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Delaware English Language Arts (ELA)/Literacy Assessment
Assessments are an integral part of the instructional cycle and fulfill several purposes for educators, students, parents, policy makers, and community members. Assessments administered at the state, district/charter, and school levels combine to form a system of assessments with the goal of supporting student growth.Delaware’s English language arts (ELA)/literacy assessment helps students, families and teachers determine each student’s strengths and areas for growth on the state's standards for ELA/literacy. This assessment is just one measure for determining your child’s progress in school. Other measures include your child's grades, classroom assignments, district-wide tests and more.Delaware teachers helped to develop Smarter’s ELA/literacy assessment. The Smarter Balanced Assessment System has three components: summative assessments, designed for accountability purposes; interim assessments, designed to support teaching and learning throughout the year; and formative assessment processes, supported by professional learning and instructional resources in the Digital Library.General Overview
- Students tested: All students in grades 3-8;
- Alternate options:
- For students with significant disabilities: Alternate assessment
- Test date: District can choose to give the test between Mid March 16 to end of May each year. Assessment Calendar
- Cut scores: ELA cut scores
- State/district scores: 2017 and prior-year data
- Test provider: Smarter Balanced consortium
- Test type: This test goes beyond multiple-choice and short answer, and instead focuses on writing, problem-solving and critical thinking to accurately measure student progress in each grade. Sample tests
- In-class supports/resources:
- Interim assessments - Designed to support teaching and learning throughout the year
- Formative assessments - Supported by professional learning and instructional resources in the Digital Library
- Overview of the Interim Assessments (ELA & Math) Grades 3-10 for 2021-22
- ELA/Math Literacy Balanced Assessment System (BAS) Model
- Flexible Ways of using Interim Assessments - Instructional Purposes Only
- Alternate options:
Overview of High School Smarter Interim Administration Requirements (Webinar Recording - Oct 10, 2019)
Family and Educator Resources
Documents align to the Delaware ELA/Literacy Claims and assessments Targets for grades 3-8. They can be used to design classroom lessons and districts assessments. In addition, they serve as a guide in understanding the Smarter ELA/Literacy reports.
Summative test blueprints that reflect refinements and revisions after the analysis of the Pilot and Field Tests. Describe the content of the ELA/Literacy and Mathematics Summative Assessments in grades 3‒8, and how that content will be assessed to reflect the depth and breadth of the performance expectations for the CCSS. Provide information about the number of items, score points, and depth of knowledge for items associated with each assessment target. Also continue to guide the development of items and performance tasks, score reporting, and ongoing research.
- Smarter Balanced Adjusted Blueprint ELA/Literacy - January 2021
- DeSSA Set up and Training for Statewide Assessments. This one-pager provides the necessary setup and steps for a successful completion of required trainings for ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies.
- Parent Reports - Provides Family and Educator Resources for Smarter score reports and guides for student success.
- Smarter Summative Report - English Version
- Smarter Summative Report - Spanish Version
- Parent Report Interpretive Guide
- Parent Guides contain content required for each grade and links for additional resources.
- Accessibility Guidelines:
Contains the accessibility features policies and procedures for the following assessments: English language arts (ELA)/literacy and mathematics, science and social Studies, end-of-course assessments (US History, Algebra II and Integrated Math III) and the alternate assessment (Alt-1) for reading, mathematics, science, and social Studies. The Accessibility Guidelines are now housed in Schoology. Please contact Michelle Jackson for the access code.
- State Testing Resources
- DeSSA Portal Overview. This video will give educators an overview of the applications available on the DeSSA Portal for ELA and Mathematics (New layout in 2021)
- Assessment Resources - Provides students, educators, and parents information about the ELA and Math assessments, its tools, and good practices of taking the ELA/Math assessments.
Educators Opportunities - Collaboration with other SBAC states
Contains information about the different Educators opportunities for the SBAC Member states. Qualified Delaware Educators can collaborate with other states members ranging from Item Development, Item Review, and Rangefinding(Benchmarking). For more details please contact the Office of Assessment referred in this presentation.
- Students tested: All students in grades 3-8;
