Tools for Teachers and Other Formative Assessment Resources
Tools for Teachers is the formative assessment component of the Smarter Balanced assessment system. The Formative Assessment Process is a deliberate process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides actionable feedback that is used to adjust ongoing teaching and learning strategies to improve students' attainment of curricular learning targets/goals. View the Understanding the Formative Assessment Process 
for more information about the formative assessment process.
Select this button to visit the Smarter Balanced
Tools for Teachers website.
Tools for Teachers is an easy-to-use website featuring lessons, activities, and more that incorporate the formative assessment process and accessibility strategies. This website is meant to support teachers daily during their instruction to help educators reflect on their students' knowledge and take action on next steps to meet learning goals.
Tools for Teachers Training Videos
- What is Tools for Teachers? (Video; 1 minute) (January 2024)
- How Tools for Teachers Supports Educators (Video; 4 minutes) (May 2020)
- Tools for Teachers: Website Demonstration for California Educators (Video; 8 minutes) (June 2020)
- CDE Formative Assessment in Action Video Series web page
- Tools for Teachers Shared Practice Webinars—YouTube Playlist (Posted 10/28/22)
- Using Smarter Balanced Interim Connections Playlists (Video; 7 minutes) (May 2021)
Tools for Teachers Flyers
- Tools for Teachers Fact Sheet (July 2021)
- Tools for Teachers Overview (May 2020)
- How to Self-Register for Tools for Teachers (November 2020)
- Tools for Teachers Interim Connections Playlists Flyer (November 2022)
- Tools for Teachers and Other Formative Assessment Online Tools At-a-Glance (December 2021)
- Interim Assessment Item Portal Flyer (August 2020)
Additional Resources
- CDE Smarter Balanced Tools for Teachers information web page
| Purpose | Description |
|---|---|
| Smarter Balanced Content Explorer |
This web application provides a user-friendly interface to explore the range of English language arts/literacy and mathematics knowledge and skills important for college and career readiness on the Smarter Balanced Assessments. The Content Explorer includes information about how the test questions are developed for specific aspects of the content and includes details about the specific aspects of the test questions. View the Smarter Balanced Content Explorer video for more information. |
| Smarter Balanced Annotated Response Tool |
This web application is designed to help educators better understand the rubrics that are used to score students' written responses to Smarter Balanced constructed-response items and performance tasks. Educators can view examples of student writing, scoring annotations, and rubrics to help understand what to look for when reviewing student responses and understand where to provide support to students in a specific writing area. Educators can use this professional learning resource as they work to standardize and calibrate their scoring of student writing samples. View the Smarter Annotated Response Tool Flyer for more information. |
| Lexile® & Quantile® Hub Resources |
This page contains resources for California educators interested in utilizing tools offered through the Lexile & Quantile Hub. The Hub contains instructional planning resources for educators and a variety of tools that support the monitoring of student growth in reading and math toward goals of college and career readiness. |