DISTRICT PSSA SCHEDULEApril/May 2017

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RIE'S.."'_11'1'

PUBLIC ~CHOOLS

Dr. Jay D. BadamsSuperintendent of Schools

Bea HaburskyAssistant Superintendent

Board of School DirectorsFrank Petrungar, Jr.

PresidentJohn C. Harkins

Vice PresidentLinda AleksandrowiczEdward M. Brzezinski

Robert S. CasilloRobbie FabriziAngela McNair

Mary Frances SchenleyThomas A. Spagel

Robin J. SmithSecretary

Erie's Public Schools148 West 21st StreetErie, PA 16502-2834

P: 814.874.6000F: 814.874.6049

www.eriesd.org

An Equal Opportunity Employer

March 13, 2017

Dear Parent/Guardian:

During the months of April and May the Erie School District will administer the 2017 PennsylvaniaSystem of School Assessment (PSSA) to students in grades 3-8 and the Keystone exams to studentstaking Algebra I, Literature, and Biology. PSSA Science assessments involve grades 4 and 8. Somestudents in special education programs may be included in alternative assessments (PASA). PSSA testadministration is mandated for all school districts within the Commonwealth. These assessments havebeen designed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education to help determine the agreement of districtcurriculum with state standards. Performance on the PSSA will become part of the School PerformanceProfile to be released in the fall of 2017. Students taking the state assessments will receive individualscore reports. Your child's results will be distributed to you and the principal. The state will not receiveany reports with individual names included.

You have the right to review the test items by making arrangements with the school principal. Studentscan be excluded from testing only if their parent/guardian finds the assessment items to be in conflictwith their religious beliefs. Please read the attached flyer entitled: Information for Parents or Guardians,Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) which will provide you with further information aboutthe assessment.

Under state and federal law, the integrity of these tests cannot be compromised. The PennsylvaniaDepartment of Education (PDE) prohibits cell phones and electronic devices from entering the testinglocation during the test administration. The consequence for using and/or having a cell phone or otherelectronic device during the test administration will result in the application of a "do not score" label/flagon the student's test and the student will retake the exam. Furthermore, if a student uses a cell phone orelectronic device in any manner during the administration of the test, the device will be confiscated untilthe parent or guardian can come to the school, and in the presence of the parent or guardian, the cellphone or other electronic device will be viewed to ensure that no information or material regarding theassessment is present. Under PDE regulations, violation of the no cell phone or other electronic devicewill result in disciplinary action, the severity of which will vary depending on whether test material hasbeen compromised. If any item on an assessment has been compromised, and can no longer be used orneeds to be replaced, the parent/guardian and/or student may be responsible for PDE's cost to replace theitem/test statewide.

Please encourage your child to try their very best on these tests and be sure they come to school well-rested and ready to demonstrate all that they have learned this year. We thank you for your support ofyour student's achievement and appreciate your continued involvement in your child's education.

Sincerely,

r~)·r" ri-")<., j) -/-r77·· <,Dr. Jay BadamsSuperintendent of Schools

Attachment

Information for Parents or GuardiansPennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA)

.English Language Arts Assessment, April 3-7, 2017Mathematics Assessment, April 24-28, 2017

Science Assessment, May 1-5, 2017

Frequently

Asked

.Questions

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE PSSAWhich schools participate?All school districts and charter schools participate in theassessments. Nonpublic and private schools may alsoparticipate on a voluntary basis.

Which students take the assessments?Except for a very few students who meet specific criteriafor participation in an alternate assessment, all studentsare included in the assessments asoutlined below:

ELA& Mathematics-Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8Science-Grades 4 and 8

Who decided what the assessments shouldmeasure?Groups of educators from all levels of education inPennsylvania chose the areas of knowledge and skillsupon which the assessments are based.The groupsincluded teachers, supervisors, curriculum directors,and college specialists. They also reviewed, edited, andapproved the test items. .

Who administers the assessments?Eachschool chooses the personis) who will administerthe assessments. In most cases,these are teachers in thestudents' building.

How are the results reported?Two copies of the individual student report for allassessments will be sent to all schools and districts thatparticipate for distribution to parents, teachers, schoolcounselors, and/or principals. The state will not receiveany report with individual names included.

School-level reports will be used for curricular andplanning purposes. School districts and charter schoolsmay publish the results of PSSAtesting for each school.The state will also release school-by-school assessmentdata.

May parents see the assessments?Yes,under one circumstance. School entities arerequired to have policies to ensure that parents orguardians have the right to review a state assessmentin the school entity during convenient hours forparents or guardians at least two weeks prior to theiradministration to determine whether a state assessmentconflicts with their religious belief. This is the onlyreason allowable under regulation.

PennsylvaniaDepartment of Education

Confidentiality agreements must be signed, and nocopies of the assessments or notes about assessmentitems will be permitted to leave the school. If afterreviewing the test, parents or guardians find the test tobe in conflict with their religious belief and wish theirstudent(s) to be excused from the test, the right of theparents or guardians will not be denied upon writtenrequest to the applicable school district Superintendent,charter school Chief Executive Officer, or AVTSDirector.Parents or guardians should contact their child's schoolto make arrangements to review the test.

Report Testing IrregularitiesParents/guardians who believe that a testing irregularitymay have occurred may call 844-418- 1651 to report theincident.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE ENGLISH LANGUAGEARTS ASSESSMENT (grades 3 through 8)How long does the assessment take?The entire English Language Arts assessment takesapproximately three to four hours to complete. Yourschool district will inform you about the assessmentschedule.

What does the assessment include?Eachstudent completes four sections of questions forthe English Language Arts assessment. Some portionswill be the same for all students, and some will consist ofdifferent groups of questions.

What types of questions are on the assessment?Students respond to multiple-choice, evidence-basedselected-response, and constructed-response questions.In a multiple-choice question, the correct answer ischosen from four options. Evidence-based selected-response questions have two parts, and studentsselect one or more answers for each part. Constructed-response questions may include a writing prompt,short-answer (grade 3), and/or text-dependent analysis(grades 4 through 8).The writing prompt requiresstudents to compose a response using one of threemodes: narrative (grades 3 through 8), informative/explanatory (grades 3 through 8), opinion (grades 3through 5) or argumentative (grades 6 through 8).Short-answer questions require students to composea brief response to support their answer. For the text-dependent analysis question, students analyze a textand use evidence from the reading passage to composean essay.

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How are written responses to constructed-response items scored?The written responses for English Language Arts arescored by evaluators trained in applying an ELA-specificscoring guideline. For short-answer questions, scoresare based on content only. Spelling and punctuationare not included as part of the scoring process.Forwriting prompts, scores are determined using a holisticscoring guideline that includes composition skills aswell as conventions. Responses to text-dependentanalysis questions are scored based on both contentand writing skills.

What is assessed in English Language Arts?The English Language Arts assessment addresses sixmajor reporting categories aswell as two text types.Students respond to a writing prompt and standalonemultiple-choice items assessing language. Additionally,students read a number of passagesfrom literature andinformational genres and respond to questions aboutthese passages that indicate both comprehensionand reading skills and the students' analysis andinterpretation of different types of texts.

INFORMATION ABOUT THI: MATHEMATICSASSESSMENT (grades 3 through 8)How long does the assessment take?The entire mathematics assessment takesapproximately three to four hours to complete. Yourschool district will inform you about the assessmentschedule.

What does the assessment include?Eachstudent completes three sections of questions forthe mathematics assessment; Some portions will be thesame for all students, and some will consist of differentgroups of questions.

What types of questions are on the assessment?Students respond to two types of questions: multiple-choice and open-ended. In a multiple-choice question,the correct answer is chosen from the four presentedoptions, while open-ended questions require studentsto compose their responses. Open-ended questionsgenerally require students to-provide detail in supportof their answers (such as showing or describing thesteps performed to complete a calculation).

How are written responses to open-ended itemsscored?The written responses for mathematics open-ended items are scored by evaluators trained inapplying a mathematics-specific scoring guideline.In mathematics, scores are based on content only.Spelling and punctuation are not included as part ofthe scoring process.

Pennsylvania Department of Education

What is assessed in Mathematics?The mathematics assessment addresses five majorreporting categories across four clusters. The reportingcategories assessedand the proportion of questionsin each reporting category vary by grade level. Asa part of the assessment of Cluster A, Numbers andOperations, students in grades 4 through 8 respond toa set of questions without a calculator. Constructed-response items may require the students to show all oftheir work (e.g., calculations, graphs, drawings) and/orto explain in writing how they solved the problems.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCIENCEASSESSMENT (grades 4 and 8)How long does the assessment take?The entire science assessment takes approximatelytwo to four hours to complete. Your school district willinform you about the assessment schedule.

What does the assessment include?Students in grades 4 and 8 complete two sections ofquestions for the science assessment. Some portionswill be the same for all students, and some will consistof different groups of questions.

What types of questions are on the assessment?Students respond to two types of questions: multiple-choice and open-ended. In a multiple-choice question,the correct answer is chosen from the four presentedoptions, while open-ended questions require studentsto compose their responses. At grade 8, the scienceassessment also includes science scenarios.

What is a science scenario?A science scenario contains text, graphics, charts,and/or tables and uses these elements to describe theresults of a class project, an experiment, or other similarresearch.Students use the information found in ascience scenario to answer multiple-choice questions.

How are written responses to open-ended itemsscored?The written responses for science open-ended itemsare scored by evaluators trained in applying a science-specific scoring guideline. In science, scores are basedon content only. Spelling and punctuation are notincluded as part of the scoring process.

What is assessed in science?The science assessment addresses the four majorreporting categories: The Nature of Science, BiologicalSciences,Physical Sciences, and Earth and SpaceSciences.The proportion of items in each reportingcategory varies by grade level.

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