Recently, the University of California at Los Angeles informed the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium it will no longer serve as our fiscal agent. Our three-year agreement ends on June 30, 2017. What does that mean? See the facts below. There …
Opinion: High Standards and Better Tests Help Students Improve
A new opinion piece by Scott Sargrad and Coleton Whitaker of the Center for American Progress highlights the fact that states that have maintained high standards and better assessments, like Smarter Balanced, have showed gains in the second year of score reporting. …
Washington Releases New Online Score Guide
Washington became the second state to release a new online test score guide to help families and students better understand what scores mean. Information is available for Smarter Balanced tests in grades 3-8 and high school in math and English …
4 Diverse Oregon High Schools Rise to Top
The Oregonian newspaper examined Smarter Balanced scores throughout the state and discovered four Oregon high schools that “outperformed the rest.” The reason? The schools’ dedication to teaching Common Core State Standards in math and English language arts. An excerpt of the …
Montana Educators: ‘Thrill’ to Be a Part of Item Review Process
Two educators from Cut Bank Public Schools in Montana reflected on their experience participating in a three-day Smarter Balanced item review conference this summer. Educators from all over the nation met to review items in math and English language arts. …
Opinion: Teacher Supports the Need for Annual Testing
Esther Cepeda recently returned to the classroom after several years away. She wrote an opinion piece on annual standardized testing that appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Aug. 27, 2016. Cepeda wrote that that she supports the need for …
Education Next Releases Public Opinion Poll
Education Next released its annual state of education poll, and testing performed well (as it did in 2015). Parents continued to strongly support high-quality assessments that accurately measure their children’s learning. Other findings involving assessments included: nearly 80 percent of …
Six States Have Released Smarter Balanced Scores
Late August traditionally starts the beginning of the reporting of state test scores, and that trend has continued in 2016. With the release of California’s CAASSP scores Wednesday (Aug. 24), six states using Smarter Balanced assessments have released scores, with …
National Evaluations Again Confirm Quality and Alignment of Smarter Balanced End-of-Year Test
Two more external evaluations have declared Smarter Balanced to be a high-quality test strongly aligned with the Common Core State Standards. The Smarter Balanced high school test received the highest possible ratings. The extensive alignment studies—conducted in grades 5 and …
Top Teachers Say Smarter Balanced is Better than Old Tests
The nation’s best teachers said they believe using the Smarter Balanced assessment system puts students on a better trajectory than previous state tests, according to a report issued today. Working in conjunction with EducationCounsel, the National Network of State Teachers …