Ed Source – Theresa Harrington
“Smarter Balanced tests administered in California and other states are well-aligned to Common Core standards in math and English language arts, but could be improved, according to two new studies. A study of high school tests ranked Smarter Balanced higher than the three other standardized tests evaluated, but the other study of 5th- and 8th-grade tests identified weaknesses that Smarter Balanced officials plan to address in response to the report. Both studies, released Thursday, compared Smarter Balanced tests to those created by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC; ACT Aspire; and the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or MCAS. Like Smarter Balanced, PARCC tests were developed specifically to measure student achievement according to Common Core standards. The ACT Aspire test, administered in multiple states, also measures achievement based on Common Core standards, while the “MCAS was included because it represents what has been considered ‘best in class’ for individual state assessments up until this point,” according to the Human Resources Research Organization, or HumRRO, which conducted the study of high school tests.”(more)