The Sioux Falls Catholic Schools have chosen not to use the Smarter Balanced Assessments.

The SFCS has sited the following concerns:

• The Smarter Balanced Assessment is a field test where students will be exposed to thousands of test items in an effort to assist the consortium in choosing the best test items for the actual test which will not be ready until next spring.  Therefore, no two students will see the same questions, and no data or results will be available for schools.

• Estimated time for the testing is eight hours requiring student access to computers for the duration of the test.  Eight hours of instructional time will also be lost on piloting a test that would not produce immediate results.

With this decision, the SFCS system has stood up and said that the students they serve are not here to serve SBAC.  This is great news for the Catholic Schools and the students they serve.

You can read the full announcement here.