Content Progressions & Clustering across Instructional Materials: Viability for Supporting the Design of a Through-Year Assessment Model

Over the past few years, several states have begun to explore or pilot different through-year assessments to serve as replacements to the traditional end-of-year summative assessments that are currently the predominant source of information used by states to meet federal accountability requirements. While there are several different assessment models that could be considered as part of a through-year design, the purpose of this paper is to examine what it might look like to administer the end-of-year computer adaptive test (CAT) in a through-year model that more closely resembles the current Smarter Balanced interim assessment blocks (IABs), with a specific emphasis on content considerations. It is guided by the following two questions: (1) To what degree do some of the most widely used mathematics and English language arts/literacy curricula support a reasonable structure for clustering standards for a through-year model? and (2) To what degree can the existing Smarter Balanced interim assessment system, with some adaptations, be used to support the design and development of a high-quality through-year assessment model?