Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment Final Reports
Author: Rick Phelan
Published: 07.17.15
State summative assessments are an important part of California’s plan for high-quality teaching and learning. Similar to class assignments and report cards, these assessments are one gauge of student progress, providing information to schools, teachers, and parents about how students performed against California’s challenging new goals for learning.
During the last part of summer, parents of students who were in grades 3–8 and 11 during the 2014-15 school year, will be mailed individual student score reports for the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP). These reports will include detailed information about their child’s performance on new computer based Smarter Balanced Assessments in English language arts/literacy (ELA) and Mathematics, which replaced the former paper-based exams.
Planning for the 2015-16 school year, educators are wise to include these results among other metrics. This blog post outlines areas of work that districts should consider in reaching out to administrative staff, teachers, and parents. Readers are encouraged to extract elements for specific audiences.
FINAL REPORT ELEMENTS
The final 2015 Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBAC) report will provide three different information elements for ELA and math. The first report element summarizes a student’s responses into one of four performance levels:
- Standard Exceeded
- Standard Met
- Standard Nearly Met
- Standard Not Met
The second report element offers a scaled score for ELA and math. SBAC scaled scores allow educators and parents to understand student performance levels in finer detail. The number a student receives shows their current level of achievement on a continuous vertical scale (from approximately 2000 to 3000) that increases across grade levels. Given a grade and subject performance band, one can see how close a student was to the next performance level. Test designers say that future reports will graph scaled scores to illustrate students’ growth over time. A helpful table offering specific scale score ranges by content area and grade can be found on the Smarter Balanced Scale Score Ranges Web page at the California Department of Education.
The third report element will highlight students' strengths in key areas for both ELA and Mathematics. ELA results will include information about the students' performance in the areas of reading, writing, listening, and research. Reports of mathematics results will include information about student's performance in problem solving, using concepts and procedures, and in communicating mathematical reasoning. The student's performance in these key areas for each subject will be reported using the following three indicators:
- Above Standard
- Near Standard
- Below Standard
INFORMATION FOR ADMINISTRATORS
District leaders should provide their staff information on district and school results. Final 2015 results will be available to LEA assessment coordinators from the CAASPP Test Operations Management System at the end of August/early September. Districts receive complete final results from the 2015 CAASPP assessments in one format: a ".dat" format with records for every student who took a CAASP exam. These results can be loaded into a student information system (eg. Aeries, SchoolWise), a data management system (eg. Illuminate, DataDirector) or setup in an Excel spreadsheet (SCOE offers this service to Sonoma County districts and charter schools- contact Rick Phelan for details at rphelan@scoe.org). 2015 CAASPP data should be disaggregated to analyze results for student subgroups including: English learners, students with disabilities, socioeconomically disadvantaged students, ethnic subgroups, foster children and performance at specific grade levels. Strengths and challenges should be identified to inform instruction for the 2015-16 school year.
Resources to help school leaders guide staff work:
Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium Blueprints for ELA and Math: The test blueprints describe the content of the ELA and mathematics Summative Assessments in grades 3‒8 and grade 11, and how that content is assessed to reflect the depth and breadth of the performance expectations for the Common Core State Standards. These test blueprints provide information about the number of items, score points, and depth of knowledge for items associated with each assessment target.
Smarter Balanced Consortium Claims for ELA and Math: SBAC Claims provide "big picture" learning targets for both Common Core teaching, learning and assessment. Note that individual student result scores offer perspective on each claim area using a three point scale: above standard, near standard, below standard.
Interpretation and Use of Scores and Achievement Levels: This SBAC document provides information and support in the interpretation of scaled scores and achievement levels.
Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium Achievement Level Descriptors (ALDs) for ELA and Math
SBAC Claims, Targets & Standards
The Riverside County Office of Education created these guides for grades 3-8 and high school, and they are very useful to teachers and administrators. The English language arts and mathematics guides for each grade level provide information on claims, targets, and standards; they also share information on the types of questions and depth of knowledge that will be assessed by the SBAC tests.
In addition to these areas, SCOE is offering the following professional development activities for administrators:
INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS
2015 is the first year when all California public schools receive information from the California Assessment of Student Progress and Performance system with district, school, and student scores. The Smarter Balanced Test is fundamentally different from past assessments. Different questions types and higher expectations are intended to prepare students for college and career readiness. This year’s scores establish a new baseline for district/school work.
Questions to ask when examining results for students from the prior school year:
- How do results match areas where I provided instruction?
- Looking at students who met or exceeded standards, what factor(s) contributed to their success?
- Looking at students who were below standard, what instructional strategies or supplemental resources would I change?
- How could instructional time be adjusted to increase the number of students who are near standard or above standard?
Questions to ask when examining results for students who are new to you this year:
- What are the strengths and needs in my class(es) based on SBAC claims?
- How do these strengths and needs correspond with local assessments and reports?
- If there are patterns of need, what changes can I make to the year’s instructional plan to increase the number of students who are successful?
- How can I use formative assessment and SBAC Interim Assessments to gauge learning with students this year?
- What assistive technology can be employed to support student learning success?
INFORMATION FOR PARENTS
The Smarter Balanced assessments are new computer based tests that measure student knowledge of California’s English language arts/literacy (ELA) and Mathematics standards. These new assessments replace the former paper-based, multiple-choice assessments for students in grades three through eight and grade eleven. The first statewide administration of these assessments took place in spring 2015.
These new assessments were needed because California has adopted more rigorous academic standards that emphasize not only subject knowledge, but also the critical thinking, analytical writing, and problem-solving skills students need to be successful in college and career. These standards set a higher bar for California students to help ensure they are prepared to succeed in the future. Because what students need to know and be able to do has changed, tests must change as well. This year’s Smarter Balanced results establish a new baseline for the progress students are expected to make in their K-12 school work.
Parents will receive a mailed report about their child’s scores near the near the end of summer. The scores represent an opportunity to focus on the needs of students and support teachers and schools in their work to achieve college and career readiness. A video from the California Department of Education has been posted to help parents get the most from their child’s testing information. Titled, "Understanding Your Child’s Score Report," this video describes and explains the new 2015 California Assessment of Student Progress and Performance (CAASPP) Report. The video is available in both English and Spanish: English Version Spanish Version
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
My child has always been advanced, but is now scoring below standard. What does this mean?
It is a new set of standards and we are asking students to do more complex thinking. As we are looking at the results for the first time we are also learning how we must adjust our instruction and focus professional development.
My son’s friend said that his test had different questions, how could that be if they are taking the same test at the same grade level?
The test is computer adaptive meaning that students are given different questions based upon how they perform on earlier items. As a result two students will have very different exams that test the same grade level standards.
My student didn’t get a score for one of the claims. What does this mean?
For this particular area or claim your student did to complete all of the items on the exam to test that area.
My 3rd grader received a 2610 for his ELA exam. Does this mean that he exceeds grade level standard in 4th and 5th grade too?
Your child was only assessed on 3rd grade standards and the results are only reflective of performance for this grade level.
On the CST my EL student performed better in math than ELA, but actually has a lower score in math this year. Why is that?
The assessment asks students to demonstrate their understanding in different ways including explaining their solutions or rationales in writing.
My child scored below standard in some of the math areas/claims. What can I do to support them for next year?
Talk to your child’s teacher about the instruction occurring in the classroom and how you can best support them at home.
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