Smarter Balanced rounds out list of Oregon interim assessments that meet law

The Oregon Education Accountability Act requires schools to test K-8 students three times a year in math and language arts and report results at a public meeting starting in the 2026-27 school year.

The act also required the State Board of Education to adopt a list of up to four interim assessment providers by Jan. 31. The Oregon Department of Education had to move quickly to put together a list for the Jan. 15 board meeting, and the state board finalized the list at its regular meeting Thursday, Feb. 19.

The final four - i-Ready, MAP, STAR and Smarter Balanced - are among the most-used in Oregon, but the choices will still leave about a third of districts scrambling to change or add tests, according to survey results. Education advocates, including OSBA, are requesting that ODE provide accommodations for districts that will need to purchase materials, modify technology systems, train staff and align curriculum to implement new tests.

Most districts around the state have embraced interim assessments as an important tool to monitor students' progress and intervene before they get too far off the path. Schools' approaches, though, vary widely, not only in the tests used but also in the grades and subjects tracked.

Senate Bill 141, passed in 2025, set ODE to evaluating interim assessment options with the help of national experts and Oregon educators. ODE presented its results at the January state board meeting.

No one test met all ODE's evaluation criteria, but it recommended the vendors Curriculum Associates (i-Ready), Renaissance (STAR), Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (MAP) and Cambium Assessment (Smarter Balanced).

More districts use IXL Learning than Smarter Balanced, according to ODE's January slide show,

but Smarter Balanced has the advantage of already being in use for end-of-year summative tests and free to districts.

School board members and superintendents pushed back against the list before the January meeting. Districts that aren't using interim assessments or are using different assessments would need to implement a new program at considerable cost and with little time to pick a program, put it into the budget, reorganize the curriculum and get teachers trained. Changing systems would also interrupt data tracking over time.

OSBA, the Coalition of Oregon School Administrators, the Oregon Small Schools Association, the Oregon Association of Education Service Districts, the Oregon Association of School Business Officials and the Oregon Coalition of Community Charter Schools jointly submitted letters to the January and February meetings supporting interim assessments with some considerations for timing and cost. The group did not advocate for any particular assessment but wanted schools to have as many to choose from as possible.

The January letter said a COSA survey found that approximately 72 districts and public charter schools would need a new language arts test, approximately 62 would need a new math test and approximately 52 would need both.

Some district leaders asked for a waiver so they could keep using tests they already have a contract with, but that isn't in the state board's legal power.

The board adopted three of the tests at the January meeting but wanted more information on Smarter Balanced. It met the most pushback because it doesn't offer K-2 assessments or tests in Spanish as well as being considerably less used for interim assessments than IXL.

Gaston School Board member Gary Sarbacher was among those who submitted comments to the state board for Thursday's meeting. He raised the issues of financial impact, loss of data continuity, implementation capacity and the compressed timeline.

"Gaston School District currently utilizes a research-based assessment system that is integrated into our instructional framework, intervention processes, and data review cycles," he wrote. "Because our current system is not included on the proposed state list, we would be required to adopt and implement new interim assessments in both English language arts and mathematics within a limited timeframe."

Mapleton School District Superintendent Sue Wilson, in a posted comment, pointed out that the assessments have limited transparency value for the cost to her district because it is so small that results are suppressed so individual students won't be inadvertently revealed.

Smarter Balanced was adopted Thursday without much more discussion and with some of the concerns at least addressed.

Tony Alpert, Smarter Balanced executive director, testified that Cambium is working with ODE and Renaissance to fill the Smarter Balanced testing shortcomings.

ODE Deputy Director Candice Castillo said during the meeting that ODE would provide timeline accommodations and some possible financial assistance for implementing new tests. ODE Strategic Communications Administrator Liz Merah said ODE would announce next week more details on the transition period and available funding.

ODE is still working out the details of data collection, test windows and public reporting, with plans to release guidance into the next school year.

- Jake Arnold, [email protected]