History

Background

Smarter Balanced is the result of state education agency staff, teachers, higher education faculty, and other educators working together to create a “best of the best” assessment system with the ultimate goal of increasing the number of students who are well prepared for college and careers.

This effort began with the recognition that most assessment systems were disjointed, outdated, and did not offer a cohesive set of tools to help educators improve teaching and learning. In 2010, 30 states came together to submit a grant application to create a system that would redefine assessments to feature the following characteristics:

• Conducted online and customizable for students
• Composed of test questions that measure essential skills such as critical thinking, writing, and problem-solving
• Provides the widest array of features ever assembled to ensure testing is fair for all student
• Supports teachers in professional development and in-class assessment tools

The consortium of states that developed Smarter Balanced were awarded a $178 million federal grant, with the state of Washington acting as the fiscal agent. Over the next four years, these states and educators from across the country built an assessment system that would make history by becoming the most widely used test in the United States.

In 2014, as the federal grant was ending, Smarter Balanced became a public agency housed at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

Smarter Balanced is now funded by the states that use its system. It is governed by its membership, which sets its budget and policies, operates the system, and continues to support research and development to further improve assessment.

The Pilot Test

Working with K-12 educators and higher education faculty, Smarter Balanced developed, reviewed, and tested thousands of assessment items and performance tasks. In 2013, Smarter Balanced conducted a Pilot Test in schools across the consortium. Information from the Pilot Test informed the development of additional assessment items and performance tasks, accessibility options and accommodations, and the design of the test interface.

The Field Test

Smarter Balanced conducted a Field Test in spring 2014. The Field Test was a practice run of the assessment system that helped ensure that test questions are accurate and fair for all students. It also gave teachers and schools a chance to gauge their readiness in advance of the first operational assessment in spring 2015.  The Field Test represented one of the final stages in a lengthy development process to ensure that the Smarter Balanced assessment system measured the depth and breadth of the Common Core State Standards.

Timeline by School Year

Smarter Balanced began operations in 2009 and has managed to move to full implementation as of 2015. The timeline below shows the major milestones during that time.