SMARTER BALANCED

ASSESSMENTS/TESTING

OSPI Releases 2016 Smarter Balanced Test Results

Highlights from second year of Smarter balanced testing, completed in Spring 2016:

In grades 3-8, scores increased in every grade level in both English Language Arts (ELA) and math, from 2.8 percentage points in eighth grade ELA to 1.1 percentage points in fifth grade math.
For the Class of 2017, three out of four students (75.5 percent) are college and career ready in ELA as they enter their senior year, compared to one out of four students (26.1 percent) of the Class of 2016 as they entered their senior year
Students in the Class of 2018 – 10th graders in Spring 2016 – also performed well on the Smarter Balanced ELA test. A total of 70.8 percent who tested met the college- and career-ready standard in ELA and 55.0 percent met the same standard in math.
Schools tested 97-98 percent of their students in grades 3-8, with no more than 3 percent of students in any single grade refusing to take the tests.
Including students who passed the test as 10th graders in 2015, 11th grade participation in the ELA test was 88.1 percent and 61.4 percent in the math test. By comparison, the participation rates in 2015 were 53.3 percent for ELA and 49.6 percent for math.

Read more from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction here.

Click here for the Spanish version of this video: En Espanol

Resources/Handouts

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Student Voices

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What Tests Do Washington Students Take?

In spring 2016:

Students in grades 3-8 will take the Smarter Balanced tests in English language arts and math.
Students in grades 5 and 8 will also take the science Measurement of Student Progress (MSP).
Students in grade 11 will take the Smarter Balanced tests in English Language arts and math.
Students in grade 10 will take the Smarter Balanced English language arts test to fulfill their English assessment graduation requirement. Tenth graders will also take a math and a biology end-of-course test unless they have already fulfilled the math and/or biology assessment graduation requirement in a previous grade. Note: Students are required to pass one state math exam and biology exam to be eligible to graduate.

SMARTER BALANCED ASSESSMENTS

Top Three Reasons to Take Smarter Balanced Assessments

Know Now if You Are Ready for College or Work
If you score a Level 3 or 4 on the high school Smarter Balanced assessment, you’re on track to be ready for college or career, and can qualify for credit-bearing courses in college and avoid the cost and time of remedial, or high-school level, courses.

Know if you Need Extra Help and
Can Take an Advanced Class
The Smarter Balanced assessment provides a key measure of how you’re doing on your way to college or a career. It also lets teachers and families know how to support you to reach your goals.

Taking the Tests Helps Students,
Teachers and Schools
Smarter Balanced provides educators, schools and families better information on how you and your school stack up against others in the state, nation and world, how you are improving and where you might need extra help.