CCSS Online Assessment SIG

A series of well-produced videos about the Common Core, and what the expectations are for each content area.

Aug/Sept 2011 statement from Smarter Balanced on their planned Digital Library with resources for teachers. **I couldn't find a non-ProQuest link, so you might have to login via MSU (or another entity/login) and search for the article

December 2010 analysis of PARCC and Smarter Balanced proposals. Identifies differences between the two consortia. In essence, PARCC will have more mandatory summative assessments throughout the year; SBAC will only have 1 summative, but several optional formative assessments.

While it may have changed in the past 2 years, according to this article, PARCC assessments for grades 3-5 will NOT be administered online.

August 2005 report that evaluates 8th grade writing assessment (& math) completed on paper vs. online; major findings include: students with stronger computer skills performed better on the online assessment than students who lacked computer skills

February 2010 article re: research study that took place in 2006-2007 w/ 5-7 y.o. in Britain.  Sought to research the combination of low-stakes e-assessments w/ formative assessment; found that e-assessments could be designed to give qualitative feedback that was more helpful than numerical feedback in determining student progress, strengths, weakness and next steps. B/c done via e-assessment, teachers could instantly receive the resulting profiles for each student.

While the mandatory PARCC and SBAC assessments are more summative in nature, I believe the optional mid-year assessments are meant to be more formative - does that seem right, Donna?  Do you  happen to know how schools will receive the results (i.e. score versus qualitative results)?

September 2010 article on SBAC & PARCC; not a whole lot that's new.  Highlights performance-based tasks and optional tests for throughout the school year to help guide learning/curriculum.

Online Assessment Strategy Tool called Test Quest from Houghton Mifflin Mathematics, developed for 4th Graders. Students are led through math exercises using various strategies to solve story problems: draw a picture, rule out wrong answers, check your work, rule out extra information and use and exact or estimated answer.

Team Mouse: Please note that I used this as one of my SIG annotated resources.

August 2012 article on PARCC's release of sample questions.  Interestingly, the article identify's PARCC's test questions (and Smarter Balanced's) as innovative and moving away from traditional test questions, when other articles I've found quote PARCC/SBAC leaders as stating that the technology infrastructure and skills needed won't be THAT high-tech or new.

October 2012 news article that provides a summary of the types of sample questions released by Smarter Balanced (for those who do not want to look through every sample question for every grade level and subject area).

January 2012 article that touches on Smarter Balanced's accommodations for students with special needs and disabilities. **I could not find this in a non-ProQuest format, so you might need to login and search for it.

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is developing a system of valid, reliable, and fair next-generation assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English language arts/literacy (ELA/literacy) and mathematics for grades 3-8 and 11. There are two valuable pdfs (among many) at this link: SBAC Mathematics Item Specifications Grades 3-5 and SBAC English Language Arts Item and Task Specifications.

Interesting, and scary, read.

2003 article that summarizes trends in research on computer-based testing, how results compared to paper assessments and the role that computer-familiarity has played.

Compilation of websites for practicing mouse, keyboarding and navigation skills.

iNACOL Publication; extensive discussion on inputs v outcomes, and summative once-per-year testing. Paper provides an argument for full-time online schools. Dear Partners in Innovation, As a follow-up to our last meeting, I want to share with you a publication that was released last month at the International Association for K-12 Online Learning's (iNACOL) annual meeting. As you know, there have been quality standards for online learning for some time now, but these standards were predominantly inputs-based. Earlier this year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded iNACOL to tackle the issue of quality from an outcomes perspective. In creating their report, iNACOL held a series of multi-day focus groups with experts from around the country. Over the last several months, Dr. Joe Freidhoff, our Director of Online Learning Research and Innovation, and I were heavily involved with participating in these groups and providing feedback on drafts of the report. The final report recommends discussions surrounding quality assurance using five outcomes-based measures: 1) Proficiency 2) Individual Student Growth 3) Graduation Rate 4) College and Career Readiness 5) Closing the Achievement Gap While the report's scope was limited to quality indicators for full-time and supplemental online learning environments, the multiple outcomes-based measures recommended in the report deserve consideration for their applicability to traditional face-to-face schools. MVU is proud to have been involved with this report, and we view it as another step toward improving the quality of education students receive. The report titled: "Measuring Quality From Inputs to Outcomes: Creating Student Learning Performance Metrics and Quality Assurance for Online Schools" can be accessed online at: http://www.inacol.org/research/docs/iNACOL_Quality_Metrics.pdf Jamey Jamey Fitzpatrick President & CEO Michigan Virtual Univer

Teachers in other countries are also predicting the shift to online assessment.

July 2012 blog post that introduces Google Chrome's Typing Speed Monitor.  Per author, applications for education could include finding out how well students type in realistic scenarios.  Could be used to supplement Quia in our SIG in determining student readiness for SBAC/PARCC.

Item and task prototypes taken from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). Twenty three states belong to PARCC, while 24 belong to the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. Each organization's aim is to provide online assessments to test that the Common Core State Standards are effectively taught and learned in the 47 states who have adopted them. This webpage contains the links to the assessment item samples developed by PARCC to date.

Team Mouse: Please note that I used this as one of my SIG annotated resources.

The Prototypes for PARCC Math assessment samples are housed at a site other than the official PARCC website.

October 2012 article that discusses the technology school districts might need for Smarter Balanced and PARCC; test designers might require tablets for some portions of assessments; addresses potential issues with tablets and possible solutions (i.e. requiring external keyboard and mouse).

While parts of this diverge from the focus of our SIG, it's really interesting and worth the read. In the tablet vs. computer section, it does discuss potential struggles for test-takers depending on the device. Depending on which one ends up being required (or if both are required), students might need to develop different sets of skills (or two sets of skills).