California Sees Marginal Improvements in the 2016 Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments
Last week California released its state assessment results for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments. The tests were administered on computers to over three million students in grades 3-8 in Math and ELA and 11th grade during the 15-16 school year. Results show that less than half of the students we deemed proficient in Math and ELA.
The results do show improvement from SBAC scores released from the prior year. However, with only 48 percent deemed proficient in ELA and 37 percent in Math, considerable improvements are needed in the future.
According to the article by Richard Chang, “Fewer than Half of California student met College Readiness Standards”, results show a disturbing trend along ethnic lines. Although growth was shown overall only minimal growth can be seen in comparing data ethnicity. A low percentage increase in scores can be seen in the African American and Latino students while the Asian and White students scores show a greater increase.
The State Superintendent for California, Tom Torlakson, is very optimistic and applauds the growth that was shown compared to the previous academic year. He does note that more improvement is needed, but is encouraged by the gains seen thus far.
When looking at the California assessment results, as the Sales Manager for Lumos Learning and a former educator, I feel that student achievement on these tests is influenced by two critical factors: skills mastery and familiarity with the test format. Educators can easily improve student performance in the SBAC by providing the right tools for their students. The right learning resource should include robust standards-aligned content and practice tests that mirror the SBAC.
Article cited: https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/08/24/fewer-than-half-of-california-students-met-college-readiness-standards.aspx
