1. A Look Inside the Smarter Balanced Assessment System 52 nd Annual Northwest Mathematics Conference Hyatt Regency, Bellevue, Washington October 11, 2013 Joe Willhoft, Executive Director

2. Smarter Balanced Assessment System Overview

3. Not just another test…Smarter Balanced is being built by states for states Connecting learning to life after high school – career or college Supporting teachers with a practical suite of resources Preparing our students for a changing world Keeping educators in the drivers seat Providing meaningful information to guide student growth 5 5 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 3

4. 26 member states and territories representing 39% of K-12 students 23 Governing States, 2 Advisory States, 1 Affiliate Member Washington state is fiscal agent WestEd provides project management services A State-led Assessment Consortium 4

5. Future affiliation with the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA A State-led Assessment Consortium: Sustainability for 2014-15 and Beyond 5

6. Improving Teaching & Learning Common Core State Standards specify K-12 expectations for college and career readiness Common Core State Standards specify K-12 expectations for college and career readiness All students leave high school college and career ready Teachers and schools have information and tools they need to improve teaching and learning Summative: College and career readiness assessments for accountability Interim: Flexible and open assessments, used for actionable feedback Formative resources: Supporting classroom-based assessments to improve instruction 6

7. Overall Claim for Grades 3-8 Overall ELA/Literacy Score Claim #1 - Reading Claim #2 - Writing Claim #3 - Speaking and Listening Claim #4 - Research/Inquiry Individual Score Reports for Grades 3-8 and 11 Overall Mathematics Score Claim #1 – Concepts & Procedures Claim #2 –Problem Solving Claim #4: Modeling & Data Analysis Claim #3 – Communicating Reasoning ELA/LiteracyMathematics 7

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

9. Smarter Balanced Educator Involvement and Progress

10. Educator Involvement Item Development ActivityTotal Educators Item Author147 Item Review - Accessibility53 Item Review - Bias50 Item Review - Content138 Pilot Test Data Review26 Pilot Test Range Finding96 Stimulus Review - Accessibility28 Stimulus Review - Bias31 Stimulus Review - Content32 Grand Total601 10

11. Ongoing Involvement Pilot Test in spring 2013 involved over 650,000 students from all Smarter Balanced states Field Test in spring 2014 will involve over two million students in all Smarter Balanced states Standard setting in fall 2014 will invite all teachers to participate in virtual crowdsourcing 11

12. Working with Higher Education Ongoing state-level outreach to faculty and administrators –Five Regional Coordinators –Higher education leads in each state –Two higher education reps on Executive Committee Higher education votes on major policies College Content-readiness Policy Career Readiness Task Force Comprehensive validity research agenda 12

13. Major Milestones in Development of Summative Assessments Cognitive Labs Apr – Aug 2012 Small Scale Trials Mar – Nov 2012 Pilot Testing Feb – May 2013 Field Test Mar – June 2014 Deploy For Operational Use Sep 2014 Early Q.C. of items & software; no student results Full system run-through; Establish performance standards; some results 13

14. Field Testing March - June 2014 Sampling about 20% of students in Consortium Purpose: Evaluate items and tasks for Smarter Balanced pool… Statistical data analysis of 20,000+ items Divide items/tasks into secure (summative) pool and open (interim) pool Conduct standard setting for different performance levels (cut scores) US Dept. of Ed flexibility to avoid double testing 14

15. Setting Performance Standards Setting standards for four Performance Levels at each grade September 2014, using Field Test data Grade-level panels of 30 per content area recommend cut scores –At least two representatives from each Governing State on each grade level panel Concurrent crowd-sourced recommendations from the field Recommendations presented to state chiefs for approval in late September 2014 15

16. Smarter Balanced Getting Ready for the Tests

17. Testing Window for Summative Assessments in 2015 17 Each state sets its own schedule for the Smarter Balanced summative assessments within the following windows: –Grades 3-8 Testing can begin once sixty-six percent (66%) of a schools annual instructional days have been completed; –Grade 11 Testing can begin once eighty percent (80%) of a schools annual instructional days have been completed; and –All Grades Testing can continue up to and including the last day of school. Smarter Balanced is designed to have results returned within 2 weeks of of testing being completed.

18. Technology Requirements: Responding to School Needs Smarter states have established standards 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 –Smarter Balanced Readiness Calculator at: http://www3.cde.ca.gov/sbactechcalc/ http://www3.cde.ca.gov/sbactechcalc/ Pencil-and-paper option available for three-year transition period 18

19. Accessibility & Accommodations 19

20. Accessibility & Accommodations (from S.B. Guidelines) 20

21. Estimated Testing Times for 2014 Field Test and 2015 Operational Assessment 21 Test TypeGradesCAT Perf. Task OnlyTotal Class ActivityTotal English Language Arts 3-51:302:003:30:304:00 6-81:302:003:30:304:00 112:00 4:00:304:30 Mathematics 3-51:301:002:30:303:00 6-82:001:003:00:303:30 112:001:303:30:304:00 COMBINED 3-53:00 6:001:007:00 6-83:303:006:301:007:30 114:003:307:301:008:30 Times are estimates of test length for most students. Smarter Balanced assessments are designed as untimed tests; some students may need and should be afforded more time than shown in this table.

22. Take a Peek Under the Hood… The Smarter Balanced Practice Test Shows item types and tools/features Now available: Released May 29 Expanded full-feature version in spring 2014 http://www.smarterbalanced.org/practice-test 22

23. A Deeper Dive Mathematics Content Specifications and Test Blueprints

24. Test Specifications: Click here….

25. Then, scroll to here…

26. Gr. 6 Math Blueprint: Claim 1 (DRAFT)

27. Gr. 6 Math Blueprint: Claims 2 & 4 (DRAFT)

28. Gr. 6 Math Blueprint: Claim 3 (DRAFT)

29. A Few Sample Items

30. Grade 3: Problem Solving 30 Steven is baking cookies. On one tray, he makes 5 rows with 4 cookies in each row. He cannot fit any more cookies on the tray. He puts some more cookies on another tray the same size as the first tray. Which number is a reasonable total for the number of cookies on the two trays? A. 9 B. 20 C. 34* D. 60

31. Grade 3: Communicating Reasoning 31

32. Grade 4: Modeling and Data Analysis 32

33. Attending to Coherence The Number Line Example

34. Grade 3

35. Grade 7

36. Grade 8

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