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Michael Huneke
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205 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive SE
Atlanta, GA 30334
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  mhuneke@doe.k12.ga.us

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Grade 5 Writing Assessment

Description

The writing assessment for grade five consists of an evaluation of each student response to an assigned prompt. Students are assigned a topic from a prompt bank representing three genres: narrative, informational, and persuasive. Students are allowed approximately 120 minutes to write their essays. The writing assessment must be administered in one day. A make-up is also given the following day.

Type of Writing

The Georgia Grade 5 Writing Assessment is a test of narrative, informational and persuasive writing. Students will be given either an informational, persuasive, or narrative writing topic. Because topics will be spiraled, students may receive any one of the three writing topics thus requiring them to be prepared to write in informational, narrative, and persuasive genres. Topics will be released after each test administration and will become part of the practice topic bank.

Analytic and Holistic Scoring

The scoring system is analytic. Analytic scoring means that more than one feature or domain of a paper is evaluated. Each domain itself is scored holistically. The score assigned indicates the test raters overall impression of the writer’s command of the components, using predetermined scoring criteria contained in the Scoring Rubrics. Accurate scoring requires balancing a writer’s strengths and areas of challenge.

Student writing will be assessed analytically in four domains: Ideas, Organization, Style, and Conventions. Analytic scoring will provide detailed information on student writing including scale scores and performance levels. The Grade 5 Writing Assessment will also be linked to a common reporting scale allowing for greater capability to compare scores over time.

Time Line

The Grade 5 Writing Assessment is administered during the first week of March. All grade five students will take the assessment on the same day. There will also be one day for make-up. Testing time will be 120 minutes (2 sessions of 60 minutes each). Each system will have the flexibility to determine what time of day to administer each of the sessions. No extra time will be allowed except as specified in a student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP), Section 504 Plan, or Test Participation Plan (TPP).

Scoring Procedures and Types of Scores

Four domains of writing are evaluated in the grade five writing assessment. Each paper is scored in four domains: Ideas, Organization, Style, and Conventions. Each domain consists of several components. A component is a feature of writing within a particular domain. For example, “Focus” is a component of the Ideas domain. The weight of each domain reflects the contribution of each domain to the student’s total score. Weighting means that the score a rater assigns is multiplied by the weight (importance) assigned to the domain.

Each paper is scored by one rater. The Rater who scores a student's composition are trained to understand and use the standardized scoring system. The rater scores each paper independently. Each of the four domains of effective writing is evaluated. Although these domains are interrelated during the writing process, a strength or area of challenge is scored only once under a particular domain. Scores in each domain range from 1 to 5 (5 being the highest score). The total weighted raw scores range from 10 (1’s in all four domains) to 50 (5’s in all four domains). A score of “1 to 5” is assigned to each domain by each rater. These scores represent a continuum of writing that ranges from inadequate to minimal to good to very good. Points on the continuum are defined by the scoring rubric for each domain. Each score point represents a range of papers. Domain scores are combined to obtain a total score for each student. In combining the domain scores, the Content score is given a weight of 40%; the other domains of Organization, Style, and Conventions are given a weight of 20% each. The total score is then converted to a three-digit scaled score. There are three performance levels represented: Does Not Meet (100-199), Meets (200-249), and Exceeds(250+).

Reporting

Student Label – One label is provided for each student tested. The label is to be placed in the student’s permanent school record. It contains the total scale score.

Student Report – Two originals of the Student Report are provided; one is a student/parent copy and one copy is for the permanent record and instructional use by the student’s teacher(s).

Student Achievement Roster – Two copies of Student Achievement Rosters are provided. School or class level rosters are provided depending on the choice made by the school. Rosters contain the names of all students tested. For each student, the roster displays the total writing score and a notation of the performance level.

Scale Score Rank Order Roster – This roster lists students in rank order by scale scores. Two copies are provided.

School Report – A summary of student scores is provided for each school where testing was conducted. Three copies of the report are provided.

System Report – For each system, a summary report is provided which is identical in content to the school report. Three copies are provided.

GRADE 5 RESOURCES
Grade 5 Writing Score Interpretive Guide 2011
Grade 5 Writing Topics and Sample Papers 2011
Grade 5 Released Writing Topics and Sample Papers 2010
Grade 5 Released Topics and Sample Papers 2009
2008 Grade 5 Informational Prompt and Sample Papers

GRADE 5 STATEWIDE SCORES
2011 Grade 5 Writing Statewide Summary
2011 State Aggregated Data
2011 System Aggregated Data
2011 School Aggregated Data
2010 Grade 5 Writing Statewide Summary

Update Bulletins WA5
Grade 5 Writing Update Bulletin 2011

Presentations WA5
Grade 5 Writing Pre-Administration Presentation 2011