First N.H. Students Begin Taking 'Smarter Balanced' Test

Schools in New Hampshire started to administer a brand new standardized test Monday.

Ever since 2005, students all over New England have taken a standardized-test called the NECAP in 3^rd through 8^th grade and once more in high school, but this year the pencil-and-paper NECAP was replaced with an online test, the Smarter Balanced.

The Smarter Balanced is “adaptive,” meaning the questions get harder or easier depending on which questions the student gets correct.

Some teachers worry the test will be more difficult for students without access to computers, but 8^th grader Dillon Roux, from Manchester, is unconcerned, saying “I’m better with computers.”

The Smarter Balanced is also expected to be more difficult than the NECAP, but Roux’s brother, 4^th grader Chris Hunt, thinks he’ll be able to handle it. “It’s math and I’m really good at Math,” he says.

They’ll both soon find out. Schools have 12 weeks to administer the assessment, which takes each student 7 or 8 hours to complete both the Math and English portions.