Smarter Balanced Assessment & Higher Education

Bill Moore, SBCTCCore to College Alignment Director

Overview and Consortium Proposal under ConsiderationWinter 2013

For more information about Smarter Balanced work described in these slides, see http://www.smarterbalanced.org/achievement-level-descriptors-and-college-readiness/

Common Core State Standards

• Clear, consistent, rigorous standards in English language arts/literacy and mathematics

• Knowledge and skills needed for college and career success

• Developed voluntarily and cooperatively by states with input from teachers and college faculty

Source: www.corestandards.org

Major Shifts in the CCSS:“Fewer, Higher, Clearer, Deeper”

MATH

• Focus: strongly where the standards focus

• Coherence: Think across grades and link to major topics within grades

• Rigor: Require conceptual understanding, fluency, and application

www.corestandards.org

ELA

• Building content knowledge through content-rich nonfiction

• Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational

• Regular practice with complex text and its academic language

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium

• 25 states (21 governing, 4 advisory)

• K-12 & Higher Education Leads in each state

• Washington state is the fiscal agent for the Consortium

A Balanced Assessment System

Common Core State Standards specify

K-12 expectatio

ns 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 Interim

assessments Flexible, open,

used for actionable feedback

Summative assessments

Benchmarked to college and

career readiness

Teacher resources for

formative assessment

practicesto improve instruction

Summative Assessment:Two-pronged Approach

Computer Adaptive Test

• Assesses the full range of Common Core in English language arts/literacy and mathematics for students in grades 3-8 and 11 (interim assessments can be used in grades 9 and 10)

• Measures current student achievement and growth across time, showing progress toward college and career readiness

• Includes a variety of question types: selected response, short constructed response, extended construction response, technology enhanced

Performance Tasks

• Extended projects demonstrate real-world writing and analytical skills

• May include online research, group projects, presentations

• Require 1 to 2 class periods to complete

• Included in both English language arts/literacy and mathematics assessments

• Applicable in all grades being assessed

• Evaluated by teachers using consistent scoring rubrics

Advantages to Higher Education

Better prepared entry-level college students will:

•Allow faculty to teach more rigorous and creative courses;

•Reduce the need for remediation, freeing up resources for reallocation;

•Shorten time-to-degree; • Improve college persistence and completion rates, as well as cost to students.

Higher Education’s Involvement Matters

Involvement of higher education will influence:

•Definitions of college and career readiness•Changes in high school curricula and teaching•Structure and content of the new assessments•12th grade interventions for students who need to address deficiencies, course schedules for students who are on track, and accelerated options for advanced students.

Reaching the Goal: Expectations of Higher Education

What is Expected

•Participate in assessment design•Lead work in defining college readiness and standard-setting for 11th grade assessment•Recognize the 11th grade assessment as a valid measure of college-readiness as defined by the Common Core State Standards•Agree on performance standards for exemption from remediation in English and math and use the 11th grade assessment as evidence that students are ready for credit-bearing course work without remediation

What is NOT Expected

•Use of Smarter Balanced assessment for admission•Standardization of admission criteria or standards•Standardization of developmental or first-year curricula•Complete reliance on the Smarter Balanced assessment for placement decisions (other data points and assessments may be used)

College Content Readiness Definitions

English language arts/literacy

Students who perform at the College Content-ready level in English language arts/literacy demonstrate subject-area knowledge and skills associated with readiness for entry-level, transferable credit-bearing English and composition courses. These students also demonstrate reading, writing, listening, and research skills necessary for introductory courses in a variety of disciplines.

Mathematics

Students who perform at the College Content-Ready Level in mathematics demonstrate subject-area knowledge and skills associated with readiness for entry-level, transferable credit-bearing mathematics or statistics courses. These students also demonstrate quantitative reasoning skills necessary for introductory courses in a variety of disciplines.

How well does the language in these definitions articulate what it means to be ready for the English language arts and math expectations students will encounter in entry college-level courses?

Smarter Balanced Policy Achievement Level

DescriptorsLevel 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

The Level 1 student demonstrates minimal command of the knowledge and skills associated with college and career readiness.

The Level 2 student demonstrates partial command of the knowledge and skills associated with college and career readiness.

The Level 3 student demonstrates sufficient command of the knowledge and skills associated with college and career readiness.

The Level 4 student demonstrates deep command of the knowledge and skills associated with college and career readiness.

College Readiness Threshold

College Readiness Policy FrameworkSmarter Balanced

LevelCollege

Content-Readiness Implications for Grade 12 and College Placement

4: Demonstrates deep command of the knowledge and skills associated with college and career readiness.

Student is exempt from developmental course work.

• States/districts/colleges may offer advanced courses (such as AP, IB, or dual enrollment) for these students.

• Colleges may evaluate additional data (courses completed, grades, placement test scores, etc.) to determine student placement in advanced courses beyond the initial entry-level course.

3: Demonstrates sufficient command of the knowledge and skills associated with college and career readiness.

Student is exempt from developmental course work, contingent on evidence of continued learning in Grade 12.

• Within each state, higher education and K-12 determine appropriate evidence of continued learning (such as test scores or course grades).

• Colleges may evaluate additional data (courses completed, grades, placement test scores, etc.) to determine student placement in advanced courses beyond the initial entry-level course.

What questions or issues, if any, do you have regarding the proposed implications noted above for students scoring at Level 3 or Level 4 on the 11th grade Smarter Balanced assessment?