Starting April 27th, Juniors will be taking the SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium). The SBAC is in place of the HSPE testing that Sophomores usually take. However, Sophomores will not be required to take the HSPE. The HSPE is an assessment to see if that student is ready to graduate. Because Sophomores haven’t experienced enough to make an accurate assessment. “It gives teachers and school a better opportunity to gauge” students readiness to graduate (http://smarterbalanced.org/).

The SBAC is an all day assessment that is a graduation requirement. The assessment tests a students English language arts/literacy and mathematical abilities. Mr. Nelson said that “there are three components to the SBAC. The first day is an adaptive test which is a computer-based test. If you answer a question right it will give you a similar, but harder question. If you get it wrong it will ask you a similar, but easier question. And the test will place you. The second day is a classroom activity where you have a classroom based discussion that will prepare you for the next day. Lastly, the third day is a performance task on the discussion of the previous day.”

The benefits to take the SBAC is that “High school students who take the smarter balanced exam in California, Delaware, Hawaii, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington could enter post secondary institutions and directly enroll in credit bearing courses. Colleges and University’s in these six states will use the high school score as evidence that students are ready for entry-level, credit-bearing courses and may be exempted from remedial courses. Using Smarter Balanced scores is an option for students and scores are not required, but accepted” (http://www.smarterbalanced.org/). Overall, the SBAC will be a more accurate picture of individual students performance and will show there readiness to graduate.