
Unlike the previous, multiple-choice-only tests, the new assessments include question formats that allow students to demonstrate a broader set of skills, like critical thinking, problem-solving, and analytical writing. Smarter Balanced Assessments offer significant improvements over previous state tests, including writing at every grade, new question types, and performance tasks that ask students to apply their knowledge and skills to real-world problems. Under the Student Assessment Bill of Rights, the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) and Oregon’s school districts must provide families with a “Notice of Statewide Tests and Opt-out Form” 30 days before the start of statewide testing.

Smarter Balanced Assessment Opt-Out Information It is governed by its membership, which sets its budget and policies, operates the system, and continues to support research and development to further improve assessment.

Smarter Balanced is now funded by the states that use its system. In 2014, as the federal grant was ending, Smarter Balanced became a public agency housed at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Over the next four years, these states and educators from across the country built an assessment system that would make history by becoming the most widely used test in the United States. The consortium of states that developed Smarter Balanced were awarded a $178 million federal grant, with the state of Washington acting as the fiscal agent.
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Supports teachers in professional development and in-class assessment tools.Provides the widest array of features ever assembled to ensure testing is fair for all student.Composed of test questions that measure essential skills such as critical thinking, writing, and problem-solving.

