EdSource reported yesterday that the interim assessments for Smarter Balanced were delayed for most students. These interim assessments were supposed to help teachers and students prepare for the new Common Core-aligned assessment rolling out this spring.
Laurie Udesky writes:
The interim assessments were supposed to give students a way to rehearse for the Smarter Balanced assessments and allow teachers to see how well students had mastered the math and English Language Arts curriculum tied to the Common Core.
That’s not how it has worked out, however. The interim assessments were supposed to be in the hands of educators last fall. But the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium didn’t complete them until the end of January, too late for most teachers or districts to use them extensively, according to interviews conducted by EdSource.
Luci Willits, deputy executive director of the Smarter Balanced consortium, told EdSource earlier this year that the release was delayed because teachers had not finished vetting test questions until late October. It was further delayed by test designers who had to field questions from states about scoring the essay portions of the assessments.
So can we expect even worse scores than what was already expected? What a mess.
Linda Middlekauff says
Shane – I’m sorry that I haven’t been closely following all of the info re: Smarter Balanced Assessments, but when I saw your post on the delay in getting the interim tests out, I followed the links on your page to find out more. However, I was concerned as most of these were government links.
Do you have an older post in which you’ve evaluated these Common Core linked assessments? I’d like to read some kind of critique if possible.
Thank you,
Linda Middlekauff