1. Smarter Balanced
Grass Valley Elementary
January 23, 2015

2. Guiding Questions
What is the difference between Common Core and Smarter Balanced?
What does Smarter Balanced “bring to the table?”
What does Smarter Balanced mean for my child?
What will scores look like? How will scores be different than previous years?
What if my child does not meet proficiency on the Smarter Balanced test?
…and where can I learn more?

3. “And will you succeed. Yes. You will, indeed
“And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.) KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS! So... be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea, you're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So...get on your way!”  ― Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You'll Go!

4. Every student college and career ready!

5. What is common core?
Clear and consistent learning goals to help prepare students for college, career, and life
Clear identification of what students are expected to learn at each grade level, so that every parent and teacher can understand and support their learning.
For grades K-8, grade-by-grade standards exist in English language arts/literacy and mathematics. For grades 9-12, the standards are grouped into grade bands of 9-10 grade standards and grade standards.
The standards are:
Based on rigorous content and the application of knowledge through higher-order thinking skills
Built upon the strengths and lessons of current state standards
According to the best available evidence, the mastery of each standard is essential for success in college, career, and life in today’s global economy.
While the standards set grade-specific goals, they do not define how the standards should be taught or which materials should be used to support students.

6. What is smarter balanced?
Smarter Balanced is an Assessment System designed to inform and measure learning toward Common Core standards

7. Smarter Balanced Assessment SYSTEM
Formative Assessment is a deliberate process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides actionable feedback that is used to adjust ongoing teaching and learning strategies to improve students’ attainment of curricular learning targets/goals.
WEC_October 2014

8. What Does smarter balanced bring to the table?
Smarter Balanced brings tools and assessments that can help us…
Guide and adapt instruction in the classroom
See how students’ needs are being met over time
Learn if programs are effective
Provide data to inform professional development and selection of materials
Reflect on and shape district performance over time
Access data, analyze data, make decisions

9. What does smarter balanced mean for my child?
The summative assessment will be administered in the spring
Students in grades 3, 4, and 5 will be assessed in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics
Students in grade 5 will also take the Science MSP (Measures of Student Progress)
Smarter Balanced assessments will replace existing tests in English and math.

10. What does smarter balanced mean for my child?
Three parts:
CAT – Computer Adaptive Test (online)
Classroom Activity (30 minute activity that prepares students for the Performance Task)
Performance Task (online)
Continuous vertical scale, K-12
2,000 – 3000 points
Administered online, they offer significant improvements over tests of the past, including: writing at every grade; expanded accessibility features to meet the needs of all students; and performance tasks that ask students to demonstrate an array of research, writing, and problem solving skills.
Analogy for vertical scale – growth chart

11. What does smarter balanced mean for my child?

12. Let’s take a look!
Swimmers Grade: 5

13. Let’s take a look!
Anna and her family go to the zoo. The zoo ticket prices, menu, and gift store prices are shown in the tables.
A Trip to the Zoo Grade: 4

14. What does smarter balanced mean for my child?
Six public baccalaureate institutions and the community and technical college system have agreed to use 11th grade Smarter Balanced Assessment scores of 3 or 4 to enroll college freshmen in entry-level college math and English courses without further placement testing.
Central Washington University
Eastern Washington University
The Evergreen State College
University of Washington
Washington State University
Western Washington University
Washington Community and Technical College System
Transition agreements
ELA and Math College Placement
The agreement applies to the high school graduating classes of 2016 through 2018 and will then be renewed or modified, based on the outcomes for students.

15. How will scores be different than previous years?
2015 results will set a new baseline of student performance in Washington
Some people are predicting that the spring 2015 test results will see Washington students falling off a “performance cliff”, with scores dropping.
But the new tests are not comparable so we should not compare scores from one to the other.
We have a new baseline!
Key Points:
One of the things you may have heard or read about is the “performance cliff,” a phrase used to describe what is predicted to be a “falling” of test scores.
In fact, the test scores will NOT be falling, as the results are not comparable.
Smarter Balanced is a new assessment with a higher benchmark for proficiency, based on students demonstrating that they are college and career ready.
It is also important to remember that Common Core is relatively new. We have only been learning about it and beginning to put practices in place for a year or two. It is very different to imagine the performance of today’s kindergartners, who will have 13 years of instruction aligned with Common Core before graduating, as compared with this year’s eleventh graders, who will not have benefitted from an entire K-12 experience based on Common Core. In every way, this is a multiple year journey. Our results will look very different this year than in three or more years down the line.
The first graduation cohort for whom meeting the college and career ready benchmark on the high school Smarter Balanced Assessment is the class of 2019 – this year’s eighth graders.

16. How will scores be different than previous years?
Summative Assessment
How will scores be different than previous years?
Think of the standards and the assessment as a new target with new results….
Two people who successfully climb Mt Rainer (at 14,000 ft), will find Mt McKinley (at 20,000 ft) more challenging.
Some will be able to meet the challenge, some will be close and some who previously were able to summit Rainier will not be able to summit McKinley at first.
Key Points:
This slide shows one analogy developed by OSPI to clarify the difference between the benchmark set by previous Washington state learning standards and the new Common Core State Standards.
[Walk through analogy displayed on slide]
One important point this analogy highlights is that there is skill involved in climbing both Mt Rainier AND Mt McKinley. Our students are not starting “from scratch.” They are starting from a base of skill, knowledge and application that will continue to grow. As their experience deepens, and they have more practice – just like the mountain climbers in this analogy – they will climb higher, and more and more of them will reach the summit.
Another similar analogy that can help explain the difference is this: Imagine a student athlete on the track team who is a strong performer in the 400 meter race. Then suppose the coach sees potential for this student to run the longer distance 1600 meter (1 mile) race, and will put the athlete in the race lineup beginning next month. How would the athlete likely perform in the 1600 meter race the first time? [Wait for response]. Now, imagine that the athlete continues on training program for the 1600 meter race. How is the athlete likely to perform in 6 months? In a year?
With quality instruction, time and practice, our students will be prepared to meet the new benchmarks.
Smarter Balanced assessments measure the full range of the Common Core State Standards. They are designed to let teachers and parents know whether students are on track to be college- and career-ready by the time they graduate.
Because the new standards set higher expectations for students--and the new tests are designed to assess student performance against these higher expectations--our definition of grade level performance is higher than it used to be.
As a result, it’s likely that fewer students will meet grade level standards, especially for the first few years. Results should improve as students have additional years of instruction aligned to the new standards and become better equipped to meet the challenges they present.
This does not mean that our students are “doing worse” than they did last year. Rather, the scores represent a “new baseline” that provides a more accurate indicator for educators, students, and parents as they work to meet the rigorous demands of college and career readiness.

17. Summative Assessment Key Points:
This slide shows the trajectory of grade 4 reading scores for Camas School District since Since that time, the percentage of students meeting standard has increased by over 20 percentage points.
You will notice a “break” in the line between the data points for 2009 and The MSP replaced the WASL as the state assessment in the spring of As an important point in interpreting these results, while the assessment changed in 2010, the standards had been in place for years prior.
With Smarter Balanced, we are working with new standards, a higher benchmark for those standards AND a new assessment.

18. What if my child does not meet proficiency on the Smarter Balanced test?
Continued partnership between parents and teachers will support student’s continued growth
If students in grade 3* score “below basic” (level 1) on the ELA test, the principal, teacher and parent must meet before the end of the school year to discuss and agree upon:
Appropriate grade level placement for the next school year
Strategies to improve reading
(ESSB 5946)
Key Points:
Schools and Families working together will provide the best opportunities for success for all of our students
Rationale – grade 3 reading is a research based performance indicator
*Students participating in the Transitional Bilingual Program are exempt from the requirement unless they have participated in the program for more than three school years. In addition, students in the special education program who have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) in reading or ELA are exempt.

19. Where can I learn More?
Ready Washington website
Washington Assessment Portal wa.portal.airast.org
Council of Great City Schools Parent Roadmaps to the Common Core Standards

20. Partnership – students, parents, teachers

21. Smarter Balanced Grass Valley Elementary January 23, 2015
Flow Color Scheme
Grass Valley Elementary
January 23, 2015

22. The Shifts – English language arts
Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction and informational text in addition to literature
Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational
Regular practice with complex text and its academic language
--need for college and career ready students to be proficient in reading complex informational text independently in a variety of content areas.
These apply to content area (social studies, science, and technical subject) teachers as well as to English teachers.

23. The Shifts – mathematics
Focus: Fewer topics focused on deeply in each grade
Coherence: Concepts logically connected from one grade to the next and linked to other major topics within the grade
Rigor: Fluency with arithmetic, application of knowledge to real world situations, and deep understanding of mathematical concepts
Focus means making room in the curriculum so that students have time to develop a foundation in the important math concepts and skills that they need to continue learning more advanced math concepts and skills. Year after year international studies demonstrate that the US is behind other high performing countries in math achievement. In those countries students focus on doing fewer things well, which supports the development of deeper understanding and greater confidence in math. This approach was integrated into the design of the CCSS. Rather than a list of topics appearing year after year, over and over again, each year the standards provide a more focused list of concepts that students experience in depth. In the past students and teachers were expected to merely cover many topics in one year, rather than spend time on really teaching and learning to mastery.
Coherence is about math making sense. In the past, students would learn one concept one week, say place value, then a totally different concept the following week, like geometry. In this process, students often got lost in their learning and were not able to make connections from one week to another, let alone from one year to the next year. When standards were not focused, teachers did not have the time to make these connections to build understanding. The CCSS are connected in a purposeful way so that students have a learning experience that bridges the concepts they learn within and across grades.
Rigor: In building mathematics proficiency there are three elements-- students need to understand the math concepts (vs. just how to get the answer), perform the procedures with fluency (speed and accuracy), and apply math to real world situations. All three elements are important in developing deep understanding, and each requires specific classroom experiences.