English Language Arts Test Design and Development

Additional Resources

Life Cycle of an ELA Item

The Life Cycle of an ELA Item outlines the test development process for passages and items.

ELA Item Alignment and Coding

Each ELA test question is aligned and coded to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks. More information may be found on the ELA Item Alignment and Coding webpage.

Practice Tests

Practice tests for all MCAS tests may be found on the MCAS Resource Center English Language Arts Practice Tests webpage. The practice tests will include examples of the various item types for both the paper-based and computer-based tests.

Released Questions and Student Work Samples

• The Digital Item Library provides access to released items from the MCAS computer-based tests.
• The Released Item Documents provide access to released test questions from the MCAS paper-based tests.
• The Student Work and Scoring Guides provide access to student work samples, including examples of MCAS questions, scoring guides, and student responses.

Tutorial

This tutorial can be used to familiarize students with how to navigate the TestNav 8 computer-based environment (advancing, going back, tool bar, embedded supports and accommodations).

Last Updated: January 25, 2023