Darling-Hammond, L., Haertel, E., & Pellegrino, J. (2015) Making good use of new assessments: Interpreting and using scores from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Working paper). Olympia, WA: Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. Available for members at this link.
This article, commissioned by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), gives an explanation of how the assessment suite was designed, what its values and limitations are, and how educators and students can use it most effectively. The article begins by describing the process and philosophy behind the creation of the SBAC assessments, including evidence-based design; the development of content specifications; item and task development; and the testing, reviewing, and revising of items. The authors explain how policymakers, administrators, parents, and teachers should interpret and use test results, covering both the strengths of the assessment and the weaknesses and potential pitfalls. Additionally, the authors lay out the two kinds of score reporting—scale scores and achievement level scores—and their different meanings and uses. The article closes with guidelines on using the SBAC assessments to drive instructional improvement.
California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress. (n.d.). Student score report. Unpublished draft of student score report template for 2015 Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium results. Available for members at this link.
This template for the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress shows how students and their families will see individual results from this spring’s SBAC assessments.
California Department of Education. (n.d.). Smarter Balanced system [PowerPoint presentation]. Unpublished presentation slides by Keric Ashley, California Department of Education. Available for members at this link.
These presentation slides outline California’s theory of action in using formative, interim, and summative assessments as part of the SBAC system. They also include short descriptions of the three kinds of reports through which the state will report assessment results: individual student results, district reports, and DataQuest public reports.