SBAC: How to Prepare for the Smarter Balanced Assessments - Math and ELA

The Smarter Balanced Assessments consist of end-of-year tests in English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics that are administered to students in grades 3-8 and once more in 11th grade.

Smarter Balanced assessments are intended to assess students’ progress toward Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and therefore toward the skills and knowledge students will need in order to be successful in college and careers.

Although these assessments are rigorous, students can prepare using Smarter Balanced practice tests.

This article will cover everything you need to know about Smarter Balanced, including test structure, test content, sample test questions, and tips for success.

Let’s get started! ## What is Smarter Balanced?

The Smarter Balanced tests were designed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), a consortium of 15 states, one territory, and the Bureau of Indian Education. SBAC members cooperate to develop and continue improving assessments that are aligned with the rigorous Common Core State Standards.

These assessments consist of two parts: a computer adaptive test and a Performance Task. With the computer adaptive test, questions become easier if students are struggling and more difficult if a student is performing well. This allows for a more accurate and precise test score.

Performance Tasks take about 45 minutes to complete and prompt students to apply grade level appropriate skills and knowledge, as well as critical thinking and problem solving, to respond to complex real-world problems.

Question types include:

Selected response items (multiple choice)

Constructed response items (requiring students to write short answers)

Non-traditional response items (questions that may ask students to drag and drop numbers or text, edit text, draw objects, complete a chart or graphic organizer, etc.)

Performance Tasks (mentioned above)

SBAC Testing Times

SBAC assessments are untimed, allowing students to take as much time as needed to complete the test.

However, the estimated testing time for SBAC Mathematics are:

Grades 3-5: 2 hours and 30 minutes

Grades 6-8: 3 hours

Grade 11: 3 hours and 30 minutes

For SBAC English Language Arts, the estimated testing times are:

Grades 3-8: 3 hours and 30 minutes

Grade 11: 4 hours

SBAC Content

As we mentioned earlier, there are two end-of-year SBAC assessments: English Language Arts and Mathematics. Let’s take a closer look at the content and question types you can expect on these challenging exams.

SBAC English Language Arts

Smarter Balanced tests have content claims, which are basically statements about the skills students must demonstrate to perform well on the exam.

For the ELA exam, the overall content claims are:

Grades 3-8: “Students can demonstrate progress toward college and career readiness in English language arts and literacy.”

Grade 11: “Students can demonstrate college and career readiness in English language arts and literacy.”

Of course, those are some pretty general statements. How exactly can students demonstrate “college and career readiness in English language arts and literacy?”

This is where SBAC ELA’s four specific content claims come in:

Reading: Students can read closely and analytically to comprehend a range of increasingly complex literary and informational texts.

Writing: Students can produce effective and well-grounded writing for a range of purposes and audiences.

Speaking and Listening: Students can employ effective speaking and listening skills for a range of purposes and audiences.

Research/Inquiry: Students can engage in research and inquiry to investigate topics and to analyze, integrate, and present information.

How are these skills measured by the SBAC ELA?

To demonstrate Reading skills, students are expected to read a variety of grade-level appropriate texts, both literary and informational. Students may be required to compare, integrate, and analyze information from multiple texts.

Reading comprehension questions may focus on:

Key details

Central ideas (as in the following 5th grade sample question)

Smarter Balanced Practice Test - 5th grade Central Idea sample

Reasoning and evidence

The meaning of words and phrases in context (see the following seventh grade example about a word with multiple meanings)

Smarter Balanced Practice Test  - 7th grade Vocab sample

Analysis within and across texts

The ability to make inferences based on information in the text (see the following 4th grade example)

Smarter Balanced Practice Test  - 4th grade Inference sample

Text structures and features

The impact of word choice on meaning and tone (see the 8th grade sample question below)

Smarter Balanced Practice Test - 8th grade Tone sample

Figurative language

Characterization (as in the following third grade example)

Smarter Balanced Practice Test- 3rd gradeCharacterization sample

Connotative meanings

Author’s purpose and point of view (like in this 4th grade constructed response question)

Smarter Balanced Practice Test  - 4th gradePoint of View sample

Because the Common Core State Standards heavily emphasize the ability to provide supporting evidence, many of the test questions will ask students to cite evidence from the text. Students may be required to highlight supporting evidence or, on constructed response tasks, to explain their evidence.

Students may also be asked two part questions, with Part A asking a typical selected response question and Part B asking students to select the best piece of evidence to support their answer to Part A, as in this third grade sample question:

Smarter Balanced Practice Test - 3rd grade Evidence sample

To show mastery of Writing skills, students at each grade level must compose, revise, and/or edit both shorter and longer literary and informational texts for a variety of purposes (narrative, informational/explanatory, and opinion/argumentative).

The following is an example of a 5th grade question asking students to revise a text:

SBAC - 5th grade Editing sample

Students may also be asked to write brief narratives, as in this 6th grade sample question, posed after a short narrative passage:

sbac - 6th gradeNarrative sample

Students are assessed with multiple choice questions, brief writes, and a Performance Task. The Performance Task is scored based on focus/purpose, evidence/elaboration, and conventions. The task involves reading sources, taking purposeful notes, and then writing and revising a response to a given topic.

Speaking and Listening questions require students to listen to a variety of one-minute informational texts and respond to listening comprehension questions, which are very similar in content to the reading comprehension questions.

For example, the following question is based on an 11th grade listening passage audio presentation from The Big Book of Pop Culture:

Smarter Balanced Practice Test  - 11th grade Listening sample

Students do have the ability to individually rewind the audio or pause to take notes as needed.

Lastly, students are required to demonstrate Research/Inquiry skills by answering questions related to paraphrasing texts, avoiding plagiarism, and identifying credible sources. Below is a sample 4th grade Research/Inquiry question:

Smarter Balanced Practice Test - 4th gradeResearch sample

Students are also expected to evaluate the strength or appropriateness of information to support a specific claim, as in the following 11th grade question:

Smarter Balanced Practice Test - 11th gradeCredible Source sample

Lastly, there is a Research/Inquiry Performance Task, which requires students to explore a topic, issue, or complex problem and interpret, analyze, and synthesize related information from a variety of sources.

Students are asked three research questions about the materials and are then given a writing task requiring them to respond to a related prompt or problem.

As you can probably tell, this is a challenging and unique assessment. However, students can build confidence and familiarity with test content by Smarter Balanced practice tests. Later, we’ll discuss how to make the best use of the tests.

Smarter Balanced Mathematics

The overall content claims for mathematics are very similar to the content claims for ELA:

Grades 3-8: Students can demonstrate progress toward college and career readiness in mathematics.”

Grade 11: “Students can demonstrate college and career readiness in mathematics.”

The four specific content claims for Mathematics are:

Concepts and Procedures: Students can explain and apply mathematical concepts and interpret and carry out mathematical procedures with precision and fluency.

Problem Solving: Students can solve a range of complex well-posed problems in pure and applied mathematics, making productive use of knowledge and problem solving strategies.

Communicating Reasoning: Students can clearly and precisely construct viable arguments to support their own reasoning and to critique the reasoning of others.

Modeling and Data Analysis: Students can analyze complex, real-world scenarios and can construct and use mathematical models to interpret and solve problems.

So how exactly can students show that they have mastered these skills?

For questions related to Concepts and Procedures, students should be able to determine patterns and structures, demonstrate fluency in computation, specify units of measure, and express answers with precision. Students should also be able to explain why a certain procedure works, why a mathematical rule is true, etc.

At Grade 3, students will be expected to:

Solve addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems

Understand place value and fractions

Solve problems involving measurement and estimations of time, mass, and volume

Smarter Balanced Practice Test - 3rd grade Measurement sample

Understand the basics of shapes and their characteristics

Fourth grade students will additionally need to:

Understand decimals

Generate and analyze patterns

Smarter Balanced Practice Test - 4th gradePatterns sample

Convert measurements from a larger unit to a smaller unit

Represent and interpret data

Draw and identify lines and angles

At the fifth grade level, students must:

Add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions

Classify two dimensional figures into categories

Smarter Balanced Practice Test- 5th grade Categorizing sample

Graph points on coordinate planes to solve real-world problems

Sixth grade students must be able to:

Use ratios

Solve algebraic expressions, equations, and inequalities

sbac - 6th gradeInequality sample

Solve problems involving area, surface area, and volume

Seventh grade students are additionally required to:

Use random sampling to make inferences

Smarter Balanced Practice Test PDFs - 7th gradeRandom Sampling sample

Develop, use, and evaluate probability models

For eighth grade students, these questions require the ability to:

Work with radicals and integer exponents

Analyze and solve linear equations

Understand and apply the Pythagorean Theorem

SBAC TEST  - 8th grade Pythagorean Theorem sample

Solve problems using the volume of cones, cylinders, and spheres

Eleventh grade students are asked to:

Work with polynomials

Smarter Balanced Practice Test  - 11th gradePolynomials sample

Create equations

Solve equations graphically

Build and analyze functions

Define trigonometric ratios

Solve problems involving right triangles

Smarter Balanced Practice Test PDF - 11th grade Right Triangle sample

Demonstrate an understanding of algebra, geometry, statistics, and probability

To answer Problem Solving questions, students should be able to apply math to real-world situations.

They must be able to strategically select and use tools as they solve problems, and they need the ability to interpret results in context. It’s also important for students to be able to identify key information in a practical situation and map the relationship using diagrams, graphs, formulas, etc.

Below is a sample 6th grade Problem Solving question.

Smarter Balanced Practice Test - 6th gradeProblem Solving sample

In order to demonstrate the ability to Communicate Reasoning, students must explain their reasoning, construct examples to evaluate a proposition or conjecture, and identify flaws in arguments or logic.

Students may be asked to critique, prove, justify, or investigate mathematical conjectures and logic and complete longer “investigations.”

The example below is from a 5th grade question requiring students to justify an answer:

Smarter Balanced Practice Test- 5th grade Reasoning sample

For your reference, here is the Gift Store Prices table mentioned in the question:

Smarter Balanced Practice Test  - Gift Store Prices sample

Finally, Modeling and Data Analysis questions ask students to apply mathematical knowledge to real world scenarios at a deep level of understanding.

Students may be asked to develop mathematical models of their own or to improve upon provided models. Students may also be asked to make reasoned estimates and plan, design, evaluate, and recommend tasks.

You can view an 8th grade Modeling question below:

Smarter Balanced Practice Test  - 8th grade Modeling sample

This particular activity had many parts, culminating in the following:

Smarter Balanced  Test  - 8th gradeModeling 2 sample

As you can see, the SBAC Mathematics test heavily emphasizes the ability to apply mathematical concepts to complex real-world situations. Students must be able to reason mathematically and to justify and explain their reasoning.

If your child struggles with these higher level skills, practicing with Smarter Balanced practice tests can be an extremely effective way to learn this type of critical thinking and reasoning.

Using Smarter Balanced Practice Test Effectively

Although practice tests and moving on won’t be much help.

To make the best use out of Smarter Balanced practice tests, use the following tips:

Begin consistently practicing a few months in advance.

Once you notice a particular area of weakness, begin focusing practice sessions on this particular question type.

When your child misses a question, make sure they understand why the right answer was correct--and why the wrong answer was incorrect.

Discuss ways to better approach these questions in the future.

Work with your child to develop strategies that work very well for him/her on SBAC question types.

Depending on your child’s age, keep practice sessions short, upbeat, and engaging. You don’t want your child to get frustrated or burnt out.

Avoid overemphasizing the test and causing test anxiety

By practicing early and often with Smarter Balanced practice tests using these tips, your child will become a Smarter Balanced rock star and ace the SBAC.