Smarter Balanced Interim Participation Trend Data
Session handout for Session 1 — Using the Smarter Balanced Interim Assessment. A single table: District, School, Tests Completed 24-25, Tests Completed 25-26, Difference, Percent Change. Twenty-one school rows across ten districts — matching the “~14,000 students across 21 schools” and “approximately 10 districts” in the record.
Districts represented
Akron-Fairgrove, Big Jackson, Corunna, Forest Hills (six schools, all new this year), Hartland Consolidated (six schools), Lawton, North Branch Area (two), Stanton Township, Whiteford Agricultural (two).
The headline the table does not print
Totals move from 14,756 tests to 14,495 — a net change of −261, about −2%. Participation is flat, and it is flat in a year when Forest Hills brought six entirely new schools into the programme. Growth from new districts is being cancelled by contraction in existing ones.
Two movements drive it:
- Ruth Fox Middle School: −1,418 tests, −50%
- Whiteford Middle School: +264 tests, +128%
Round Elementary also fell about 26%.
That pattern — a large existing user halving its usage while new districts join — is a retention problem, not an awareness problem, and it bears directly on the barrier study discussed in Smarter Balanced Interim Adoption.
Footnote in the source
NA = Did not participate in 24-25 0 = Unsure if participating for 25-26
Two rows carry the “unsure” marker, so the 25-26 figure is provisional.