Smarter Updates

Learn more about Smarter Balanced’s latest assessment resources and releases, and updates around supports available to schools, districts, and member states.

Idaho District Leader Praises Use of Interim Assessments

In his review of the 2016-17 school year, Gary Pfleuger, superintendent of Boundary County School District 101 in Idaho, mentions his district’s use of Smarter Balanced interim assessments, and how the periodic tests helped students perform better on the year-end test. Wrote Pfleuger in the Bonners Ferry News: “District wide, the ISAT proficiency rates have…

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Nearly 500,000 California Students Test in One Day

On May 9, nearly 500,000 California students simultaneously signed on to take the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) tests, the highest number of students testing simultaneously during the 2017 spring testing season in the state. Most of the students were taking the Smarter Balanced math or English language arts tests. A May 29 EdSource story states that nearly…

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PA Teacher of the Year: Smarter Balanced Reflects What Students Should Know

Anthony Grisillo, the 2014-15 teacher of the year in Pennsylvania, recently participated in a study by the National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY). Grisillo, a teacher librarian, along with a dozen or so other teachers, reviewed the Smarter Balanced fifth-grade assessment against former state tests in Oregon and Nevada. In a blog article in…

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Letter: WA Businessman Knows Value of High-Quality Assessments

In a letter to the editor in the Bellevue Reporter titled, “Student assessments ensure students gain needed skills,” Bellevue, WA businessman Peter Raulerson writes about the need to challenge students with rigorous learning standards and high-quality assessments, like Smarter Balanced. Washington state’s economy is creating jobs — 700,000 during the next five years — but employers are forced to…

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Desmos, Smarter Balanced Partner on Free, Accessible Online Calculator

Desmos, which has created a free online graphing calculator, announced its new partnership with Smarter Balanced. Desmos won a competitive contract with Smarter Balanced in 2016 to build an online calculator that provides accessible features for students who are blind and visually impaired. You can watch a video and read about the Desmos-Smarter Balanced partnership at CNN. Smarter Balanced will…

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Oregon HS Teacher: My Students Say Test Represents Their Learning

Oregon high school math teacher Allan Brunner, the state’s 2006 Teacher of the Year, was curious if Smarter Balanced represented what his students were learning in class. So he went right to the source: his students. What I didn’t know was how my students would react to the Smarter Balanced test. Would they see taking…

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REPORT: Teachers Call Smarter Balanced More Rigorous, Better Aligned

A new report released Monday shows that Smarter Balanced assessments, when compared to former state assessments, are more rigorous and better aligned with classroom instruction. These were the findings in a report “Still on the Right Trajectory,” released by the National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY), in partnership with EducationCounsel and Clowder…

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RELEASE: Smarter Balanced Partners with UC Santa Cruz

April 27, 2017For Immediate Release UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Extension will serve as the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium’s new fiscal agent. The transition will begin immediately as we conclude our three-year stay at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. “The mission of UCSC Silicon Valley Extension includes supporting K-12 education through high-quality curriculum…

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Explore, Interact With Sample Test Items on New Website

Smarter Balanced has developed a new website that allows users to interact with test questions in a similar manner to that of a student taking a Smarter Balanced assessment. The new Sample Items website, organized by grade and subject, displays items and questions exactly as students encounter them on actual tests: fully interactive with a range of accessibility options. The new Sample Items…

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More States Using Transition Courses to Increase Readiness

Education Week covered the continuing issue of students taking remedial, or high school-level courses, when they enter college. Many states are moving to 12th grade transition courses in math and English language arts to help increase students’ readiness. Read the full story here. Seven Smarter Balanced states uses transition courses. In most states, if a student scores…

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