New Test Information

[Mark Alford]

I sent an e-mail to the testing coordinator for the state and he sent back some good information and links. I'll sum up the stuff and you can search out the links if you want the whole picture. Thanks to Dr. Auman who responded to me quickly with this information.

Basically, I wanted to know what was this test going to test and what was the format. Here is what I found.

The break up of the test will be:

• Reading for literature - 30-34%
  
• Reading for information - 32-38%
  
• Writing - 14-18%
  
• Speaking - 0%
  
• Language - 14-18%
  

The actual type of questions will be:

• 4 response multiple choice items
  
• technology-enhanced items
  
• constructed-response-option items
  

Now I get the multiple choice part being A, B, C, or D as the current EOC. Dr. Auman explained technology-enhanced items as:
Technology enhanced items allow students to manipulate items by dragging and dropping components into different cells. This means they make take a sentence from different answer choices and place it within a paragraph. Or take information that is missing in a time line and place it there.
He explained constructed-response-option as:
Short response items based on the Common Core State Standards.

They will pre-release a test probably in September. I'm not teaching English II, so I may not get a copy, but if someone shoots me the link, I will post it on the EOC Underground page.

Here are the links he sent me:
www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/assessment/online/
www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/assessment/resources/
and this last one has practice drag and drop type questions (it is a pop up, so you'll have to choose always allow pop ups and then reload it):
go.ncsu.edu/nctdemo

I did not sign up for the nctdemo site, so anyone who tries it out, I would love to hear what it looks like. Just leave a reply.

So post any replies, comments, thoughts, insights, rants, raves, whatever.

[Robbie Lanoue]

I have a few unanswered questions about this EOC, and I'm not sure how to find out the answers. The first is: How long do the essay questions have to be? There is no indication of length on the rubric given with the practice test that the state released. I suppose I can infer that there is no specific length required, but before I tell that to my students, I'd like to have confirmation. I get that common core is more about quality over quantity, but what are they hoping for - a full 5 paragraph essay, one good paragraph, etc.?

Also: One of the questions on the released practice test asks students to write an essay response about how the author's point of view is developed by language. I have been teaching point of view as 1st person, 2nd person, 3rd, etc. But on a previously released version of the test, there is a multiple choice question that asks about point of view, and the answer choices all describe possible themes. So there is a confusion of terms. It would be great if the state would release a list of denotative meanings for the literary terms they are using. It's impossible to prepare students for a test if there is no standard understanding of the terms we are supposed to be teaching.

Is anyone else noticing these things?

[Mark Alford]

Well, now that we have seen the test, we have the answers that we've been waiting for. The test is truly tough. I have a list of terms and am putting together some practices for it. You can find this information at: www.lordalford.com/engiieoc

If you have amassed some good stuff about this test, send it my way!

[D Bowles]

How many total questions are on the English II EOC? How many are field test items that will not be counted?