Index of archived SBAC e-mail updates
SBAC CDE News
- July Issue of Smarter Available
- Formative Assessment Plan Approved
- Recording of Webinar by Complete College America
The SBAC CDE weekly update is an email sent each week to inform California educators and parents of new developments and upcoming events. Please feel free to share information in the update with those who are interested in the SBAC CDE’s work.
- July Issue of Smarter News
Available— the SBAC’s Monthly eNewsletter is now available. To stay up-to-date on the development of the Smarter Balanced assessment system and activities in member states sign up to stay connected
. - Formative Assessment Plan Approved— Governing SBAC States have approved the SBAC Formative Master Work Plan
, which details the approach to developing formative assessment practices and professional development materials for educators. Formative, interim, and summative assessments comprise the three central components of the SBAC vision for a balanced assessment system. The formative component is designed to provide teachers with resources and tools to improve their thoughtful use of assessment activities to enhance day-to-day classroom instruction.
The Formative Master Work Plan outlines key projects that will help the Consortium achieve this vision. At the heart of the work plan is a digital library, which will house resources created by SBAC and those submitted by states and educators. The digital library will allow teachers to rate and comment on materials so that knowledge from the classroom can be shared across the Consortium. Additional strategies for supporting teachers as they transition to the new assessments include:
- Professional Learning: SBAC will develop online professional learning materials and resources related to the Common Core State Standards and the new assessment system.
- Exemplar Instructional Modules: SBAC will develop 52 modules across grades in English language arts/literacy and mathematics that will demonstrate how to meet the needs of all learners in diverse settings. These instructional modules will include lesson plans, templates, curriculum resources, teacher analysis, descriptive feedback strategies, and follow-up planning.
- Engaging Member States and Educators: SBAC will convene State Leadership Teams to provide input on the formative resources and tools. These teams will also help recruit State Networks of Educators—approximately 100 educators from each state who will participate in the development of the digital library and serve as ambassadors in their schools and districts.
- Recording of Webinar by Complete College America Available—Stan Jones, president of Complete College America (CCA), discussed CCA’s new report on remediation and the role of the Common Core and SBAC in advancing the completion agenda. CCA’s recent report on remediation can be accessed at the
Complete College Web site
.
CDE Opportunity to Provide Feedback
- Reauthorization of the California Pupil Assessment System—
As part of the process in developing recommendations to the Legislature for the reauthorization of the California pupil assessment system, State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SSPI) Tom Torlakson, is seeking your help. All Californians have a unique opportunity to provide thoughts on and suggestions for what they think should be included in this system. Several opportunities exist for you to provide feedback. You may:- Complete a brief survey:
- You may access the English version of the survey online.
- You may access the Spanish version of the survey online.
- You may access the English version of the survey
- Send comments by e-mail to reauthorization@cde.ca.gov.
- Attend the Statewide Assessment Reauthorization Work Group meetings, which are open to the public.
- Complete a brief survey:
- To access the schedule of Work Group meetings and learn more about the statewide assessment reauthorization process, please visit the AB 250 Statewide Pupil Assessment Web page.
SBAC CDE Resources
- Join the SBAC CDE electronic mailing list by sending a blank e-mail to subscribe-sbac@mlist.cde.ca.gov.
- To receive Common Core State Standards CDE Updates via e-mail notification, subscribe to the from CDE listserv by sending a blank message to join-commoncore@mlist.cde.ca.gov.
- SBAC CDE Web site—The Smarter Balanced CDE Web site includes access to archived SBAC CDE Updates, resources, and presentations.
- SBAC External Web site—The Smarter Balanced external Web site showcases the SBAC work and provides frequent updates on activities, milestones, and events.
- Smarter News, the SBAC's monthly eNewsletter —Smarter Balanced provides monthly updates on the development of the Smarter Balanced assessment system and activities in member states.
- SBAC is on Twitter—Follow @SmarterBalanced to get resources and links to the latest SBAC news.
- Assembly Bill (AB) 250—The AB 250 Statewide Pupil Assessment Web page provides the latest information about the reauthorization of California's assessment system.
SBAC Question/Answer of the Week
Q: What is the appropriate use of the items and tasks included in the item specifications?
A: The item specifications and review documents are technical documents that contain a number of examples intended to guide writers and reviewers in the development of high-quality assessment items and performance tasks. They can be helpful to educators for understanding the various item types, as well as the appropriate level of difficulty at different grade ranges described by the SBAC Content Specifications and the Common Core State Standards. So, they are essentially illustrations of the kinds of items and tasks that the Consortium would like item developers to produce. However, they do not necessarily stand on their own as “exemplary” SBAC items and tasks. For that reason, items and tasks found in the item specifications are not intended to be given to students as practice questions, nor used by teachers as representing the full range of what the Smarter Balanced assessments will look like.
SBAC is working with educators from Governing States this summer and fall to develop items and performance tasks for the Pilot Test in early 2013. The development of these items and tasks is being informed by the cognitive labs, and they will be rigorously reviewed against the guidelines established in the item specifications. An early outcome of our item development will be sets of “Item and Task Samplers” for grades 3–5, 6–8, and high school. The posting of these samplers to the SBAC website, slated for early September, will be announced in the Weekly Update.
