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State test writing practice
Smarter BalancedGrades 3–8 · 11Performance task full writeCA · WA · OR and more

SBAC writing practice, built like the real performance task.

Generate complete Smarter Balanced performance tasks: a research scenario, two sources students can actually cite, the assignment with the exact criteria language from released practice tests, the official rubric, and an exemplar. Used by California (CAASPP), Washington, Oregon, and other member states. When students finish, EnlightenAI grades every response against the same official rubric in minutes.

Build a performance task
Free, no sign-in requiredVerbatim released-task criteria, official rubric
01 Build a task

Build a Smarter Balanced performance task.

Pick a grade and writing purpose, choose a topic, and generate the full task: Part 1 scenario, two sources, and the Part 2 assignment with the official criteria checklist. Purposes are constrained to what the blueprint tests at each grade.

Smarter Balanced performance task builderFree tool · no sign-in
1. GradeGrade 42. Purposeinformational3. TopicWhat it takes to become …4. GenerateFull performance task

Choose a topic

Pick a curated topic or write your own. Opinion and argumentative topics are screened so both sides have citable evidence in the sources.

Directions and criteria are verbatim from the released Grade 4 “Animals and Their Surroundings Informational Performance Task”.
02 Why generated

Why use generated SBAC practice tests?

Released questions are the official gold standard, and every task here is anchored to them. But states release only a handful, and students eventually know them. Generated practice tests keep the exact format and scoring while giving students fresh practice questions all year.

Released performance tasks

  • Official items, the anchor for everything on this page
  • Limited number released each year
  • Students may have seen them in class already
  • Same prompts for every classroom

Browse the released items

Generated practice tests

  • Unlimited fresh prompts in the released format
  • New practice questions on every click
  • Same task structure, directions, and official rubric
  • Built for ongoing exam prep, not one mock test
03 Scoring

Scored with the official Smarter Balanced writing rubrics.

One rubric per writing purpose, each with Organization/Purpose, Evidence/Elaboration (Development/Elaboration for narrative), and Conventions. Every descriptor, word for word, in the rubrics library.

3–5
Informational Rubric, Grades 3–5
Org/Purpose 1–4 · Evidence 1–4 · Conventions 0–2
View rubric
3–5
Opinion Rubric, Grades 3–5
Org/Purpose 1–4 · Evidence 1–4 · Conventions 0–2
View rubric
3–8
Narrative Rubric, Grades 3–8
Org/Purpose 1–4 · Development 1–4 · Conventions 0–2
View rubric
6–11
Explanatory Rubric, Grades 6–11
Org/Purpose 1–4 · Evidence 1–4 · Conventions 0–2
View rubric
6–11
Argumentative Rubric, Grades 6–11
Org/Purpose 1–4 · Evidence 1–4 · Conventions 0–2
View rubric
CA
CAASPP practice test (California)
The SBAC as California administers it
CAASPP details
04 FAQ

SBAC writing, answered.

What writing is on the Smarter Balanced (SBAC) test?
The ELA performance task ends with a full write: students read two or three sources, answer research questions, then write a complete piece. Grades 3 to 5 write narrative, informational, or opinion pieces; grades 6 to 8 write narrative, explanatory, or argumentative pieces; grade 11 writes explanatory or argumentative essays.
How is the SBAC full write scored?
On the official Smarter Balanced rubric for the writing purpose: Organization/Purpose (1 to 4 points), Evidence/Elaboration or Development/Elaboration (1 to 4 points), and Conventions (0 to 2 points). The full rubrics, word for word, are in the EnlightenAI rubrics library.
Which states use the SBAC?
Smarter Balanced member states administer it under their own names, including California (CAASPP), Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, and Vermont. The writing task and rubrics are the same consortium design.
Where can I find official SBAC practice tests?
Smarter Balanced publishes practice tests, performance task scoring guides, and annotated student responses at portal.smarterbalanced.org, and member states host practice tests through their own portals (for example CAASPP in California).
What is the REMEMBER checklist on the SBAC full write?
On grades 3 to 5 released performance tasks, the assignment ends with a checklist beginning "REMEMBER: A well-written..." listing what the piece needs: a clear main idea or opinion, organization, an introduction and conclusion, transitions, details from the sources with source titles or numbers, and correct writing conventions. Grades 6 to 11 tasks instead show a scoring block with three trait questions. This generator reproduces both formats word for word.
Does grade 11 get a narrative performance task?
No. Per Smarter Balanced, narrative full writes appear at grades 3 through 8; grade 11 receives explanatory or argumentative tasks.
How does this generator stay faithful to the real test?
The scoring criteria students see (the REMEMBER checklist at grades 3 to 5, the trait-question scoring block at grades 6 to 11), the Part 2 directions, and the begin-work instructions are verbatim from officially released Smarter Balanced practice tasks. The scenario, sources, and exemplar are AI-generated for practice, modeled on released tasks and, where Smarter Balanced publishes them, calibrated to officially scored anchor responses.
Can AI grade SBAC performance task writing?
Yes. EnlightenAI trains on the official Smarter Balanced rubric and scores each full write with per-criterion feedback. In accuracy studies, EnlightenAI plus a teacher agreed with expert scores more closely than two teachers agreed with each other. See the AI essay grader and the accuracy research.
Is this SBAC practice test generator free?
Yes. Generating performance tasks is free and requires no sign-in. Grading responses against the rubric in EnlightenAI takes a free account.
05 After the practice

Why teachers use AI grading after SBAC practice tests.

Generating the practice is the easy half. Grading thirty essays against the official rubric is where the weekend goes. EnlightenAI scores responses against the same rubric with per-criterion feedback, so practice becomes a feedback loop instead of a grading backlog.

0.77 QWK with teachers

In a study with DREAM Charter Schools, EnlightenAI plus a teacher scored 0.77 quadratic weighted kappa agreement, versus 0.52 for two teachers scoring independently.

70% exact score match

On the New York Regents dataset, EnlightenAI matched the training teacher’s exact score 70% of the time, and landed within one point the rest of the time.

From a real classroom

“Grading, once my most dreaded task, became faster and far more efficient. With EnlightenAI handling the bulk of the grading, I was free to focus on what mattered most: meaningful instruction with my students.” Melynda Brown, 6th Grade Humanities, Delta Schools

See the research

Grade SBAC writing in EnlightenAI.

Train EnlightenAI on the official Smarter Balanced rubric, then grade every practice response with per-criterion feedback. What used to take a weekend now takes a single class period.

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