Sample Student Performance Assessments

All student performance assessments have been vetted by a team of Core Academy English Language Arts facilitators and the USBE English Language Arts Specialist. They:

  1. align to the Utah core standards by grade band;
  2. use student learning tasks that support students in developing the skills for argument writing and close reading;
  3. use the cognitive rigor matrix and Depth of Knowledge levels (DOK) on which both interim and summative testing will be designed, beginning in 2014;
  4. exemplify the change in instruction that is necessary to better prepare students for the end of level testing;
  5. use a range of text complexity based on both lexile and qualitative criteria for each grade band;
  6. provide resources for teachers to better adjust their teaching to a wide range of students; and,
  7. support teachers in developing their own student performance assessments.
  8. were developed based on the AIR Sensitivity and Bias Guidelines used for Utah’s assessment system.

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Grade 7 Sample
A Four Passage Text Set - Neruda, Alcott, Whitman, Goodrich and Hackett
Grade Band 9-10 Sample
A Three Passage Text Set - Lincoln, Monk, and Hand
Grade Band 11-12 Sample
A Three Passage Text Set - Roosevelt, Sinclair, and Riis
Grade Band 11-12 Sample
A Three Passage Text Set - Thoreau, Wilder and Dickinson