General Rules for the PPT

This section provides a brief overview of the general test administration rules for different portions of the assessment.

For the Smarter Balanced assessments, specific test items are administered in separate sessions. For example, grades six through eleven mathematics tests include a session in which students may use calculators and another session where calculators are not allowed.

For the CAST, non-PT and PT test items will be presented in a single session. Students taking the CAST are allowed calculators during the entire assessment.

Students may not return to a test section (session) in their test or answer booklet once that part of a test has been completed.

The student test booklets, answer booklets, and CDs are secure. Maintaining the security of all test materials is crucial to obtaining valid and reliable student results. Therefore, test materials must be kept in locked storage, except during actual test administration. It is the responsibility of all individuals who administer the test to follow security procedures.

Allowable Calculators

Students taking a mathematics assessment in grades six, seven, eight, and eleven are able to use calculators for Sessions 2 and 3. Refer to table 1 for allowable calculator types. Students in grades three, four, and five are not permitted to use any calculators except when approved as an unlisted resource; in these grades, the calculator changes the construct of the test and will result in an invalid score.

For Sessions 2 and 3, calculators with the following maximum functionality are acceptable for use. Table 1 lists allowable calculators for each grade level of the Smarter Balanced mathematics assessment.

For the CAST, calculators with the following maximum functionality are accepted for use. Table 2 lists allowable calculators for the CAST.

Calculator Use Guidelines

• For the Smarter Balanced for Mathematics:
  • Grades three, four, and five: No calculator may be used for any portion of the test.
  • Grades six, seven, eight, and eleven: The first session of each test is a noncalculator session. Be sure that no calculators are available until students begin working on Session 2.
  • Items are placed in the noncalculator section of the assessment when students are expected to be able to perform the skill without a calculator or if a particular calculator would provide an unfair advantage for a student.
• For the CAST:
  • Grade five uses a basic four-function calculator.
  • Grade eight and high school use a scientific calculator.
  • No grade may use a graphing calculator.
  • All grades may use a calculator for any question on the test.
• Test administrators are responsible for ensuring and verifying that calculators that have the ability to store functions and equations (such as a graphing or a scientific calculator) have the memory cleared before and after each mathematics assessment.
• Calculators cannot have internet connectivity or be able to connect to anyone inside or outside of the classroom during testing.
• Students cannot use a calculator on a laptop or other portable computer, electronic organizer, smart watch, cell phone, device with a typewriter-style keyboard, electronic writing pad, or pen-input device unless a particular assistive device is required for a student and is specified on the student’s individualized education program or Section 504 plan.
• No calculators with QWERTY keyboards are allowed.

Science Reference Tools

The CAST assessments for grade eight and high school include a periodic table and a reference sheet of formulas that students may access at any time during testing as universal tools. These are included on an individual page that is folded and inserted at the front of the CAST test booklet.

The reference sheet provides all formulas that a student may need to use in responding to a test item; however, this does not imply that the student will receive a specific item type.

The purposes of these reference tools are to signal that students do not need to memorize formulas and to ensure that students have equal access to the tools during testing. These reference tools are not meant to guide instruction.

The science reference tools that contain the reference sheet of formulas and periodic table of the elements must be collected and securely destroyed after testing, as they may have been used as scratch paper by a student.

Testing Times

Table 3 and table 4 contain the estimated times it will take most students to complete the Smarter Balanced PPT in ELA and mathematics at all grade levels. Table 5 provides the estimated time for most students to complete the CAST. This information is for scheduling purposes only, as the assessments are not timed.

Table 3 provides the estimated timing for ELA.

Table 4 shows the estimated timing for mathematics.

Table 5 shows the estimated timing for CAST.

Recommended Order of Test Administration

The Smarter Balanced assessments comprise three sessions for ELA and three sessions for mathematics. The PT (Session 3) for ELA contains two parts, each of which is administered in its own test session. The CAST contains one part that can be administered in a single day.

Smarter Balanced recommends that students take the non-PT portions of the test (Sessions 1 and 2) and the PT (for ELA, this is two parts, Parts 1 and 2) on separate days. For both ELA and mathematics, the order of administration should be Session 1 and Session 2, followed by the PT (for ELA, this is PT Part 1 and then PT Part 2). LEAs or schools may opt to administer in a different order if needed.

Figure 1 illustrates the recommended order for the ELA assessment, where session one is administered, then session two, then the PT in part one of session three, and then, finally, the full write—part two of the PT—in session four.

Figure 1. Recommended Order of Test Administration, ELA

Figure 2 illustrates the recommended order for the mathematics assessment, where session one is followed by session two and then, finally, by the PT.

Figure 2. Recommended Order of Test Administration, Mathematics