01 Nov
“The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) is a state-led consortium working to develop next-generation assessments that accurately measure student progress toward college- and career-readiness. Smarter Balanced is one of two multistate consortia awarded funding from the U.S. Department of Education in 2010 to develop an assessment system aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) by the 2014-15 school year.”
Smarter Balanced States include: Alaska, California. Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, U.S. Virgin Islands.
Hardware and Software Requirements Overview for the New Assessments:
| Operating System | Minimum Smarter Balanced Requirements for Current Computers | Recommended Smarter Balanced Minimum for New Purchases |
| Windows | Windows XP (service pack 3) Pentium 233 MHz processor128 MB RAM52 MB hard drive free space | Windows 7+ 1 GHz processor 1 GB RAM 80 GB hard drive or at least 1 GB of hard drive space available |
| Mac OS X | Mac OS X 10.4.4Macintosh computer with Intel x86 or PowerPC G3 (300 MHz) processor, 256 MB RAM, 200 MB hard drive free space | Mac OS X 10.7+ 1 GHz processor 1 GB RAM 80 GB hard drive or at least 1 GB of hard drive space available |
| Linux | Linux (Ubuntu 9-10, Fedora 6) Pentium II or AMD K6-III 233 MHz processor64 MB RAM52 MB hard drive free space | Linux (Ubuntu 11.10, Fedora 16) 1 GHz processor 1 GB RAM 80 GB hard drive or at least 1 GB of hard drive space available |
| iOS | iPads 2 and 3 running iOS6 | iPads running iOS6 |
| Android | Android based tablets running Android 4.0+ | Android based tablets running Android 4.0+ |
| Windows | Windows-based tablets running Windows 8+ (excluding Windows RT) | Windows-based tablets running Windows 8+ (excluding Windows RT) |
| Chrome OS | Chromebooks running Chrome OS (v19)+ | Chromebooks running Chrome OS (v19)+ |
Smarter Balanced Assessment Facts:
- Offers optional interim tests at the beginning of the year as well as mid-year
- 9th-10th grades will have performance tasks as summative evaluation
- Summative assessment only in 11th grade
- Smarter Balanced is based on a computer adaptive model.
Smarter Balanced Sample Items and Performance Tasks:
Smarter Balanced has released sample items and performance tasks in grade bands for ELA and Math. You can change which sample you are viewing by clicking on the top banner: “View more…Sample Items”.
Leave a Comment