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Students exceed expectations on Smarter Balanced Assessments in four states-Hetchinger Report

August 17, 2015 2:59 pm / Leave a comment

In the four states that released results from their annual statewide assessments-Missouri, West Virginia, Oregon, and Washington-students exceeded expectations on the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA), reported the Hechinger Report. Experts say that though many factors likely contributed to the results, students are performing better despite the more difficult exam: (more…)

Gov. Hassan vetoes opt out bill: HB 603 “sends a bad message to our students”

June 13, 2015 8:55 am / Leave a comment

Governor Hassan has vetoed HB 603 which would allow parents to opt students out of the annual statewide assessment without penalty. Her veto message emphasized the importance of full participation for legal, accountability, and funding reasons, stating that the federally mandated assessments are required for many federal education grants and are also necessary for informing teacher instruction: (more…)

Mom Lee Laughlin researched the arguments on both sides and supports the standards and the Smarter Balanced Assessment

April 30, 2015 6:27 am / 4 Comments on Mom Lee Laughlin researched the arguments on both sides and supports the standards and the Smarter Balanced Assessment

In an article for the Concord Monitor, New Hampshire-based writer Lee Laughlin writes that the anti-testing rhetoric is so obscure that she needs to rely on her communications degree to decipher the message. A parent of school-aged children, she has heard the arguments both for and against the Smarter Balanced assessment that New Hampshire and many other states use, has done her research, and had her son take the test this year: (more…)

Manchester Board of School Committee votes to adopt statewide test - Union Leader

February 12, 2015 5:58 am / 2 Comments on Manchester Board of School Committee votes to adopt statewide test - Union Leader

Sarah Ambrogi and other key board members understood that there was really no choice in the end. Here is how the Union leader reported the meeting:

MANCHESTER — The Board of School Committee reversed its collision course with state education officials on Wednesday and voted to adopt the Smarter Balanced statewide assessment test.

(more…)

Rochester teachers Melissa Cunliffe and Sara Cantrell talk about competency based learning and New Hampshire’s new assessment strategy

November 19, 2014 8:27 pm / 1 Comment on Rochester teachers Melissa Cunliffe and Sara Cantrell talk about competency based learning and New Hampshire’s new assessment strategy

As one of New Hampshire’s four PACE school districts, Rochester is ground zero for working out the future New Hampshire public education, giving children the opportunity to learn in their own way. But Rochester’s educators and their leadership are not being shown a new way to teach; they are building new ways for their children to learn, from the ground up.

To see how it’s going, I spent yesterday with the wonderful Maple Street Magnet School principal Robin Brown visiting five schools at every grade level. I came away amazed at how completely this 4,300 student district and its 346 teachers have committed to their new path. (more…)

Vision, Reality Collide in Common-Core Tests - Education Week

April 22, 2014 1:02 pm / Leave a comment

Here are some of the highlights from a useful big-picture review, in Edweek, of how the Common Core assessments are shaping up: (more…)

Common Core test going well so far in Nashua - Nashua Telegraph

April 6, 2014 11:22 am / Leave a comment

So far so good, it seems, for the Smarter Balanced field test in Nashua. As reported in today’s Nashua Telegraph,

Except for the occasional issue with individual student log-ins to the network, things seemed to have run smoothly – both for traditional classrooms and for special education and students for whom English is not their first language. Smarter Balanced also has braille and audio versions for the visually handicapped.
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Why not just call a moratorium on standardized testing in New Hampshire?

February 14, 2014 8:36 am / 4 Comments on Why not just call a moratorium on standardized testing in New Hampshire?

Many legislators hate standardized testing. Why not just call a moratorium?

Many people on all sides of the Common Core debate object to the No Child Left Behind requirement that every student in grades 3-8 and 11 must be tested every year.

Why don’t we just stop giving the test? Isn’t that what Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, has proposed? Hasn’t the National Education Association said the same thing?

AFT and NEA propose a moratorium on the high-stakes linked to testing but not on the test itself

Actually, no. Weingarten has called for a moratorium on the high stakes linked to Common Core or any other testing. The NEA signed onto a national resolution on high-stakes testing that calls on states to stop high-stakes policies and the federal government to reduce testing mandates. But neither union has proposed a moratorium on testing.

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Sanborn Regional teachers talk about the new Smarter Balanced test

January 26, 2014 7:35 pm / 1 Comment on Sanborn Regional teachers talk about the new Smarter Balanced test

Virtually all New Hampshire school districts are down the road toward using the new Common Core standards to guide their curricula and lesson plans. New Hampshire is scheduled to start using the new Smarter Balanced annual test in the spring of 2015, but many teachers have already reviewed preliminary versions of the test or taken a sample test. (more…)