Available Resources for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments

The following resources are designed for classroom educators to support their understanding of the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for English language arts/literacy (ELA) and mathematics. Additional resources are provided for site administration to use when communicating to parents/guardians about the assessments.

Fact Sheet

Answers general questions about various aspects and objectives of the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments
https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/ca/documents/sbsumfactsheet.pdf external icon

Overview Video

This video explores the Smarter Balanced summative assessments
https://youtu.be/FEy3PxOCE58 external icon

Practice and Training Tests

Opportunities to become familiar with the types of test questions that may appear on the ELA and mathematics summative assessments

Sample Items

Smarter Balanced website that provides sample test questions for the ELA and mathematics tests at each grade
https://sampleitems.smarterbalanced.org/ external icon

Parent Guide to Understanding

Designed for parents/guardians to address basic questions, such as who takes the assessments, why, when, and how; can be shared during back to school night, at teacher conferences, with the letter that notifies parents/guardians that their child will be taking yearly assessments, or with the annual Student Score Reports
https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/ca/documents/pgtu-summative.pdf external icon

How to Start a Test Session

Step-by-step instructions for how to access and start a test session https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/ca/documents/qrgstarttestsession.pdf external icon

For Site Administrators

Parent Notification Letters

Sample letter templates to serve as notice to parents/guardians of the yearly statewide assessment and when sharing information about student scores

Last Reviewed: September 16, 2022