Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium (SBAC) in collaboration with the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) Consortium, has contracted with Pearson to develop a Technology Readiness Tool to support states’ planning as they transition to next-generation assessments.

This new open source tool assesses current capacity and compares that to the technology that will be needed to administer the new online assessments in four areas—devices, device to tester ratio, network infrastructure, and staff and personnel. The first of six data collection windows will be this spring.

The press release announcing the contract can be found at http://www.k12.wa.us/SMARTER/PressReleases/TechReadinessTool.aspx.

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) recently hosted a webinar on January 30 to provide additional information about the IT Readiness effort and answer questions. A recording of the webinar is available.