SBAC: An Introduction to the New National Standardadized Test
Context of the new SBAC Test: In 2010, Vermont and 43 other states adopted the Common Core State Standards in Math and English. The aim of these standards (CCSS) is to provide high-quality academic standards that are consistent across the country and help ensure that students are college and career ready. These standards are more rigorous than those before them and accentuate the importance of applying learning to new, real life circumstances, and the process of problem solving and explaining one’s thinking. These new standards require shifts in instruction and assessment. In 2011, CSSU developed and set in motion a four-year implementation plan which included cultivating CCSS teacher and coordinator leadership and expertise in order to facilitate learning about the Common Core at each school. Over several years, all K-12 professional educators and building administrators studied CCSS during CSSU in service days. Coupled with learning the new standards, teachers worked collaboratively to develop units of study that align with them and to employ shifts in instruction. The new national test, SBAC, will measure student achievement based on the Common Core State Standards.
How is SBAC different from NECAP? The new common core-aligned national test called SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium) will replace the NECAP Math and English tests. Beginning this spring, 2015, SBAC will assess students in grades 3-8, and 11. The new tests are different from NECAP tests in many ways, such as:
● Students at all tested grade levels will use a computer to take the test, which allows each student to edit his/her responses before submitting them.
● The test is computer adaptive.* (see below)
● The new Common Core standards are more rigorous and in-depth, which has lead to the development of richer, more complex, and lengthier test questions. Many responses will require multiple steps that include writing, problem solving and providing evidence from the text or problem.
● Advances in modern test design will allow measurement of the complexities and nuances of a student’s responses to the SBAC questions.
● To complete SBAC tasks and questions, students must be able to organize, analyze, describe, defend, conclude, argue, articulate, and evaluate information presented in charts, graphs, and challenging informational text.
● SBAC will be given in the spring rather than fall, over the course of an extended test window (mid-March-early June).
● Individual student results (with the exception of longer, group performance tasks) will be available for teachers shortly after student tests are completed. We do not yet know whether parent reports will be available this first year.
● State and CSSU level results will be available at some point in the summer.
Several schools in Vermont and across the country field tested a ‘practice’ version of SBAC last spring. Feedback from the field test informed us that the testing generally went smoothly and most students liked the new test better than the old paper/pencil tests. Using input from the field tests, teachers across CSSU have participated in local and SU-wide in service workshops throughout this year to become familiar with the necessary computer skills and rigorous test questions in SBAC. CSSU teachers have been embedding computer practice and the Common Core Standards in their instruction. They are developing deeper questioning strategies and are asking students to defend their responses in English Language Arts and math classes. These are important instructional strategies regardless of SBAC, and will also prepare students for the new tests. Transitioning to new standards and SBAC testing is a coordinated SU-wide initiative in which teachers in all of our schools are familiar with a common set of sequenced computer-based skills as well as inquiry and problem solving techniques to use in classroom instruction.
What can we anticipate? While our supervisory union has focused in service time on the Common Core Standards and the administration of SBAC, a decline in student performance results in Vermont and across the country is anticipated in the first two to four years of implementation as students and educators adjust to the new test format and rigor.
*What is “computer adaptive”?
Test questions are adjusted based on student responses thus, tests are individually tailored to the students taking them. A set of complicated algorithms are hinged to the question adjustments made for each student’s test and provides more accurate achievement scores for all students across the learning continuum while also providing a positive testing experience for all learners.
Please look forward to a second article about SBAC in a future newsletter.
More parent information and resources:
Parent Roadmaps to the Common Core State Standards/ELA
Parent Roadmaps to the Common Core State Standards/Math
Sample Texts by Grade Level (CCSS)
Youth Risk Behavior Survey
The YRBS is given anonymously, and survey procedures have been designed to protect your child’s privacy. No names are ever written on the survey, and individual responses are not disclosed to anyone. We would like all students to take part in the survey; however, the survey is voluntary, and all students will have the right to decline participation if they choose.
As a parent or guardian of a student eligible to participate in the YRBS, federal law affords you the right to inspect the survey before it is administered and to opt your child out of taking the survey. Each school will have a copy of the survey in the main office for you to preview. Should you decide that you do not want your child participating in the YRBS, please inform us in writing no later than March 4, 2015. The form can be viewed HERE. CVU students will participate in the survey on Wednesday, March 11.
If you have any questions, please contact Tim Trevithick at 482-6951.
CVU Annual Meeting and Budget Vote
Copies of the 2014-2015 Chittenden South Supervisory Union School Report and Champlain Valley Union High School Annual Report are available for the public. The books can be picked up at the schools and town offices of Charlotte, Hinesburg, Shelburne, St. George, and Williston. Additionally, the book can currently be viewed by selecting this link.
Public School Choice
made school choice statewide by allowing students to apply to attend any other high school in the state.
If you are interested in applying for school choice, please complete the application (link below) by March 1. Applications are due to the home school.
Application and Procedures for the 2015-2016 school year.
All late orders for graduation announcements must be mailed and received by Balfour at its office in Burlington by February 27. If you have any questions, you can contact them at the following address:
Chace Mill 1 Mill Street,
Burlington VT 05401