By Laurie Udesky

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has finally released the “interim assessments” schools can use to gauge how well their students are doing in math and English language arts instruction aligned with the Common Core standards. Districts that are using the assessments will now have access through a secure browser on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress website (caaspp.org).

The assessments are optional tests schools can administer in advance of the end-of-the year or “summative” Smarter Balanced assessments that students in grades 3 through 9 and the 11th grade will take this spring.

Initially, the consortium, charged with coming up with a range of Common Core aligned tests, was set to release the interim tests last fall. The timeline was then pushed back to December. Luci Willits, the consortium’s deputy executive director, told EdSource Today that the delay was related to the fact that teachers were not finished vetting the test questions until the end of October.

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