Assessment/Accountability
Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System

2004 MCAS Sample Student Work and Scoring Guides

Using this Online Tool

Purpose

From the pages linked below, you will find each open-response question and each writing prompt that was included on the spring 2004 MCAS tests, the scoring guide that accompanies it, and a sample of student work at each score point for that question.

Taken together, the questions, the writing prompts, the scoring guides, and the corresponding student work provide a picture of the expectations for student performance on the MCAS tests.

All of the test questions on which this year's student results are based are contained in the Release of Spring 2004 Test Items .

Structure

Each subsequent page of this online tool contains information for one grade level and one content area (e.g., Grade 3 Reading).

Due to copyright restrictions, certain common English Language Arts reading passages that appear in the printed version of the Release of Spring 2004 Test Items are not included in the Internet version. Citation information is provided online; hard copies were sent to schools, districts, and libraries throughout the Commonwealth. Hard copies of the omitted passages are available by calling the Student Assessment Services unit at (781) 338-3625 and requesting a "Passage Packet."

The sample responses provided here are selections of actual student work from the spring 2004 MCAS administration. In order to protect individual students' privacy, all names and references of a personal nature have been altered or removed. Otherwise, the responses have been recopied exactly as the students wrote them.

Test Administration Reference Materials and Tools

English Language Arts Composition - At least one dictionary per classroom is provided for student use during ELA Composition test sessions.

Mathematics - During Mathematics testing, each student is provided with a Tool Kit (at grade 4) or a Mathematics Reference Sheet (grades 6, 8, and 10).

During a portion of the Mathematics test at grades 8 and 10, each student is allowed to use a personal calculator while answering test questions. If any student is not able to provide his or her own calculator with at least four functions and a square root key, one is provided to that student for use during those sessions. Test questions administered in non-calculator test sessions are indicated in this online tool with this icon .

Scoring of Test Questions

Reponses to open-response items, and compositions written in response to writing prompts, are scored individually. An overview of procedures for scoring these responses and compositions is presented in the MCAS fact sheet, "Scoring Student Answers to Open-Response Questions and Writing Prompts".

Scoring procedures are also explained further in the MCAS document, Guide to Interpreting the 2004 MCAS Reports for Schools and Districts.

Printing Instructions

Printing the Questions and Rubrics

Select "Print View" from the bottom right side of any page. This view excludes extraneous navigation and graphic elements.

Try printing in landscape format:

• Select the "File" menu in your browser's tool bar
• Select "Print" in the File menu
• Select the "Properties" button and select to print landscape

Printing the Samples

Select "Print Now" from the top right side of the page.