Scholarly Colloquia and Events

  • 3/31 Smarter Balance Assessment System in Connecticut

    Presenter:          Dr. Joe Willhoft, Executive Director

    Date/Time:         March 31, 4:00-5:30 p.m.

    Fee:                       FREE!!!

    Location:              Thomas J. Dodd Research Center

    Sponsors:           

    University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Department of Educational Psychology, Department of Educational Leadership 

    (Light refreshments will be available before this event.)

    Description:

    Educators - say good-bye to the Connecticut Mastery Test and the Connecticut Academic Performance Test, which have been around for the past three decades. Say “hello” to a new era of student assessment with the implementation of the Smarter Balance System.

    Joe Willhoft, executive director of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, will provide an overview of the Smarter Balanced system of assessments. Smarter Balanced is one of two federally-funded assessment development projects charged with designing state-level accountability assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Smarter Balanced has 22 member states, including Connecticut, that have been engaged in these assessment design activities since October 2010; the products of the Smarter Balanced efforts are due to be ready for states to implement in the 2014-15 school year.

    The Smarter Balanced design includes comprehensive summative assessments in English language arts and mathematics for grades 3-8 and 11. The proficiency standard for these assessments in grade 11 indicates whether students are prepared for credit-bearing, non-remedial coursework in college or university. In addition to summative assessments, Smarter Balanced is designing interim assessments that can be used during the school year and a digital library of tools and professional development materials for classroom-based formative assessment.

    Dr. Willhoft will present for the first 40 minutes of the session. Then, a panel representing various stakeholder groups will pose questions from their respective stakeholder groups and then questions from the audience that will be written on index cards and brought to the panel. The panel will wrap up with a synthesis of their learning, and the session will end with a summarization of key points by Dr. Willhoft.

    “This session is designed for higher education faculty and students in educator preparation programs, as well as district teachers, related services personnel, and all administrators,” said Dr. Mary Yakimowski, director of assessment at the Neag School of Education.  “Those who work with ELL and students with special needs are especially encouraged to attend. We all need to be ready for Smarter Balance.”

     

    Please register, please click here: Colloquium March 31 2014 or cut/paste this address in your browser: https://uconn.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0vz7e0uBA5eaC0J

     

    This is the 8th year for our colloquium series of sessions involving assessment, evaluation, and research. Please feel free to share this announcement with others. If you are interested in offering a session OR if you have any questions about this session, please contact Dr. Yakimowski at mary.yakimowski@uconn.edu or 860-486-2848.

     

     

    For more information, contact: Mary at mary.yakimowski@uconn.edu