Our teachers have found the interim assessments to be a very useful tool. It's part of why we've really bought into the Smarter Balanced system is that it is a system and it's not just the summative end-of-the-year assessment. Our teachers meet and PLC's weekly to set the ongoing goals and so they can check in on a consistent basis and then every five to six weeks the teachers will meet one-on-one with myself. Oftentimes, we'll have our lab teacher, our counselor, will join us also to give feedback on the students and then we're able to use that feedback, immediately, in teaming groups and with our students in the classrooms. I really feel that the interim has been very impactful for my students. We were introduced to the interims about four years ago and our district provided them to us for a professional development. Then, our district started getting involved with our response to interventions and that's when we started seeing interims as a key to helping us set goals for our students. Because we do response to interventions every six weeks, we use that interim data to guide our instruction. The information that I get from the IAB's is so valuable. I especially appreciate when it can break it down question by question and I can see which questions individual students struggle with as well as which questions did my class as a whole struggle with. One of the great things about the IAB's is that they have deeper levels of questioning in them and there's multiple parts and when students are able to see their academics being assessed in that way, and they have practice with that format, they're more successful. And I think the biggest benefit is getting it back in their hands and showing them where they made their mistakes and where they can grow from it. I think that the more engaged the kids are, the more ownership they take of their learning so I think it's really important that we engage them in every step of the way. My kids are often asking me, "How did I do on that?" or "What kind of growth did I make?" It might not be an entire rubric jump but they've jumped in different points they've jumped in getting more information that they didn't know beforehand. These questions are written so kids have to think their way to the right answer and that I think is so powerful because that's what we want to create with our students. We want to put them out in the world as citizens that can problem-solve and think for themselves and can rationalize why they choose certain things. The interim assessments, leading up to the summative assessment, are built to do that and to show the progress over time. Smarter Balanced would like to thank Puyallup School District and Brouillet Elementary. SmarterBalanced.org