Common+Core+Assessment

=Comparing the PARCC and Smarter Balanced Assessments=

In this //Educational Leadership// article, K-12 Center at ETS director Nancy Doorey provides a helpful guide to the Common Core-aligned assessments that PARCC and Smarter Balanced consortia are crafting for 2014-15 implementation:

__Major similarities between PARCC and Smarter Balanced:__
 * The assessments will be taken on computers for students in grades 3-8 and in high-school ELA, literacy, and math.
 * There will be a variety of assessment items: selected-response, constructed response, technology-enhanced, and complex performance tasks.
 * There will be two required components, both given in the final weeks of the school year.
 * By using electronic and human scoring, results will be available within two weeks.
 * There will be optional interim assessments, professional development modules, formative items and tasks for classroom use, model curriculum units, an online reporting suite, and a digital library for sharing vetted resources and tools.
 * The cost for all summative components will be about $20 per student per year.

__Key differences:__
 * PARCC summative assessments will use fixed-form delivery – students take one of several fixed, equated sets of items and tasks.
 * Smarter Balanced will use adaptive delivery – students get an individually tailored set of items and tasks depending on their responses as they take the tests, and there will be a retake option for the end-of-year component.
 * PARCC will have one optional diagnostic and one optional midyear assessment, with the latter containing mostly tasks similar to the summative performance-based tasks. It will have optional K-2 formative performance tasks and a required, non-summative speaking and listening assessment for grades 3-8 and high school, locally scored.
 * Smarter Balanced will have optional interim assessments for grades 3-12, computer adaptive with multiple item types, including performance tasks. The number, timing, and scope will be locally determined.

For PARCC test items and prototypes: [|www.parcconline.org/samples/item-task-prototypes]. For Smarter Balanced items: [|www.smarterbalanced.org/sample-items-and-performance-tasks]. For a map of which states are in PARCC and which are in Smarter Balanced, see []

=Sample Test Items= **oCo****ipoifeoif** **ency** Assessment Designs
 * Smarter Balance sample items
 * PARCC sample items