Digital Library on Formative Assessment Tools and Practices is coming

Excerpt from memo from Troy Couillard; Wisconsin DPI Director Office of Student Assessment

Digital Library Rollout: June 3

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is committed to creating an integrated, balanced assessment system that provides actionable information to help teachers prepare students for college and careers. This system includes next-generation summative and interim assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards. The Digital Library on Formative Assessment Tools and Practices is also a key component of this system. The Digital Library is a searchable, interactive online tool composed of instructional and formative assessment resources that have been selected by educators and screened against a set of Quality Criteria established by experts.

For more information on the Digital Library, see the webinar “Quality Criteria for the Digital Library,” available at: http://www.smarterbalanced.org/resources-events/webinars/.

Smarter Balanced invites district and school staff in member states to preview the Digital Library from June 3 through September 30, 2014. During the preview, the Digital Library will contain initial functionality and a limited set of initial resources that will help educators understand the future utility of the Digital Library.

The process for districts to register users for the Digital Library preview includes filling out a template of user information and uploading it to a secure site. The template and instructions for preparing it for user registration will be available in mid-May. At that time, districts may use the template to prepare the list of users whom they want to be able to access the preview beginning on June 3, 2014.

This preview is an exciting opportunity to try out user rating, review, and comment features on the Digital Library resources, as well as collaboration features that encourage conversation among educators from across the Consortium. Smarter Balanced welcomes widespread participation in this preview and encourages districts to register all interested educators and promote their use of the Digital Library this summer and during professional development activities at the start of the next school year.