State Testing

The SBA is an assessment system used by Washington and other states belonging to the Smarter Balanced Consortium.  The assessments are administered at the end of the school year to determine students' progress toward college and career readiness. The content is based on the Washington K-12 Learning Standards in ELA and Math for the grade level.

All students in grades 3-8, 10 are required to be assessed in English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics annually. In grade 10, the SBA is one path toward meeting the Graduation Pathway graduation requirement. 

Students complete SBA tests online during the school day and they are not timed. There are two main components to the SBA:

1. Computer Adaptive Test: The CAT adjusts to a student’s ability by basing the difficulty of future questions on previous answers. An adaptive test assesses a student's knowledge and academic skills more accurately than a traditional fixed-form test. The format is multiple choice.

2. Performance Task: The PT challenges students to apply their knowledge and skills to a more complex, real-world context. The task is a scenario or series of questions that require students to engage with various materials and produce a response.

An alternate assessment for the SBA is available to Special Education students with significant cognitive challenges whose IEP team has determined that the alternate assessments are appropriate and have designated the use of the alternate assessments on the student's IEP. Please see OSPI's Washington Access to Instruction and Measurement (WA-AIM) page for more details.

Families receive official score reports in the early fall of the following school year. In Edmonds, SBA scores are loaded into Qmlativ and the score reports are provided in pdf form via ParentSquare.

Additional SBA resources:

OSPI: Smarter Balanced

Understanding the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment video (Spanish)

Understanding the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment video (English)

SBA Achievement Level Descriptors

The Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science (WCAS) measures the level of proficiency that Washington students have achieved based on the Washington State 2013 K-12 Science Learning Standards, which are the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

All students in grades 5, 8, and 11 are required to be assessed in Science annually. The WCAS fulfills the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requirement that students be tested in science once at each level: elementary, middle, and high school. 

While passing the High School WCAS is not a graduation requirement, participating in the test in the grade 11 is a state and federal requirement.  Students achieving a level 3 or 4 may be eligible to use the WCAS toward credit retrieval in science for graduation requirements.

Students complete WCAS tests online during the school day and they are not timed.

Families receive official score reports in the early fall of the following school year. In Edmonds, WCAS scores are loaded into Qmlativ and the score reports are provided in pdf form via ParentSquare.

Additional SBA resources:

OSPI: WCAS

OSPI WCAS FAQ

WCAS Achievement Level Descriptors

This program helps bring families, teachers, and early learning providers together to support each kindergarten student's learning and transition into public schools.

The Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (WaKIDS) is a transition process that helps to ensure a successful start to the K-12 experience and connect the key adults in a child’s life. These data help inform state and district-level decisions about education policy and investments, and classroom decisions about individualized learning.

For more information on WaKIDS, please see the OSPI website here.

Title III of the Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to assess the English language proficiency of students receiving English language development (ELD) services at school. Washington state uses the WIDA consortium assessments to measure English proficiency for these students. WIDA assessments are based on the  WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. Washington state began administering the WIDA ACCESS as the annual assessment in the 2021-22 school year.

For additional information regarding the WIDA consortium, please visit the consortium's website.

ELP Screener:  The WIDA Screener is used to determine initial eligibility for ELD services. This is an online assessment that measures proficiency in the four language domains of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. This test is typically administered to potential English learners upon initial enrollment in a Washington school.

ELP Annual Assessments:  The WIDA ACCESS assessment is an online annual assessment given to all students who qualify for English language development (ELD) services. The annual assessment measures students' English language proficiency, both knowledge and skills, in reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Results from this test determine which students remain eligible to continue receiving ELD services.  

ELP Alternate Assessment: The Alternate ACCESS is a paper-based annual assessment of English language proficiency for multilingual students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. IEP teams decide if ACCESS or Alternate ACCESS is the appropriate assessment path for a student. This assessment measures the four language domains of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Students who are eligible for this test sit for the test annually.