By Kristin
The first time I tried taking a practice Smarter Balanced assessment I almost lost my mind. I was overwhelmed by the user interface, which required me to scroll up and down through a long skinny column of text. I was defeated by my inability to mark up the text, see the questions and text at the same time, and the test's awkward expansion tab which allowed me to widen the text's column but then prevented me from seeing the questions. With a big knot of anxiety in my stomach, a headache, and a sense of failure I shut it down without answering even the first question.
When this video went viral, I cheered the student's every word. Yes, I thought, this has all gotten out of hand! But then I remembered how much I really liked both the Common Core and its intent – that every student in the country be held to the same high standards. I like the standards, and I like how well they're aligned from K-12, so I decided to try the SB assessment again and guess what? It's a good test.
Its content is better than what my students currently take, Washington State's MSP or Measurement of Student Progress. On the MSP item options are limited – they are all multiple choice except for a few short answer questions. On the SB assessment there are multiple choice and short answer, but there are also interactive items such as a passage with only one sentence that correctly used commas. I clicked on the correct sentence to choose my answer. Another item was a passage from the text, and I was asked to click every sentence that supported a particular conclusion. It was difficult, but also more engaging. Multiple choice answers are so limiting – in order to select more than one option you need an "e) all of the above." Kids can outsmart the test without really demonstrating the skills or knowledge.
This time I did not use the text-expander option, which saved me from going crazy. I also kept a pen and paper next to me for taking notes. These two strategies made a computer test much more manageable for me as did my laptop's touchscreen, which allowed me to directly manipulate the text column.
Another thing I really liked about the SB is that there are listening items. A "presentation" plays – an audio passage with no available text – and the sudent answers multiple choice questions and recalls specific details to use in short answer responses. You can play the audio presentation more than once, and I took notes on my paper. I really liked the "listening" sections in the old WASL, and was disappointed when they were dropped. Students tend to be particularly good at interacting with auditory information, and these items will allow them to demonstrate mastery of information in an alternative way.
The Tennessee student who railed against Common Core and its assessments argued that they were simply part of a private company's profit-driven agenda, but education has always been a profit-rich area for private companies and people too, like Diane Ravitch, who writes best sellers and gets paid to speak. Things like Common Core are the Eastasia to Ravitch's Oceania. They're a necessary enemy, and one whose existence turns a tidy profit. If you've ever seen the marketing material and textbook samples sent to schools, witnessed the rollout of new computers, or done your August back-to-school shopping at Office Depot, you know it's not a new thing for money to be spent on educational materials.
The Smarter Balanced Assessment is, in my opinion, better than the MSP. To practice it yourself, click here.
Here’s a look at the SBAC sample mathematics tests:
http://ccssimath.blogspot.com/2013/06/our-sbac-practice-tests-run-through.html
I’ll tell you this: I am not going to sweat too hard trying to get my students to ace the SPA. There’s absolutely no profit in that. Not only are the scores going unreported, but I want to show how normal, un-prepped kids respond to the prompts.
You’re right, Todd. This needs to be field tested and vetted. Hopefully, when schools like Tom’s pilot the test, they will get a better feel for how it works when it goes live.
I have no confidence at all that the MSP, which is scored by college graduates, is scored objectively or accurately. No confidence at all. Given the number of stories told by people who worked in scoring centers, how they adjusted the scores up or down to meet demand, or rushed through scoring to get through their quota, I am pretty sure the results of those tests aren’t that reliable.
And I never said the SBA was scored more accurately than the MSP, I just said it had better test questions, and I liked the interactive items.
Normally, we agree when it comes to education policy. However I’m still not convinced about SBAC tests. Not only did they recently add more multiple choice items to reduce cost, we still don’t know how the artificial intelligence will score student responses. At this point Smarter Balanced has only been able to deliver a Beta version. The artificial intelligence and adaptive software should probably get field tested before declaring SBAC superior to the MSP.
My district will move forward with the MSP. On top of that, it will move forward, foolishly, with assigning me a student growth rating based on how much my students’ scores improve on the MSP, even though my building is teaching to the new CC standards.
My colleagues and I are pretty resigned to getting low ratings, which is a shame considering the district resources that are going into measuring us as teachers on an already-obsolete assessment. SPS decision makers, are any of you listening?
Luckily, one of the pleasant surprises for me was how much overlap there is between the SBA and the MSP content. There is some change in language – “Central Idea” (SBA) instead of “Main Idea,” (MSP), but I think students can flex with that. The idea of supporting a “conclusion” exists in both, as does “figurative language.” I don’t think anyone teaching older curriculum will have students totally unprepared for the SBA, nor do I think my students will crash on the MSP if I’m teaching to Common Core.
Kristin, thanks for the link to the practice SBA site. This will be good food for conversation with my department/PLC this year.
Tom, that does sound cool. Nice move by the school board!
Here’s why I love my school board: They gave each school the option to either use the MSP this year, as in years past, or pilot the SBA this year without getting any scores back. In other words, we get the best of both worlds: no high stakes accountability this year and an opportunity to preview the SBA so that we can better prepare our students for next year.
As you might expect, my school jumped on the SBA.
Yes, the transition to new assessments is going to take some planning and some time. If current tests on current standards are very high stakes (for students as a graduation requirement, or if they were to be part of teacher evaluation), then it makes the transition to new tests and standards very difficult and abrupt as teachers would be under a lot of pressure to keep focusing on the current standards until the very last moment.
I also like the SBA. A lot more than the MSP. I tend to work in a linear fashion, and viewing material on-line is easier for me than spreading a bunch of binders, notebooks and papers out on a table.
When my grade level team worked through a practice item, they complained about the format while I praised it. But that will be an issue: not everyone works well with on-line materials. At least not until they get used to it.
Which brings me to my biggest issue with the SBA. At this point, our curriculum and materials are aligned to the MSP. My students will not be ready to take the SBA this year, and I am not ready to get them ready. Fortunately we’re only piloting it this time around and the scores won’t be reported. Thank God.
Hopefully, my district will have the time and talent to get us to the point where we can can prepare our students adequately.