3 Berkeley Elementary Schools Pilot New State Test

From Berkeley Unified School District:

If you are a parent of a third or fourth grader at Emerson, Oxford, or Thousand Oaks, you may have heard your child talk about the "laptop carts" in use and/or the "pilot test" that happened in their classrooms this past week.

"We had to answer the question and then explain how we got to the answer," one third-grader described it as. "We've been practicing using the computer and typing in class since a lot of us are still just using two fingers!"

The new Common Core State Standards will require a shift in the skills students are assessed on and how their learning is measured. The three Berkeley schools were chosen by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium to pilot the first practice version of new online tests that will replace the STAR tests in the Spring of 2015. 

With plans to fully implement these new standards in 2014-2015, this pilot allowed our teachers and students a chance to experience the basic functionality of the online test administration system, and provide feedback and data to work out kinks in implementation.

Internally, teachers and administrators were able to gather information regarding the increasing demands for technology use by teachers and students, as well as the professional development that will be critical to a successful transition to the Common Core.

While our students gained experience and insight into the new test in preparation for full participation, there will be no achievement results from this pilot. We will, however, use the information gathered by students and teachers to inform our planning and implementation.