Three NCTM members participated in a workshop in August organized and presented by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Curtis Center and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) to help develop new performance tasks for SBAC's next generation of Common Core aligned end-of-year exam to be used by 20 states.
NCTM Board members Jane Porath and Marilyn Strutchens, along with Emerging Issues Committee member Martin Gartzman, attended the August 10-12 meeting in Boston which included teachers, state, and district personnel; mathematics teacher educators; and mathematicians. They worked together to develop the contexts for performance tasks that are engaging, authentic, and sensitive to students regardless of their race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic background, and other defining characteristics. Other organizations involved in the workshop included Callahan Consulting, Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning and Equity (SCALE), and Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE).
The workshop included introductory presentations and activities intended to establish a framework for participants to reach a common understanding of the criteria for designing tasks and the goals for the tasks. The primary aim of the performance tasks is to showcase students' reasoning and sense-making strengths. Melissa Gholson, from the West Virginia Department of Education, discussed issues related to bias, accessibility, and sensitivity.
Smarter Balanced Director of Mathematics Judy Hickman reaffirmed SBAC's commitment to maintain and improve performance tasks, with the primary goal of creating high-quality tasks that teachers will incorporate in their daily instructional practice. NCTM President Diane Briars stated that the assessment consortia are more likely to respond to constructive criticism if mathematics educators work within efforts to improve tests. The workshop was an indication of SBAC's interest in and commitment to continual improvement of its assessment and supporting materials.
The workshop was a means for Smarter Balanced to engage key stakeholders from their constituent states in assessment development. It also involved more teacher leaders in assessment task development. By bringing in writing teams from several consortium states, SBAC hopes to create a cadre of diverse leaders who are dedicated to creating quality assessments.