Overview

Purpose of the CERS Interpretive Guide

The CERS Interpretive Guide for English Language Arts/Literacy (ELA) and Mathematics is designed to help educators, parents, and other stakeholders interpret and explain Smarter Balanced interim and summative assessment results. This guide provides guidance to consider when analyzing summative assessment data for use in accountability purposes and analyzing interim assessment data for use in making decisions about classroom instruction.

This interpretive guide includes reports available in the Smarter Reporting System, however, the guidance may be applied to similar reports in a customized version of this reporting system, or a different reporting system. The names of the reporting elements in a customized version or different reporting system may be different that those described in this document.

Appendix A provides a list of helpful resources that support the use of interim assessments. Appendix B provides guidance on the Individual Student Reports (ISR) for use in student and parent discussions.

Overview of the Smarter Balanced Assessment System

The Smarter Balanced assessment system is a valid, fair, and reliable approach to student assessment that provides meaningful results with actionable data for educators, students, and parents to help students succeed. The system is aligned to the Common Core State Standards ELA and mathematics and consists of three major components— summative assessments, interim assessments, and Tools for Teachers—all designed to improve teaching and learning. If your state uses the Smarter Balanced summative assessment, it is likely that you have access to the interim assessments and Tools for Teachers as well. If there is any question about access, your State Education Agency (SEA) representative can share your state’s policy regarding these offerings.

The summative assessments are administered by states, as an accountability measure, at the end of the year to determine students’ progress toward college and career readiness in ELA and mathematics. In contrast, interim assessments are administered throughout the year in support of the formative assessment process.

All Smarter Balanced test items for the summative and interim assessments are developed using the ELA and mathematics performance tasks and item specifications and the same item writing, review, and field-testing processes. Smarter Balanced assessment items are developed through collaboration with K-12 educators and higher education faculty. Items on interim assessments are selected from the same pool of items as the summative assessment items.

Educator involvement in the development of summative, interim, and formative resources is critical. Since 2011, hundreds of teachers from multiple states have contributed to each step of the development, from writing test questions to creating the instructional resources.

Smarter Balanced provides a variety of accessibility resources on assessments to ensure equitable access for students with diverse accessibility needs and preferences. Additionally, assessment content undergoes bias and sensitivity reviews to be inclusive and representative of diverse student populations across the Consortium.

Resources and Training

The Smarter Balanced summative assessments are available in ELA and mathematics to students in grades 3–8 and high school. Each content area of the online test consists of a computer adaptive test (CAT) as well as a performance task (PT). Summative assessments are administered in a standardized manner in accordance with the policies described in the Online Summative Test Administration Manual available on member’s assessment portals.

In the 2020–21 school year, members of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium elected to offer the option for members to use either the full form or an adjusted form summative assessment blueprint. The adjusted CAT blueprint requires that students respond to fewer items while maintaining the content coverage of the full form assessment. The primary difference is that the adjusted form does not allow for individual student claim-level scores to be reported because there are not enough items in each claim to report on them with precision. To learn about composite scores when using the adjusted blueprint, see Technical Reports section 6.1.

Interim Assessments

The Smarter Balanced interim assessments are available in ELA and mathematics to students in grades 3–8 and high school. Unlike the Smarter Balanced summative assessments (which are adaptive), the interim assessments are fixed-form tests, which means that each student has access to the same test questions and the tests do not adapt according to student responses. Because each student responds to the same test items, teachers may more easily interpret their students’ performance on a common set of items. Further, teachers can better manage hand scoring since all students respond to the same constructed-response questions.

Administration of the interim assessments is flexible and can serve a variety of educator and student needs. Schools and districts may establish timeframes, administration policies, and scoring practices for the interim assessments, keeping in mind any guidance from their own state department of education. Educators can use the interim assessments in a standardized manner as an assessment of learning after a period of instruction, or in a non-standardized manner (e.g., teaching tool, warm-up activity) as an assessment for learning. The interim assessments also include all the accessibility resources that are available in the summative assessments to provide accurate results for all students. The interim assessments are powerful resources to improve teaching and learning for all students.

“Assessment has two fundamental purposes: one is to provide information about student learning minute-by-minute, day-to-day, and week-to-week so teachers can continuously adapt instruction to meet students’ specific needs and secure progress. This type of assessment is intended to assist learning and is often referred to as formative assessment or assessment for learning. A second purpose of assessment is to provide information on students’ current levels of achievement after a period of learning has occurred. Such assessments – which may be classroom-based, districtwide, or statewide – serve a summative purpose and are sometimes referred to as assessments of learning.”

California Department of Education (2014)

English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework

for California Public Schools: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve

The interim assessments are student—and teacher—facing to give educators the flexibility to access the test questions and their students' responses to the test questions. As a result, the interim assessments are not appropriate to use for accountability purposes. Otherwise, interim assessments are to be kept secure. They are not for public use, display, or distribution. Any use, display, or distribution of the interim assessments that results in access to individuals beyond authorized local education agency staff and students is prohibited. Finally, interim assessment items must not be copied into third party systems without the permission of Smarter Balanced.

Overview of the CAST

The California Science Test (CAST) is a valid, fair, and reliable approach to student assessment that provides meaningful results with actionable data for educators, students, and parents/guardians to help students succeed. The assessment is aligned with the California Next Generation Science Standards (CA NGSS) and is part of an assessment system composed of three major components—summative assessments, interim assessments, and Tools for Teachers—all designed to improve teaching and learning.

The summative CAST is administered by local educational agencies (LEAs), as an accountability measure, at the end of the academic year to determine students’ progress toward college and career readiness in science. The CAST Interim Assessments support the formative assessment process and can be administered throughout the academic year.

All CAST items for the summative and interim assessments are developed using the item content specifications and undergo the same item writing, review, and field testing processes. Both the summative CAST and CAST Interim Assessment items are developed through collaboration with kindergarten through grade twelve educators and the California Department of Education (CDE).

Educator involvement in the development of summative, interim, and formative assessment resources is critical. Since 2016, hundreds of teachers from the state of California have contributed to each step of the development, including providing item feedback, writing test items, and creating instructional resources.

Overview of the ELPAC System

The English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) is the state’s English language proficiency (ELP) assessment for students in kindergarten through grade twelve. The ELPAC consists of the Initial ELPAC, Summative ELPAC, and ELPAC Interim Assessments.

• The assessments are aligned with the 2012 English Language Development (ELD) Standards, and each measure the four domains of Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing.
• The Initial ELPAC is used to assess ELP for initial identification of a student new to California public schools as either an English learner (EL) who needs support to learn English or as initial fluent English proficient. The annual Summative ELPAC is used to measure students’ progress toward ELP and to determine whether they are ready to be reclassified.
• The Summative ELPAC is administered by local educational agencies, as an accountability measure, at the end of the academic year to determine students’ progress toward college and career readiness in ELP.
• However, the ELPAC Interim Assessments can be administered throughout the academic year. The ELPAC Interim Assessments are optional, shorter ELP assessments compared to the Summative ELPAC. The ELPAC Interim Assessments are designed to support teaching and learning by providing timely and instructionally relevant information about a student’s progress toward ELP. ELPAC Interim Assessments have the flexibility to be administered in a standardized manner as an assessment of proficiency or administered in a nonstandardized manner, incorporating the items into classroom instruction as part of the formative assessment process. Each ELPAC Interim Assessment is a domain-based assessment. When administered in a standardized manner, each individual interim assessment is designed to be untimed to allow students time to fully complete the interim assessment.

All ELPAC items for the summative and interim assessments are developed using the item writing specifications and the same item writing, review, and field testing process. Items for interim assessments are developed using the same criteria as items on the summative assessments.

The Summative ELPAC is developed through collaboration with kindergarten through grade twelve educators and the California Department of Education (CDE). Educator involvement in the development of summative and interim resources is critical. Since the launch of the ELPAC, hundreds of teachers from the state of California have contributed to each step of the development, including providing item feedback, writing test items, and reviewing field test data.