12 Literacy Understanding the NYS 3-8 ELA Tests Workshop with the Board May 14, 2024
Goals for Tonight Together, we will: ● Review recent literacy work ● Meet writers of the state tests ● Sample an 8th-grade test ● Learn how scoring works ● Identify next steps When you get questions, you’ll be ready…
Recent Literacy Progress (3 min.) Committee Work ● 90+ members, spring 2023 ● Subcommittees, 23-24 SY Resource Adoption ● Reviews - rubrics and groups ● Vendor presentations UPK ● Board report, December 2023 ● Scarborough’s Rope
Creating the Test (10 min.), The Why ● The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (2018) requires that states annually administer tests in English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics in Grades 3–8. ● The standards-aligned tests are designed to report student proficiency in one of four performance levels. Educator Guide to the 2024 Grades 3-8 English Language Arts Tests
Creating the Test (10 min.), The Who Conversation with Two Test Writers ● Brenda Green, Plank North Elementary ○ Grade 4 teacher
● Tracy Wyant, Spry MS ○ Grade 7 ELA teacher
3-8 Overview (2 min.) ● Test is given over two days (Session 1 & Session 2) ● Passages are paired with: ○ multiple choice questions only, ○ MC questions + two-point responses, or ○ two-point questions + a four-point question. ● The four-point extended response question is based on two passages.
3-8 Overview, cont’d ● Multiple choice questions are designed to assess the NYS Next Generation Learning Standards in English Language Arts. ● Two-credit constructed-response questions are designed to assess NYS Reading and Language Standards. ● Four-credit constructed-response questions are designed to measure a student’s ability to write from sources.
Grade 8 (30 min.) ● In the next 15 minutes or so, read: ○ Girl w/Camera ■ Answer the multiple choice questions (answers on back)
○ Julie of the Wolves ■ How would you answer each of the two-point questions?
○ BOTH Keep the Wild and Saving Manatees ■ How would you answer the two- and four-point questions?
● We will debrief afterwards ○ Including rubrics + last page
Debrief (10 min.) Debrief ● Thoughts on passages ● Multiple-choice questions ● Short- and extended-responses ● Rubrics & last page ● CBT format sampler
Scoring (5 min.) Understanding the Process ● Rubrics and student exemplars ● Training the table leaders ● More than one scorer per paper ● Never my own students ● Sensitive papers ● Read-behinds
Next Steps?
Your thoughts here…
Thanks!