OSPI UPDATE Transition to Smarter Balanced Assessments in Washington

1. OSPI UPDATETransition to Smarter Balanced Assessments in Washington School Counselor Summer Institute JUNE 2014 Presented by: Alan Burke, Ed.D. Deputy Superintendent of K-12 Education Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction

2. Smarter Balanced – Who and When? • Comprehensive summative field test in 2013-14 (35%) • State Networks of Educators began vetting resources to populate the digital library in Fall 2013 • All components of Smarter Balanced operational in 2014-15 • Digital Library “Soft Launch” in June 2014; will be fully functional fall 2014 • Interim assessments available late fall 2014 • Summative assessments administered in spring 2015

3. Field Testing Spring 2014 • 12.6M tests administered in SBAC states (700K in WA) • What did we learn: • Content is a bigger problem than technology • Familiarity with digital tools (e.g., calculator) is important • Scheduling (longer sessions vs. several shorter sessions) is worth a significant discussion • Consider having staff take practice test • Interim assessments will provide a run-through opportunity • Other • Paper/pencil option $6/test ($12/student)

4. Smarter Balanced + Higher Ed • Unprecedented movement to use mandatory high school tests in college placement • State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) and Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) involved • Draft agreement to provide access to juniors who score a 3 or 4 on the SBAC ELA and math tests in to credit bearing courses • All community colleges • Some baccalaureates • Connects with movement to allow transcripts based on placement – not the old system with “all or none” based on Compass or Accuplacer exams

5. 2015 results will set a new baseline of student performance in Washington • Some people are predicting that the spring 2015 test results will see Washington students falling off a “performance cliff”, with scores dropping. • But the new tests are not comparable so we should not compare scores from one to the other. • We have a new baseline!

6. 2015 Results (continued) • Think of the standards and the assessment as a new target with new results…. I envision two mountains: • People who successfully climb Mt Rainer (at 14,000 ft), will find Mt McKinley (at 20,000 ft) more challenging. • Some will be able to meet the challenge, some will be close and some who previously were able to summit Rainier will not be able to summit McKinley at first.

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13. SBAC Assessments Will Measure Career- and College-Readiness 13

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16. A Balanced Assessment System Needs a Digital Library Summative assessments Benchmarked to college and career readiness Teachers and schools have information and tools they need to improve teaching and learning Common Core State Standards specify K-12 expectations for college and career readiness All students leave high school college and career ready Educator resources for formative assessment practices to improve instruction Interim assessments Flexible, open, used for actionable feedback Slide 16

17. Interim Assessment Components 17

18. Interim Comprehensive Assessments (ICA): Sample Use Cases • Mid-year (e.g., February), a teacher might want to know how students are doing in preparation for the summative test, to better know what areas to focus more efforts/attention on. • Beginning of the year, students entered a class from another state, and the teacher did not have data for them. A teacher decides to give these students the previous year’s ICA to complete the data for the class. • NOTE: Interim exams for 2014-15 will be available in December 2014. Slide 18

19. Interim Assessment Blocks (IABs) Sample Use Cases • A teacher is providing focused instruction on persuasive writing. Teacher could use a block focused on persuasive writing to determine degree of students’ understanding before or after the instruction. • An 8th grade math team, in a coordinated fashion, want to be informed about how their students are doing in geometry. Slide 19

20. Digital Library Basics • One Stop: • Accessed through a single sign-on with user permission levels • Educators have access to all of the instructional and professional learning resources for each grade band (Grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12) • There will be resources that educators can share or use with students and families, but students and families will not be able to access materials directly. • It WILL NOT be a “bank” of formative assessment items alone. All resources will have the formative assessment process embedded within them. Slide 20

21. Digital Library Basics (continued) • All submitted materials will be vetted through a Quality Criteria Review Process. Each resource will be reviewed and rated three times • If they do not meet the quality criteria, resources will not be included in the library • Functionality • The applications uses state-of-the art tagging and search features so that educators will be able to: • Quickly find resources by CCSS, formative assessment process attributes, etc. • View and download resources • Rate resources • Use social networking features to collaborate with other educators across the Consortium by posting questions and sharing their knowledge. Slide 21

22. Learn More and Stay Engaged • To experience the assessment yourself, take the Practice Test:www.SmarterBalanced.org/practice-test • For the latest news and developments on Smarter Balanced in Washington: http://www.k12.wa.us/smarter/default.aspx • Materials for administration, as well as communication templates for parents and community: http://sbac.portal.airast.org/field-test/resources/ • For questions about Smarter Balanced or the assessment system transitions, contact:Assessment@k12.wa.us360-725-6348 22

23. Questions?

24. Thank you!