to-1 technology model, at which point each school will be able to establish their own testing schedule.

Broadview's Testing Schedule

Broad View is slated to have the Chromebooks in late March and mid-May. Our plan is to have students take the English Language Arts tests from the 24th to 26th and the Math tests on May 13th and 14th.

...estimated time

  • 1:30 ELA computer adaptive test
  • 2:30 ELA class activity and performance task
  • 1:30 MATH computer adaptive test
  • 1:30 MATH class activity and performance task
The actual tests are "untimed"...to a point.
Both the Math and ELA Computer Adapted Tests will each be done in one day. The test can be paused and restarted after breaks. However based on field tests, most students were able to complete each CAT in 1.5 hours.

The Math Performance Task seemed to take 1.5 hours on the field test and the ELA Performance Task, 2.5 hours. Each performance test, includes a class warm up activity to activate learning one or five days before the test.
Photo by pb²

...achievement thresholds

This fall a panel of over 500 educators, parents, and community leaders went through the field tests and assessment questions at each grade level to set achievement levels. These were approved in November.

The scores fall along a continuous vertical scale from 2000 to 3000 that increases across grade levels. The panel decided the thresholds which determined novice, progressing, proficient, and advanced at each grade level.

http://www.smarterbalanced.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Interpr...

...achievement estimates

Based on the field tests, the Consortium expects students' overall performance will be low this year, lower than on the MSP.

They explain that because the tests now align to the Common Core State Standards, which are more difficult than our former state standards, fewer students will be "proficient" initially.

However because a student's exposure to Common Core standards increases each year, as does their experience with digital tools, the Consortium expects the dip in proficiency will be temporary.

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On the SBA, students will need to be familiar with the testing interface and how to perform general tasks such as clicking, scrolling, and moving to the next item.

Students will also need to be familiar with each question type and the kinds of tools that may be attached to that type of question, such as a calculator, ruler, highlighter, or zoom.

Each question has a video tutorial attached and students may opt to play the tutorial if they need help understanding how to answer that type of question.

Some questions, such as this one, will require dragging numbers.

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Some items will require students to select numbers and know how to delete incorrect choices. In some problems, they will also have to select the fraction tool before entering their answers.

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Some items will require a student to click on sentences to select them and some to click and drag to highlight text.

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Some items will require students to type short answers and some to type multiple paragraphs.

SBAC PORTAL

We encourage parents to explore the Practice and Training tests to get a better understanding not only of the content being assessed but also of the digital skills students will need to navigate the test successfully.

You can find these practice tests from home by googling "SBAC Portal," but we hope you will take time tonight to explore the site and share any feedback, questions, or concerns.

The library computers have an icon set on each desktop which lead you to the portal directly.

When you get to the site, you will need to select "Practice and Training Tests"....

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Then scroll to the bottom of the next page to select "Student Interface"....

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Then on the next page, select grade level and hit "yes".

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The next page allows you several options. Select any of them to begin your preview.

NOTE that the tests do not let you skim pages without supplying an answer. If you are just trying to get a quick overview of the questions, you can enter a dummy answer and then advance. However we recommend you do try to answer a few questions to get a truer sense of the skills required.

Each test page has a box at the top next to the word "Questions". You can click this box to pick a question from the drop down menu to go back to if you want to review your answers.

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After making your selection, you'll have to click through a few more screens, including THIS one which requires that you test the sound before advancing....

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And this one which provides a "Help Guide" that points out all the digital tools available on the test interface. If you scroll down on this page it also explains various rules and limitations.

Students can return to this help guide at any time by clicking on the question mark button on each page.

alphabet soup

  • CCSS Common Core State Standards
  • CCR College and Career Readiness
  • SBAC Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
  • SBA Smarter Balanced Assessment
  • ELA English Language Arts
  • CAT Computer Adaptive Test
  • PT Performance Test
  • CR Constructed Response(s)
  • SR Selected Response(s)
  • ER Extended Response(s)
This Powerpoint will be linked from our classroom websites if you should want to review any of its information. Or you can capture the QR code on the next slide now and bookmark it for future reference.

If you are ready, let's begin exploring...!

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