Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium

What is the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC)? The SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) is a collection of states that have been working collaboratively since December 2009 to develop a student assessment system aligned to a common core of academic content standards to apply for a Race-to-the-Top Assessment grant. As of November 17, 2010, the Consortium comprises a majority of states.

What does a consortium that is funded by USED have to do? The USED requirement is that a consortium funded under this grant opportunity will receive funding for four years (Oct 2010 through Sept 2014) to develop assessments that… “…are valid, support and inform instruction, provide accurate information about what students know and can do, and measure student achievement against standards designed to ensure that all students gain the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in college and the workplace.”

How is this assessment different than our current state assessments? This is an evolution of State’s existing assessment systems. The new assessment improves on the best components of the member States’ existing assessments to better help students achieve the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in the 21st century global economy. This assessment will be aligned to the Common Core Content Standards and will be shared by all states in the consortium. Member States will share many of the operational costs to provide an assessment system that comprehensively measures students’ complex thinking and problem solving. This type of assessment is cost effective for a group of states, but is cost prohibitive for many states to do on their own.

What will the SBAC provide? Online computer adaptive summative assessments that give a snapshot of student performance without a “one size fits all approach.” This assessment can be used to describe student achievement and growth of student learning as part of program evaluation and school, district and state accountability systems. This assessment will measure English language arts and mathematics in grades 3-8 and 11 across the full range of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Optional interim and formative assessments that help teachers identify the specific needs of each student so that they can help the students progress toward being career and college ready. Opportunities for Professional Development. Teachers will be involved at all stages of item and test development, including item writing, scoring, and the design of reporting systems. This will ensure the system works well and that teachers can learn from national experts and from each other as they evaluate students’ performance. An online tailored reporting system that supports educators to access information about student progress toward college and career readiness as well as to identify specific strengths and weaknesses along the way.

SBAC’s Technical Advisory Committee Jamal Abedi (University of California, Davis) Randy Bennett (Educational Testing Service) Derek Briggs (University of Colorado at Boulder) Greg Cizek (University of North Carolina) David Conley (University of Oregon) Linda Darling-Hammond (Stanford University) Brian Gong (National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment) Ed Haertel (Stanford University) Joan Herman (University of California, Los Angeles and CRESST) Jim Pellegrino (University of Illinois at Chicago) W. James Popham (University of California, Los Angles) Joseph M. Ryan (Arizona State University) Martha Thurlow (University of Minnesota and NCEO) The Technical Advisory Committee is one of many groups of experts advising the Consortium and will meet on a regular basis beginning in early 2011.

1. Transition to Common Core State Standards (CCSS): Support states in implementation of CCSS in ELA/literacy and mathematics for grades K‐12, and with transition to CCSS‐based instruction and assessment. 2. Technology Approach: Review technology plans, serve as a requirements resource and deliverable review group for all SBAC technology development/procurement, and provide technology implementation guidance to member states. 3. Assessment Design: Item Development Address system design and development: summative and interim. 4. Assessment Design (Performance Tasks): Monitor and review the drafting and pilot/field testing of performance task specifications and development processes. 5. Assessment Design (Test Design): Monitor and review the development of the summative and interim assessment test designs and related test design documents. 6. Assessment Design (Test Administration): Support states in the planning and development of procedures and ancillary materials necessary for test administration. 7. Reporting: Address all areas involved with designing reports and interpreting data produced from the interim and summative assessments. 8. Formative Processes and Tools/Professional Development: Support states in planning and implementing professional development initiatives, creating formative tools and processes, and constructing practice guidelines and assessment frameworks. 9. Accessibility and Accommodations: Address accessibility and accommodations for Consortium summative, interim, and formative instruments; provide definitions and background information on target populations; create supporting documents and guidelines for implementation. 10. Research and Evaluation: Address all areas involved with scoring, field test design, standard setting, psychometrics, and evaluation.

Where can I find out more about the SBAC? More information about the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is available at This site is hosted by Washington’s K-12 education agency. The State of Washington is the applicant state, and has submitted the grant application to the US Department of Education on behalf of the SBAC.

The Purpose of the Consortium To develop a set of comprehensive and innovative assessments for grades 3-8 and high school in English language arts and mathematics aligned to the Common Core State Standards So that all students leave high school prepared for postsecondary success in college or a career through increased student learning and improved teaching. The assessments shall be operational across Consortium states in the school year. For more information visit:

Lower cost and higher quality assessment through scope of work sharing, common development efforts, and collaboration More control through shared interoperable open-source software platforms: Item authoring system, item banking, and adaptive testing platform no longer exclusive property of vendors Better service for students with disabilities and EL students through common, agreed-upon protocols for accommodations Benefits of a Multi-State Consortium

Creating a Map to Get from Standards to Assessments Organizing the standards -- Evaluating learning progressions -- Analyzing and clustering the standards to reflect a continuum of desired understandings and performances Illustrating assessment design principles -- Developing item / task prototypes -- Creating a template that shows how these fit together to measure learning progress against the standards

Assessment System Components Assessment system that balances summative, interim, and formative components for ELA and mathematics: Summative Assessment Comprehensive assessment in ELA and math in grades 3–8 and 11 that supports accountability and measures growth along a learning continuum Computer adaptive tests with selected response, short- and extended-constructed response, and technology enhanced items (within 12 week window at end of year) Performance tasks (2 per year in each subject) Interim Assessment Optional comprehensive and content-cluster assessments Available throughout the year; non-secure allowing students & teachers to review responses Computer adaptive tests with selected response, short- and extended-constructed response, and technology enhanced items Performance tasks Formative Processes and Tools Optional resources for improving instruction and learning Support for assessment literacy

The System Re-take option Optional Interim assessment system— Summative assessment for accountability Last 12 weeks of year* DIGITAL CLEARINGHOUSE of formative tools, processes and exemplars; released items and tasks; model curriculum units; educator training; professional development tools and resources; scorer training modules; and teacher collaboration tools. Scope, sequence, number, and timing of interim assessments locally determined PERFORMANCE TASKS Reading Writing Math END OF YEAR ADAPTIVE ASSESSMENT * Time windows may be adjusted based on results from the research agenda and final implementation decisions. English Language Arts and Mathematics, Grades 3 – 8 and High School Computer Adaptive Assessment and Performance Tasks BEGINNING OF YEAR END OF YEAR Source: INTERIM ASSESSMENT Computer Adaptive Assessment and Performance Tasks INTERIM ASSESSMENT