Smarter Balanced Training Tests Now Available

Are (you and) your students ready for the new Smarter Balanced assessments next school year?
Curious about what these tests will look like?
On January 30, Smarter Balanced released a set of Training Tests to provide a means for students and teachers to:

• Quickly become familiar with the features of the Smarter Balanced assessment software interface.
• Experience new item types that do not currently appear on the Practice Tests.
• Preview universal tools, designated supports, and accommodations.

A Training Test is available for each of three grade bands:

• grades three through five; 
• grades six through eight; 
• and high school. 

There are six to nine items per grade band per content area (i.e., English language arts and mathematics). The Training Tests contain the same item response types as the Practice Tests, but unlike the Practice Tests, there are no performance tasks or scoring guides for the Training Tests.

Additional Support
Smarter Balanced has now released 3 different sets of assessment items for us to use to prepare for the first Smarter Balanced tests in spring 2015.

• Training tests (just released)
• Practice tests (released in 2013)
• Sample items (released in 2012)

Consider using each of the items released for your grade/course throughout the school year to better prepare your students for success in 2015.