New Smarter Balanced Test is Still Coming

Four comments! Truly, I did not expect any, but I will stop saying that, now. And I should probably admit that, while I am now coming back on consecutive days, it is not likely that I will be able to keep up with this on a daily basis.

However, today was an important day, not only as it was the morning after the election, but also the first day back after a long weekend for kids and two days of professional development for staff. Without speaking too much about it, we all just knew that teaching and learning had to continue today, with no reference to yesterday, no emotional hangover. Easier said than done, perhaps, but still.

Many teachers had spent time on Monday and Tuesday getting a chance to explore the Smarter Balanced assessment. This is the new test that will replace the MEAP next year; all students in grades 3-8 and 11 will take it. It is based on the Common Core State Standards that have now been adopted in, I believe, 46 states. The Michigan legislature this summer considered shying away from them after committing to them three years ago, but now it has recommitted. Because we have been working for three years to revise curriculum to align with the Common Core, Farmington had already made its own commitment to the standards, but it helps to know that the state is also back on board. 

The Smarter Balanced test is far different from the paper-and-pencil, mostly multiple-choice formatted MEAP. It will require students to perform authentic tasks, such as highlighting the actual text that provides the evidence they are using to support their answers in the reading text, composing the equivalent of a multiple-page essay in the writing test, or building a mathematical construction to solve a problem. The Smarter Balanced test is taken online, and one of its unspoken assumptions is that all students can manipulate multiple windows on their computer screen simultaneously, move text or objects around with a mouse, highlight, and type fairly quickly and fluently. This perhaps is a reasonable assumption to make in the 21st Century when we call our kids "digital natives", implying that they know all there is to know about navigating digital environments. It is an assumption that in fact creates a challenge for all school districts - not just Farmington, not just in Michigan - where access to computers is limited simply because we have many more students than we do computers. One reason to ask our community to help us purchase more computers was an awareness that the Smarter Balanced train is bearing down on us. 

We have been working on developing the thinking skills - for example analyzing the parts of someone else's argument, or finding the right evidence to build our own, solving problems and explaining processes of reasoning in mathematics - for years. The MEAP attempted to assess such thinking, but being mainly a multiple choice test, there was a gap between the learning work of the classroom and filling the bubbles on the state assessment. It is exciting that Smarter Balanced will mirror the everyday tasks of class. Performing under testing conditions - even at 3rd grade - will be a new wrinkle, but doable. It's the transferring of these skills - such as highlighting text - from paper to a computer screen - that will take a little more practice, and it is going to take some creativity to afford opportunities for practice.

In my middle school of over 900 students, we have possibly 225 computers (best-case) for students. A little over half of these have wireless network capability, and the rest are networked (wired) desktops set up in labs. We have a system for reserving the labs or the mobile laptop carts that works fairly well to solve disputes, but not to ensure that every student has regular access to a computer. It is not uncommon for students to go a couple of weeks without using a computer in school, just because there might not be any available. Teachers must plan lessons without counting on being able to use computers, especially at times of heavy demand, such as when 8th grade English classes are working on extended research projects, and every cart or lab is booked. Computer access also impacts the kind of work assigned outside of class, as we cannot count on every child having access to a computer at home. It is this uneven access at both school and home that turns the basic assumption of the Smarter Balanced that students will just know how to work in the online testing environment into a hill that we must work quickly to flatten for all students, all the way down to 2nd or 3rd grade. 

Again, this is not a challenge that is unique to Farmington, and we have seen it coming. There just was little we could do to increase access without available dollars. Awareness of the new online assessment coming was all part of the big picture that the workgroups planning the bond proposals have been considering for years. This blog is not intended to be a continuation of any bond campaign, but on the other hand, trying to figure out how to face new challenges with our current resources is as much a part of any teacher's day as working with students. 

There is much more to say, but this is already too long, and it wasn't even what I thought I was going to talk about. I will close by saying that yes, we have thought about how to increase access by making use of those devices that many - certainly not all - kids bring to school each day, their smart phones, or their internet-capable iPod Touches. "BYOD" or "BYOT" (Device or Technology) is something that school districts across the country are dabbling with, and Farmington is no exception. These devices can be powerful learning tools. On the other hand, they carry their own challenges, including the fact, once again, that not everyone has access. In any case, it is a topic for another day.