presentation by Tony Alpert

1. The Smarter Balanced System for Improving Teaching
and Learning
Tony Alpert
Chief Operating Officer, Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
Tony Alpert
Chief Operating Officer, Smarter Balanced
Northwest Council for Computer Education

2. Smarter Balanced Minimum Technology
Requirements
• Made a conscious decision to support the
oldest operating systems that have the
least amount of memory possible that still
supported valid measures of the CCSS
• Limiting the amount of bandwidth required
by controlling file size during item writing
• Limiting the total cost of ownership by
releasing the applications into open
source and restricting the use of
proprietary components

3. Smarter Balanced Technology Planning
• The Smarter Balanced Technology Framework
can be found at:
http://www.smarterbalanced.org/wordpress/wp-
content/uploads/2013/01/Technology-Strategy-
Framework_1-11-13.pdf
• Engaging member states in a conversation about
establishing reasonable timeframes for advanced
notice regarding changes to these requirements
• Upcoming changes, such as future use of
“Natural User Interfaces” for assessing
mathematical reasoning, will be provided well in
advance

4. Technology Readiness
• Data down to school-level are accessible
to member states
• The interpretations of the data depend on
school participation rate. This varies by
state
• Member states are receiving periodic
summaries of the data
• As of mid-January, the online reports for
districts compared schools‟ existing
technology to the minimum requirements.

5. Smarter Balanced Sample Items
http://sampleitems.smarterbalanced.org/item
preview/sbac/
Slide 5

6. Mathematics
What is Changing?
6

7. The CCSS Require Three Shifts in Mathematics
• Focus strongly where the
standards focus
• Coherence: Think across
grades and link to major
topics within grades
• Rigor: In major
topics, pursue conceptual
understanding, procedural
skill and fluency, and
application with equal
intensity
Slide 7

8. Claims for the Mathematics Summative Assessment
“Students can demonstrate progress toward college and career
Overall Claim for Grades 3-8 readiness in mathematics.”
“Students can demonstrate college and career readiness in
Overall Claim for Grade 11 mathematics.”
Claim #1 - Concepts & “Students can explain and apply mathematical concepts and
interpret and carry out mathematical procedures with precision and
Procedures fluency.”
“Students can solve a range of complex well-posed problems in pure
Claim #2 - Problem Solving and applied mathematics, making productive use of knowledge and
problem solving strategies.”
Claim #3 - Communicating “Students can clearly and precisely construct viable arguments to
Reasoning support their own reasoning and to critique the reasoning of others.”
Claim #4 - Modeling and Data “Students can analyze complex, real-world scenarios and can
construct and use mathematical models to interpret and solve
Analysis problems.”

9. Coherence: Some Standards from Early
Grades are Critical Through Grade 12
1.OA.7 Understand the meaning of the
equal sign, and determine if equations
involving addition and subtraction are true
or false. For example, which of the
following equations are true and which
are false? 6 = 6, 7 = 8 – 1, 5 + 2 = 2 +
5, 4 + 1 = 5 + 2.
Slide 9

10. What it Looks Like in Grade 3
True or False:
3 x 8 = 20 + 4 T F
50 ÷ 10 = 5 x 1 T F
9 x 9 = 8 x 10 T F
Slide 10

11. What it Looks Like in Grade 8
Tell how many solutions:
3x + 17 = 3x + 12
Slide 11

12. What it Looks Like in High School
X4 – 5x3 + x2 + 2x + 1 =
Drag the correct expression to make a true
equation.
x3 + (x + 1)2 + X4 – 6x3
X4 – 3x3 + 2x3 + x2 + 2x + 1
X4 – 5x3 + x + x + 2x + 1
…
Slide 12

13. How Can Assessments Deliver on the
Promise of Focus, Coherence and Rigor?
• FOCUS: Assessments focus where the standards
focus.
Major content represents the majority of points and problems on
assessments.
• COHERENCE: Assessments honor the coherence in
the standards.
Balance of tasks assessing individual standards and related standards
within the context of the grade and, as relevant, the progressions.
• RIGOR: Assessments reflect the rigor of the
standards.
Balance of tasks assessing conceptual understanding, procedural skill and
fluency, and application of mathematics to solve problems.
Slide 13

14. Key Talking Points for Item 43083: The
Contest
• This is a “line item” that shows how the content of grade
3 progresses up to grade 4, from multiplication and
division within 100 to understanding the factors of a
number and interpreting the remainder in a division
problem
Part C: How many four-eyed space
creatures are needed to make a group
with 24 total eyes? (grade 3)
Part D: Somebody told the five-eyed
space creatures that they could not
join the contest. Explain why five-eyed
space creatures cannot make a group
with 24 total eyes.
Slide 14

15. Key Talking Points for Item 43328:
Fractions 2a
• This item is one of a set of four in the domain “Fractions” across
grades 3-5
• Although part of the focus of this item is on operations with
fractions (either multiplication of a mixed number by whole number
or addition with mixed numbers), the response format asks
students to “understand” that the resulting number is between two
whole numbers, which is a more global goal of the standards in this
domain
• Although the item has text with it, the set-up allows for students to
easily understand what it is asking them to do, a nice feature for
assessing mathematics of struggling readers and English Learners
Slide 15

16. Key Talking Points for Item 42933:
Calculator
• This item maps the 21st
century onto the standards,
acknowledging that students
use apps, applets, and other
tools – and determining
whether these tools are
functioning (or calculating) as
intended is a critical skill
• This item type will be very
useful in assessing students
ability to create explicit
formulas based on input and
resulting output (while giving
the student some control over
the input)
Slide 16

17. Key Talking Points for Item 42968: Water
Tank
• This item allows some
student choice in how
much water is moved
from Tank A to Tank B to
derive the radius of Tank
B.
• The set-up allows
students to deduce what
is being asked even if
they struggle to read the
item text
• The item draws on the
content of earlier grades,
but calling for more
sophisticated use of that Slide 17

18. English/Language Arts
What is Changing?
18

19. The CCSS Require Three Shifts in
English/Language Arts
• Building knowledge
through content-rich
nonfiction
• Reading, writing and
speaking grounded in
evidence from text
• Regular practice with
complex text and its
academic language
19

20. Claims for the English Language Arts/ Literacy
Summative Assessment
“Students can demonstrate progress toward college and career
Overall Claim for Grades 3-8 readiness in English Language Arts and literacy.”
“Students can demonstrate college and career readiness in English
Overall Claim for Grade 11 Language Arts and Literacy.”
“Students can read closely and analytically to comprehend a range of
Claim #1 - Reading increasingly complex literary and informational texts”
“Students can produce effective and well-grounded writing for a
Claim #2 - Writing range of purposes and audiences.”
“Students can employ effective speaking and listening skills for a
Claim #3 – Speaking/Listening range of purposes and audiences”
“Students can engage in research/inquiry to investigate topics, and to
Claim #4 - Research analyze, integrate, and present information

21. Key Talking Points for Item 43600: Grandma
Ruth
• Requires students to use text as a source evidence for their opinions
• Passage is relatively rich text comprised of over 700 words
What does Naomi learn about
Grandma Ruth? Use details
from the text to support your
answer.
Type your answer in the space
provided.
Slide 21

22. Key Talking Points for Item 43000: Grandma
Ruth
• Use technology for students to identify content that serves as evidence
Read the sentences from the passage. Then
answer the question.
“My grandma pulled the ball out, unwrapped
it, and held it out for us to see. The ball was
scarred almost beyond recognition. It had dog
bite marks, dirt scuffs, and fraying seams. Right
in the middle was a big signature in black ink
that I had somehow overlooked. It was
smudged now and faded, but it still clearly said
„Babe Ruth.‟ I began to shake inside.”
Click on two phrases from the paragraph that
help you understand the meaning of scarred.
Slide 22

23. Key Talking Points for Item 43599: Edit
• Narrative
Requires students to demonstrate an understanding of how the text
can be improved
• Standardizes the content in a manner more conducive to efficient
scoring
• Authentic representation of the skills students need to be successful
Slide 23

24. Find Out More
Smarter Balanced
can be found
online at:
SmarterBalanced.org
Slide 24