Some States Tying Adaptive Testing To Common Core Implementation

Education Week (10/17, Davis) reports that at least 20 of the states that are adopting the Common Core Standards are planning to use adaptive online testing and are "looking at states like Delaware," which implemented such testing three years ago. "'Adaptive testing is really beneficial and can pinpoint a student's learning level more closely,' says Gerri Marshall, the supervisor of research and evaluation for the 15,000-student Red Clay Consolidated School District in Wilmington, Del., which piloted such tests." The piece notes that both the SBAC and the PARCC "have said their assessments will feature high-tech, interactive questions that incorporate video and graphics and are designed both to identify what students know and to be more engaging. Both assessments will be given online, but Smarter Balanced will use adaptive testing, while PARCC will use what are known as fixed-form tests, which feature set questions that generally do not change."