Hawaii State Department of Education
Please email your questions to sbac@notes.k12.hi.us
Smarter Balanced will provide parents, students, and teachers a clearer window on whether students are on track to graduate high school, ready for college and the workplace.
Parents and students will receive the results of these assessments in a readable and easy-to-understand format, most likely online. And parents can use this information to better communicate with teachers and school administrators about their child’s success.
Fig.1 Smarter Balanced Goals
For teachers, the Smarter Balanced computer adaptive testing will capture rich information on students’ strengths and weaknesses. Based on student responses, a computer program will automatically adjust the difficulty of questions throughout the assessment, accurately and efficiently identifying which skills students have mastered.
The assessments will allow teachers to track student progress through the year in meeting the Common Core standards. Along with a year-end summative assessment, teachers will have access to interim assessments, which can be administered as needed to determine whether students are on track to meet grade level standards.
The summative and interim assessments will include more engaging and innovative item types that go beyond multiple-choice questions, including constructed-response items, technology-enhanced items, and performance tasks that measure critical thinking and problem solving.
Results will be reported in a secure, online platform linked to resources that are designed to help teachers interpret assessment data and identify learning challenges. The assessments will also include accommodations for students with disabilities and will provide accurate measures of achievement and growth.
Additional resources:
- Parent factsheet (PDF)
- Teacher factsheet (PDF)
- Claims for the English Language Arts/Literacy Summative Assessment (PDF)
- Claims for the Mathematics Summative Assessment (PDF)
- Smarter Balanced Accessibility and Accommodations: Meeting the Needs of All Students (PDF)
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