It's the question everyone really wants to know. We've never seen this test before. What should we expect?
Smarter Balanced has published "Stimulus Specifications" that may give us a clearer picture of what our students can expect to see.
Students in K-5 apply the Reading standards to the following range of text types, with texts selected from a broad range of cultures and periods.
Because students have a limited amount of time to complete an assessment, expecting them to read and comprehend lengthy texts is unrealistic. The table below presents minimum and maximum word counts for texts to be used in Smarter Balanced items/tasks. Short texts contain 75% or less of the maximum number of words allowed in long texts.
Lexile levels for Common Core State Standards grade bands are shown in the following chart.
TEXT COMPLEXITY
Text complexity consists of three equally important parts:
Qualitative dimensions of text complexity refer to those aspects best measured or only measurable by an attentive human reader, such as levels of meaning or purpose; structure; language conventionality and clarity; and knowledge demands.
Quantitative dimensions of text complexity refer to those aspects such as word length or frequency, sentence length, and text cohesion, that are difficult, if not impossible, for a human reader to evaluate efficiently, especially in long texts, and are thus today typically measured by computer software.
Reader and task considerations take into account variables specific to particular readers (such as motivation, knowledge, and experiences) and to particular tasks (such as purpose and the complexity of the task assigned and the questions posed). Such assessments are best made by teachers employing their professional judgment, experience, and knowledge of their students and the subject.
The following rubric is used for examining literary texts:
Below is an example worksheet of literary text complexity analysis. Following the example are options for worksheets to use to determine text complexity.
Analysis worksheet from Kylene Beers and Robert Probst's Notice and Note
Analysis worksheet from PARCC online
The following rubric is used for examining informational texts:
Teaching Channel offers a glimpse into assessing text complexity:
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