Smarter Balanced & Higher Education

1. Smarter Balanced & Higher Education Jacqueline E. King Director, Higher Education Collaboration Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges Presidents’ Retreat July 24, 2013

2. About Smarter Balanced

3. What is Smarter Balanced? A consortium of 26 states and territories working together to build next-generation formative, interim and summative assessments for K-12 schools tied to the Common Core State Standards in English language arts/literacy and mathematics. Funding from the federal Race to the Top Assessment grant (~$175M) and foundations (~$3M). Governed by member states on a consensus model.

4. Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium 26 states & territories (22 governing, 3 advisory, 1 affiliate) K-12 & Higher Education Leads in each state

5. A Balanced Assessment System 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 Teacher resources for formative assessment practices to improve instruction Interim assessments Flexible, open, used for actionable feedback

6. Assessing the Common Core • Identify • List • Draw • Define • Memorize • Calculate • Illustrate • Who, What, When, Where, Why • Measure • Arrange • Name • Tabulate • Repeat • Match • Design • Recall • Categorize • Recognize • Use • Connect • Infer • Level One • (Recall) • Graph • Organize • Synthesize • Classify • Level Four • Modify • Level Two • (Skill/Concept) • Apply Concepts • Describe Explain Interpret • Smarter Balanced assessments move beyond basic skills and recall to assess critical thinking and problem solving • Cause/Effect • (Extended Thinking) • Relate • Critique • Predict • Prove • Compare • Level Three • (Strategic Thinking) • Analyze • Interpret • Estimate • Create • Revise • Assess • Summarize • Develop a Logical Argument • Use Concepts to SolveNon-Routine Problems • Show • Critique • Construct • Compare • Apprise • Investigate • Explain • Formulate • Draw Conclusions • Hypothesize • Differentiate Source: Webb, Norman L. and others, “Web Alignment Tool” 24 July 2005. Wisconsin Center of Educational Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2 Feb 2006 • 6

7. Purposes and Users for the Summative Assessments

8. Summative Assessment: Benefits and Limitations

9. Summative Assessment:Two-pronged Approach

10. Estimated Testing Times for Summative Assessment The testing window is the final 12 weeks of the academic year.

11. Interim & Formative Assessment

12. Assessment System Development

13. Pilot Testing & Practice Test • Pilot Test held February 20 to May 24, 2013 • 5,200 schools volunteered to test ~1 million students • Purpose: Evaluate first 5,000 items & tasks • Open access Practice Tests available now! • Both subject areas, grades 3 through 8 and 11 • Approx. 23 items & 1 performance task in ELA • Uses same software as operational test • Features refreshable Braille , pop-up Spanish glossary, and other accessibility/accommodation tools • Enhancements by this Fall: • Performance tasks for math • ELA classroom-based activities • ASL translation and other accommodation tools • Scoring rubrics

14. Field Test &Standard Setting • Field test in Spring 2014 will target 2 million students — roughly 20% of eligible students in each state • Educator recruitment has begun for item authoring and review as well as range-finding (1,000 K-12 teachers and higher education faculty will participate). • Standard-setting will occur after field test (summer 2014). • In addition to traditional workshop, Smarter Balanced will invite broad stakeholder involvement. • Stakeholders can review items and make their own cut score recommendations. • Crowd-sourced data will inform standard-setting workshop.

15. Technology Requirements Responsive to School Needs • Online “Readiness Tool” allows schools and districts to evaluate technology readiness • Summary reports available for schools, districts, states • Standards have been established for new and existing hardware • Schools do NOT need one-to-one computers • Technology standards have been established to maximize access to online testing (support for older machines and operating systems, small file size to reduce bandwidth requirements) • School with 600 students could test online with a single 30-computer lab • Pencil-and-paper option available for three-year transition period

16. Anticipating and Managing Costs • Two recent, independent studies find states now spend an average of $35 per student • Estimates provided for operational costs in 2015 and beyond include hand-scoring, server hosting, records management, quality control, etc. • Cost estimates (March 2013) • ~$22.50 per student for Summative only; • ~$27.30 per student for Summative, Interim, & Formative • Costs below current expenditures for two-thirds of Smarter Balanced states.

17. Sustaining Smarter Balanced • Working with UCLA/CRESST (National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, & Student Testing) to serve as host and partner for a sustainable Smarter Balanced • Key principles: • Retain state led governance of the Consortium (only minor changes to governance structure envisioned) • Shared state ownership of the item pool, digital library, and other IP • Smarter Balanced will perform services necessary to maintain quality and comparability of the assessment system; states and their vendors will manage test administration

18. Support for State Messaging & Implementation • McKinsey & Co worked intensively with California, Michigan, and Iowa to: • Create compelling messages about the value of Smarter Balanced • Develop a strategic roadmap to implementation focused on policy change, communication with key constituents, and major tactical elements (e.g. familiarizing teachers and principals with the assessment system, preparing for a “score cliff,” etc.) • State Toolkit for Communication and Implementation • Modules on messaging, cost analysis, technology readiness, and implementation planning • States forming task force to use toolkit to develop state-specific messages and implementation plans.

19. Smarter Balanced and Higher Education

20. Common Core Standards Implementation: Important Roles for Higher Education

21. Why is Higher Education Involved in Smarter Balanced? Common Core State Standards are anchored in expectations for college readiness. Higher education agreed when states applied for federal grant to participate in design of assessments with goal of recognizing 11th grade exam as evidence of college content-readiness. Opportunity to improve college readiness, reduce remediation, and improve lower division courses, and boost completion.

22. Common Core Standards and Assessments: Essential Components of the Completion Agenda Common Core standards and assessments: • Anchor K-12 experience in real-world expectations for success in college and careers. • Remove the guesswork for teachers and schools. • Allow schools, parents and students to track progress. • Identify students who need assistance while still in high school. • Reduce remediationand increase college success. Research has consistently shown that the single most powerful predictor of student success in college is the rigor of academic preparation.

23. A New Vision for Assessing Readiness

24. Smarter Balanced Goals for Higher Education • Colleges and universities recognize the Smarter Balanced Grade 11 assessment as a valid measure of college content-readiness as defined by the Common Core State Standards. • Colleges and universities agree on a common performance standard in English language arts/literacy and mathematics for college content-readiness. • Colleges and universities usethe Smarter Balanced assessment as evidence that students are ready for credit-bearing course work and can be exempted from developmental courses.

25. Higher Education’s Involvement Matters

26. Reaching the Goal: Expectations of Higher Education

27. College Content-Readiness Policy

28. What is Content Readiness?

29. Policy Framework for Grade 11 Assessment Results Note: Applies only to students who matriculate directly from high school to college.

30. Higher Education After Smarter Balanced: What’s Changed? Instead of multiple tests, with differing performance standards, all public schools in consortium states use the same test, content standards (Common Core) and performance standards. Grade 11 performance standards are pegged to college content-readiness, with standards for earlier grades mapped to Grade 11. In each state, K-12 and higher education set requirements for Grade 12 (may vary by institution type). Students, parents and teachers know where the academic “goal line” is and students can address deficiencies in high school. Working together, K-12 and higher education can develop appropriate grade 12 experiences for students at differing achievement levels. Colleges can target students for special programs based on Grade 8 scores (or earlier).

31. Higher Education After Smarter Balanced:What Hasn’t Changed? • High school exit: Some states may use the Smarter Balanced assessment—with a lower performance standard—for high school exit, but no state currently plans to use the college content-readiness standard for this purpose. • Admission : Colleges will continue to admit students according to their current standards and practices – the college content-readiness policy applies only to admitted students. • Placement: While honoring the exemption from developmental education for students who have earned it, colleges may use tests (and/or other means) to determine appropriate course placement. • Dev ed reform: Colleges can continue to place any student into credit-bearing courses. Grades-only placement policies are unaffected. • STEM: Colleges will need to assess additional evidence for students seeking to enter more advanced mathematics courses.

32. Exemplar Student Scenarios [To be determined by states]

33. Next Steps for Higher Education * Subject to state vote by K12 and higher education.

34. Learn More and Stay Engaged Visit SmarterBalanced.org for the latest news and developments Sign up for the e-newsletter Follow on Twitter: @SmarterBalanced