Freshmen have a reason to rejoice this year: they won’t be taking any state tests in the spring. Juniors will take the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium test, a computerized exam legislated by Assembly Bill 484, as a trial run of the new testing format, which will allow SBAC to examine the efficiency of its test.
The long term goal of the bill is to move California schools toward implementing the Common Core State Standards and eliminating STAR testing. Although the state has stopped requiring STAR testing, sophomores will still take the CAHSEE and the STAR Life Science Exam.
The school will use roughly 200 computers from the media center and various classrooms to administer the test. TCUSD will also supply 90 laptops.
The specific testing schedule will be announced next week on Edline, but Assistant Principal Mr. Kevin Herington said that the tests will be administered in mid-April, between Spring Break and AP exams.
This reporter took the SBAC online practice test and discovered that it is not an ordinary Multiple Choice grind-it-out exam, so students can’t just plug in the answer.
The math section was an exhaustive barrage of Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry that became progressively more difficult when I answered questions correctly. The ELA section was surprisingly similar to what I would expect of the SAT Critical Reading Section, comprising writing, short answer, multiple choice and paragraph response questions.