I’ve been very involved with my district’s efforts in preparing and administering everything Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and now what is California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP). It has been a long road that continues to be upgraded. Therefore schools and districts are required to continuously following these changes and respond to them. In my role of Instructional Coach, I’ve been attempting to follow this road as closely as possible and feel that I have a solid understanding of this assessment system. However, I hadn’t looked this closely to the technical requirements.
One of my key discoveries after reviewing the SBAC Technical requirements and talking to my district’s Technology Director is that there must be collaboration with the district’s IT Department and district and site leadership, in order to meet the CAASPP Technical Requirements. I must recognize my district’s exceptional work these past couple of years for preparing our schools and ensuring that the past two administrations have been successful. This was not a result of luck. The Technology Director shared with me how they prepare yearly for this assessment, so that it is almost an ongoing process and how a large part of the IT’s work revolves around maintaining the devices at all times. For the past three years, they check all the devices for this purpose. This year our network capacity has increased from 1 gig to 10. She did emphasize that all their work is based on their discussion with site administration. It is through these discussions that decisions are then made. A lot of this work occurs behind the scenes, but without it, many things would not be possible.
One of my key discoveries after reviewing the SBAC Technical requirements and talking to my district’s Technology Director is that there must be collaboration with the district’s IT Department and district and site leadership, in order to meet the CAASPP Technical Requirements. I must recognize my district’s exceptional work these past couple of years for preparing our schools and ensuring that the past two administrations have been successful. This was not a result of luck. The Technology Director shared with me how they prepare yearly for this assessment, so that it is almost an ongoing process and how a large part of the IT’s work revolves around maintaining the devices at all times. For the past three years, they check all the devices for this purpose. This year our network capacity has increased from 1 gig to 10. She did emphasize that all their work is based on their discussion with site administration. It is through these discussions that decisions are then made. A lot of this work occurs behind the scenes, but without it, many things would not be possible.