Items of Interest - Smarter Balanced/NCLB Waiver
The WEA did a survey of schools that field tested the Smarter Balanced assessments . The highest score - on a 1-4 scale - was "alignment with Common Core." That came in at 2.65. The lowest was a 1.72 for "Overall Impact of SBAC Practice and Administration on the School Day." 50% (!) of member respondents said it 11-20+ hours for student to take the test. Also SB had an estimate of how long it would take students to complete tests in various subjects. Most respondents said it was about one hour more than estimated. (Learning curve?) But when asked what were challenges to students in taking the LA test, the biggest one was "keyboarding skills" followed by " test screen - split screen, navigation, scrolling." For math, the biggest student issues were "test tools - fractions, calculator, graphs, formulas), followed by "difficult, above grade level." The biggest concern for teachers was "Schedule disruptions, ...