Smarter Balanced Assessment Technology Requirement Clarification

2/13/2013 3:24:00 PM

At this time, neither microphones nor stylus devices have been identified as necessary input devices for the 2014-15 Smarter Balanced assessment. However, Smarter Balanced anticipates integrating manipulative media and interactive data elements for students as a means to generate more authentic input capacities. These advancements will ultimately help to capture predominant reasoning, drafting, revising and general formative thinking processes taken by students when approaching solutions to various test items.

Smarter Balanced anticipates that by the 2016-17 school year, up to 25 percent of the mathematics assessment will comprise of items/tasks requiring student-produced illustrations or calculations. As such, in 2016-17, students will need access to a tablet (or other device) that employs a stylus for user input.

Additional information about the Smarter Balanced Technology requirements is available at http://www.smarterbalanced.org/smarter-balanced-assessments/technology/ (including hardware and software purchasing guidelines).

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