New Assessment in New Hampshire Helps Ensure Students are College

and Career Ready

Assessment For and Of learning

Paper #1
By: Ashley Prindle
Date: 2-14-2015
 As I began to read about New Hampshires new Smarter Balanced assessment that is

about to be administered for the first time this spring, I could not help but think how happy I was

not to have to take the new test as a student. Yet, from the perspective of an administrator, policy

maker, curriculum leader, and even as a parent, the new Smarter Balanced assessment offers

many improvements from the previous NECAP (New England Common Assessment program)

(NH Department of Ed, 2014). Not only has the expectations of students changed, but also how

the test is administered.

The new Smarter Balanced assessment is very different from the current NECAP

assessment that is given to all New Hampshire students in grades 3-8th and 11th. Right now,

students in grades 3-8th and 11th grade are beginning to take the new Smarter Balanced

Assessment for the first time. The new Smarter Balanced assessment replaced the NECAP test

for English and math, but NECAP will continue to be used for science testing. Furthermore, the

new Smarter Balanced assessment is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and is meant

to provide an academic check-up for teachers and parents so they have better information to help

students succeed (Smarter Balanced Assessments, 2015). It is the hope with this new assessment,

that students can no longer rely on memorizing facts, but must instead use critical thinking and

knowledge application skills (Parents Guide, 2014). Moreover, the new assessment will be able

to determine if students are meeting the Common Core State Standards and gauge how students

are progressing from grade to grade.

Students will be expected to use a much higher level of thinking on the new assessment.

The new English language arts assessment asks students to read more complex fiction and non-

fiction and use evidence from these texts to answer questions, make inferences, and present

persuasive arguments (Parents Guide, 2014). For example, in the English section students are
asked to click sentences in paragraphs that support an idea. Moreover, during the new math

assessment using Smarter Balanced assessment, students will no longer just be answering

multiple-choice questions. Instead, students will be asked to answer multi-step problems,

conceptual questions, and make real-world applications (Parents Guide, 2014). Students must

also be able to explain how they arrived at their answers, which is more demanding and requires

students to think harder. Overall, many educators feel that the new Smarter Balanced assessment

better reflects the higher expectations of students that are seen in the Common Core, thus it is

only natural that we expect those same higher expectations to be reflected in testing (Brown,

2013).

The Smarter Balanced assessment also implements the use of technology and allows the

results of the test to arrive quicker to parents and schools. No longer will students be using paper

and pencil to take their test. Instead, students will be taking the assessment on a computer or

laptop. One of the major benefits to taking a test on the computer is the schools have the ability

to decide how many sessions per day theyre going to give and how many days long it is going to

take (Brown, 2013). No longer do students have to take the test all at one time, making the

testing schedules more flexible. During the test there is also no longer the worry of students

sharing answers because students will see different questions based on how they perform on the

test (Kittle, 2012). Smarter Balanced assessments also make use of computers adaptive

technology, which helps provide more accurate information about each student (Smarter

Balanced Assessments, 2015). However, schools are worried about the potential technology

issues, having enough computers available for students, providing headphones so students can

listen to audio or video clips, and even the potential need for more bandwidth capabilities (Kittle,

2012). But one major advantage of having the assessment done on the computer is the ability for
teachers, principals, students, and parents to receive results within only a few weeks. Faster

results allow teachers to quickly use the information and plan instruction for the remainder of the

year accordingly, which is invaluable for both the student and teacher. This means that hopefully

no longer are the results of annual testing of little value for classroom-level instructional

decision-making (Stiggins and Chappuis, 2012).

Implementing the Smarter Balanced assessment will provide a high-quality assessment

that can hopefully improve teaching and learning by providing information and tools for teachers

and schools to help students succeed. It also allows for educational policy makers to continue

comparing students between districts and between states, but also with students in other states

that have adopted the Common Core (Parents Guide, 2014). One of the most important goals of

moving to the new Smarter Balanced assessment is to provide students, parents, and teachers

with insight into college and career readiness early enough to address issues and provide extra

support where needed.

After learning more about the new Smarter Balanced assessment I definitely think that it

is going to help better ensure that each student is progressing and meeting each grade level

expectation that the Common Core standards have set forth. Yet, I think that students are going to

experience the same struggles and frustrations that they did with the NECAP test. I can still

vividly remember taking the NECAP test, especially the one I took in 11th grade. I dreaded sitting

at my desk the entire day taking an exam that I felt had no impact or benefit for me. I had never

been happy with the results of any of my NECAP tests and thought that they never represented

what I truly knew. However, I believe that this new assessment provides many more valuable

results, and since the test adapts to my ability to answer questions it is more tailored to each

individual student. However, I know that if I were taking this new test, I might be more inclined
just to click through it and wouldnt like the fact that I couldnt flip back and forth through a

booklet. But putting the normal grievances that students will always have about assessments

aside, I am definitely a proponent of the Smarter Balanced assessment.

I believe that the new assessment will push students to meet the more demanding

Common Core standards as well as provide valuable feedback that teachers havent been able to

get from previous assessments. Most importantly, I think that the new Smarter Balanced

assessment is focused on long-term learning because of the way it measures and assesses growth

in student learning. The new assessment puts an emphasis on student growth over time and uses

multiple measures to assess a students learning which is crucial. Hopefully, the Smarter Balanced

assessment will help all educators in the state of New Hampshire ensure that its students are

college and career ready, which is the number one goal.

 References

Brown, S. (2013). New Smarter Balanced Test Will Ask More Of Students. Retrieved
from http://nhpr.org/post/new-smarter-balanced-test-will ask-more students

Kittle, Cameron. (2012, Feb 1). NECAP, on its way out; Online, adaptive test to be in place by
2013-14. The Telegraph. Retrieved from
http://www.nashuatelegrapgh.com/news/948469196/necap-on-its-way-out-online
adaptive.html

New Hampshire Department of Education: Smarter Balanced Assessment Transition (2014,

Sep 25). Retrieved from
http://www.education.nh.gov/spotlight/ccss/documents/faq_sbac.pdf

Parents Guide to New English Language Arts and Mathematics Assessments in New
Hampshire. (2014, Feb 6). Retrieved from http://www.pta.org/files/PTA%20New
%20Hampshire%20Assessment%20Guid pdf

Smarter Balanced Assessments. (2015, Feb 12). Retrieved from

http://www.smarterbalanced.org/smarter-balanced-assessments/

Stiggins, R., & Chappuis, J. (2012). An Introduction To Student-Involved Assessment

For Learning (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Taormina, Barbara. (2014, Feb 9). Mixed NECAP student test results in Nashua. UnionLeader.
Retrieved from
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20140210/NEWS04/140219956&template
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