Iv states take encountered serious glitches and system meltdowns over the past several weeks as they have moved their own state assessments online. Simply the head of the state-led consortium creating the Common Core tests for California and ii dozen other states expressed confidence Wed that his organization is working closely with states and taking precautions to avoid significant problems.

Willhoft, at the State Department of Education on Wednesday, said he foresaw no major obstacles to rolling out the completed Common Core assessment in two years. Photo by John Fensterwald.

Willhoft, at the State Department of Teaching on Wednesday, said he foresaw no major obstacles to rolling out the completed Common Core assessment in two years. Photo by John Fensterwald.

The Smarter Counterbalanced Cess Consortium is one of ii state consortiums – the other is PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for Higher and Careers) – that is committed, under a federal contract, to introduce the much-predictable estimator-based assessment in the spring of 2015. Students in grades 3-8 and form 11 will be tested in English language arts and math.

"We are on schedule and ready to coil," Smarter Balanced Executive Director Joe Willhoft said in an interview after testimony earlier the State Lath of Education.

The consortium has posted minimum computing requirements and a bandwidth calculator that schools can use to mensurate capacity. It has too said that it would supply paper-and-pencil versions of the assessments for the commencement three years. Willhoft predicted that some schools in California may make up one's mind to practice both in the transition, trying computer-based tests in some grades, paper and pencil in others. (The newspaper version will toll $10 to $12 per student more than to administrate.)

"We are doing all we can to safeguard against those challenges" that other states have experienced, he said. "Nosotros have conviction in beingness able to implement finer, because of the care in force per unit area-testing items and software."

The consortium is wrapping up a three-month pilot test involving i one thousand thousand students in 5,000 schools – about x percent of the Smarter Balanced students – who are taking 5,000 test questions and doing more complex, multi-stride performance tasks. California's 3.5 one thousand thousand students in the grades that will be tested comprise one third of the consortium's students.

On May 29 – mark your calendars, parents – Smarter Balanced volition mail service a practice exam online that will requite teachers and the public a more extensive look at the types of questions that students will be tested on in two years. A year from now, in bound 2014, there will exist a larger field test for 2.5 million students – a quarter of the students in Smarter Counterbalanced states – of the full 45,000 items that contractors for the consortium are producing. Based on those results, evaluators will ascertain functioning levels (proficient, avant-garde, basic, below basic) for the questions and the overall scores for the actual test. The consortium hasn't decided if state scores will be released for the field exam. State Board member Sue Burr said Wed she would discourage it, in order to "lower the fright cistron" among schools and districts that are at present beginning to prepare for Common Core.

California is one of 21 governing states (in green) of Smarter Balanced, with four more states in a lesser, advisory role. The star indicates that the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, & Student Testing or CRESST at UCLA will administer the program, starting in 2014-15.

California is one of 21 governing states (in green) of Smarter Balanced, with iv more than states in a lesser, advisory office. The star indicates that the National Eye for Research on Evaluation, Standards, & Student Testing, or CRESST, at UCLA will administer the programme, starting in 2014-15. Source: Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. (Click to overstate)

Willhoft said that along with giving an initial run-though experience for schools, the results of the pilot exam this jump should answer key questions for moving forrad:

  • Practice the functioning tasks involving real-earth problem solving – the centre of the cess and what will distinguish it from current standard multiple-choice tests – actually work well?
  • Can computers be used to score open-ended questions? Willhoft said that he anticipates that the more complex tasks, involving writing and detailed explanations of work, will be mitt-scored, generally by teachers.
  • Can bias, like improper assumptions of prior cognition that lower-income students may not have, be avoided in writing items and tasks?
  • Can students use online tools? Several board members focused on this upshot during Willhoft's presentation. Aida Molina said that those schools rich in computer resources compared with those that lack them enhance an disinterestedness effect. Will test results reflect a lack of knowledge or difficulties that some students have in knowing how to work the figurer? she asked.

In the interview, Willhoft downplayed the computer skills gap. The amount of training needed to do the exam is minimal, basically how to apply a mouse and use arrow keys. "Few students take never had an feel (with a computer) of any kind," he said, including a computer game. The do tests volition remain online for two years, providing further exposure, he said.

The minimal computing requirement for a 600-pupil school will be a figurer lab with 30 computers, with students taking the assessment over a 10- to 12-calendar week period. (Some experts have questioned how students can be compared over such a long testing window.)

It's not sure that California will introduce the Smarter Balanced assessments for accountability purposes in spring 2015. Superintendent of Public Educational activity Tom Torlakson supports information technology, equally does State Lath President Michael Kirst. Last week, the Assembly Didactics Commission passed AB 484, which Torlakson authored, establishing the 2014-fifteen year for introducing the assessment while suspending some state standardized tests in 2013-14 to gratis districts to prepare for Common Cadre. At the State Lath meeting on Wed, Sherry Griffith, interim assistant executive managing director for the Clan of California School Administrators, as well chosen for moving ahead now with Smarter Balanced.

But Senate Teaching Committee Chair Carol Liu, D-Pasadena, has introduced SB 247, which would extend the current California Standards Tests and push button back Smarter Balanced tests for two years, out of recognition that many greenbacks-strapped districts have simply begun to train teachers in the new standards and oasis't notwithstanding bought materials.

Last week, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was the latest leader to phone call for a moratorium on using results of Common Core assessments for teacher evaluations and judging schools. One selection, which would require federal approval, would set 2014-15 every bit a base year for Common Core assessments, without penalizing schools and districts for the scores.

2 other issues raised during Willhoft'south presentation are worth noting:

  • Willhoft said that Smarter Balanced would create an Algebra I examination that could exist given to 8th graders. That responds to one concern advocates of algebra in middle school had: the lack of an assessment to go with a new Common Core algebra course. Nonetheless, Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction Deb Sigman said she doubted the assessment would be prepare past 2014-15.
  • The Smarter Balanced tests are expected to exist at least twice equally expensive as the multiple-choice California Standards Tests, considering about a quarter of the test – the more circuitous performance tasks – must be scored by hand. CSTs cost about $13 per student; Smarter Counterbalanced tests volition cost effectually $26 per pupil, Sigman projected. This includes a large-country discount, applying to states with more than than ane million students, for the development of the items, Willhoft said.

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