Parents awaiting their children’s standardized test scores will have to wait a little longer.
As you may know, Orange County students took new computer-based Smarter Balanced assessments last spring. The new tests measure student knowledge of California’s English language arts and mathematics standards for grades three through eight and 11.
While officials from the California Department of Education originally indicated that schools could expect their assessment results during the summer break, we’re told September is now the target.
Why the delay? We reached out to CDE spokeswoman Pam Slater, who told us her department is taking the steps necessary to ensure the first year’s scores are rolled out properly — and to test the new website that will display the results.
“This is the first year of scoring and reporting the new Smarter Balanced assessments, and the development of a new public reporting website,” Slater said. “We definitely are aware of the great interest in these results and are working as quickly and diligently as possible. We are being especially careful in this inaugural year to make sure everything is handled properly. It’s actually quite exciting to be at this stage, and we’re looking forward to a successful launch next month.
As we reported earlier, the new reports will look very different than they have in the past. That means they can’t be compared with earlier test results, but can be used as a starting point to track progress over time. You can check out a sample score report here.