Public school students in Washington State are no strangers to standardized testing. What is perhaps most unfamiliar is the name these tests are referred to. In recent years, standardized testing has been called the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), the Measurement of Student Progress (MSP), and the High School Proficient Exam (HSPE). Beginning in the spring of the 2014-2015 school year, students have been required to take Smarter Balance Assessment (SBA) tests in math, as well in English Language Arts (ELA). SBA directly reflects the Common Core Standards, which have been adopted by Washington State. A major path for students to be able to graduate from high school is to meet standards of the SBA tests. See this Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) page for more detail on assessments.
The Common Core provides standards of “what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each grade. The standards were created to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live.”
The Smarter Balanced Assessment is computerized, allowing students with a better knowledge of the subject to face increasingly difficult questions; additionally, students who might not be as proficient will receive less difficult questions. The difficulty level of each question is weighted in the final score. Tougher questions answered incorrectly won’t negatively affect the final score as much as an easy question answered wrongly. The tests also have specialized features for English language learners so they can truly be tested on what they know when excluding language barriers.
There are four Smarter Balanced Assessment score categories: Level 1 - does not meet the grade-level performance standard; Level 2 - nearly meets grade-level performance standards; Level 3 - meets grade-level performance standards; and Level 4 - exceeds grade-level performance standards.
This indicator measures the share of both 4th and 10th grade public school students in Walla Walla County who were meeting or exceeding math standards (Achievement Levels 3 & 4) based on the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA). Washington State is offered as a benchmark. Additional information, including data for 7th graders, a breakdown by school districts in Walla Walla County, and historical data previous to the SBA, can be found in the “Download Data” section.