How are prompts selected?

  Each prompt is developed by Tennessee teachers and reviewed by the Advisory Committee to ensure that it is not biased with regard to race, gender, religion, or socio-economic background. All prompts were successfully field tested in Tennessee.

How are the essays scored? 

  Student essays are scored as a rough draft by the evaluators.  Trained readers evaluate the student's essay as a whole using the criteria of the rubric and anchor papers.

What is a rubric?

A rubric is a set of scoring criteria used to measure performance levels. Each score point is defined by descriptors or characteristics.  The labels associated with each score point  are:  6-Outstanding, 5-Strong, 4-Competent, 3-Limited, 2-Flawed, and 1-Deficient.  The same rubric is used for all three grades (5, 8 and 11).

Will the completed work be considered a draft copy of the essay by the evaluators?

Yes, the writing assessment is demand writing completed within a designated time period (35 minutes for fifth and eighth grade and 25 minutes for eleventh grade) thus the student writes a rough draft essay due to these time constraints.

Who scored the papers?

Professional readers at Measurement Incorporated in Charlotte, North Carolina scored the 2001-2002 TCAP Writing Assessment. Two qualified readers scored each paper independently. If scores were adjacent, the paper received the higher of the two scores. If there was a split between the two readers, the paper was read and scored by the team leader.  Professional consultants from Tennessee trained the room leaders, team leaders, and the readers to score the Tennessee essays using the anchor papers as guides and the Tennessee six-point rubric. Each person involved with our project was required to qualify (pass a test) on six different sets of essays.

More questions and answers can be found at the SDE Writing Assessment website.