Content Specifications for the Summative Assessment of the ...

In the case of the Common Core, “societal expectations (values)” include preparing students for college
and careers. Content-specific research and cognitive research help to identify for educators (both
visually and verbally) hypotheses about how students will typically move toward increased
understanding and build expertise in reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
The general mapping of how skills and concepts might be best learned over time, while being organized
around unifying ideas, provides much more than a simple scope and sequence, pacing guide, or
checklist of skills. Later skills can clearly be built upon earlier prerequisite learning. These kinds of
progressions are reflected in the assessment targets we describe below across grades. 4, 8, and 11.
The Assessment Design
The proposed SBAC summative assessment design proposes to sample all CCSS strands, with the
exception of Reading Foundational Skills, which we suggest should be evaluated in the early grades
using any of a number of widely available diagnostic assessments for evaluating the developing reading
and literacy skills of young children. (See table below.) The assessment targets attend both to depth of
content and skills and to a range of item types and breadth of content across strands.
CCSS ELA &
Literacy Strands
Reading
Standards:
Foundational
Skills K–5
Reading Standards
for Literature
K-5, 6-12
Reading Standards
for Informational
Text
K‐5, 6‐12
Writing Standards
K-5, 6-12
Speaking and
Listening
Standards
K‐5, 6‐12
Reading Standards
for Literacy in
History/Social
Studies 6–12
How each CCSS strand and related standards are proposed to be addressed
within the SBAC assessment system
For results to be instructionally timely and useful, these standards are best assessed
locally by teachers: intensively at K-2 grades and then systematically at grade
levels above grade 2. Foundational reading skills can be assessed with the many
existing valid and reliable diagnostic and formative assessments, using the data to
make ongoing instructional and remediation decisions.
Assess both strands (RL and RI) and standards primarily under Claim #1 and
generally apply the distribution of emphasis for text types recommended in the CC.
Anchor Standard 1 in reading (and each grade specific version of this standard)
governs Reading Standards 2-9. It focuses on students’ use of evidence to support
their analyses (claims, conclusions, inferences) about texts. Hence, whether
students are asked to determine the central idea, the point of view, or the meaning
of words and phrases and the like, they will be using Standard 1 (making inferences
and supporting those inferences with evidence) in addition to one of the other
reading standards 2-9. As a result, Standard 1 underlies each Assessment Target.
Most or all of these items can likely be included in a computer-adaptive test (CAT).
Guidelines for text selection for summative assessments need to be developed in
light of Reading Standard 10. Guidelines for texts used to assess reading may be
different from those used to assess writing (claim #2) and research (claim #4)
where students will be asked to analyze and draw evidence from given texts.
Assess 3 key writing types and standards (W1 - W6 & W9) under Claim #2 and
generally apply distribution of emphasis recommended in the CC. Apply writing
standards W4-W9 as well to production of content-related texts and report under
Claim #4 (Research). Full compositions, involving planning and revision, would
best be assessed with performance tasks; while some editing and revision tasks may
be accomplished in the CAT portion of the summative assessment.
Assess selected speaking and listening skills under Claim #3. Some speaking and
listening standards may only be appropriate for local formative and interim
assessment purposes.
Conducting short research projects (Research to Build and Present Knowledge:
standards W7-W9) is included in the CC at all grade levels K-12. Research
standards to build knowledge of topics would likely be applied in local curriculums
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