Technology Requirements for Common Core Assessments Released, But Not Costs | Truth in American Education

Technology Requirements for Common Core Assessments Released, But Not Costs | Truth in American Education:

Technology Requirements for Common Core Assessments Released, But Not Costs

by Shane Vander Hart

The Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) released their technologyrequirements last week.  The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC)  released theirs earlier this month.  Both are noticeably quiet on the costs.

Here are the five recommendations made by SBAC:

1. Move away from Windows XP (which is currently used by more than half of schools today) to Windows 7.
2. Upgrade computers to at least 1 GB of internal memory.
3. Make sure that all screens being used for the assessments have a visual display of no less than 9.5-inches, with at least a 1024 x 768 resolution.
4. Make sure the student testing site operates on secure browsers.
5. The assessment requires about 5-10 Kbps of bandwidth per student.

EdWeek reported last week on the PARCC requirements:

The new PARCC guidelines are “very similar” to the Smarter Balanced requirements, said Susan