Growth in Writing Scores

You may have heard your student discussing how they are writing more in all their classes.  One of our learning expectations at the high school is to develop effective literacy and communication skills with our students.  We also want to provide them the practice of analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating information through writing to help them be successful on assessments such as the MCAS and SAT.

Twice during semester one, we administered common open response assessments in all content areas and all grades.  These assessments were directly related to the content that was being taught in the classroom.  Students read various pieces of texts and were asked to respond to a prompt.  Students were assessed via a rubric on each of the following elements:

• FOCUS- Develop a topic
• EVIDENCE- Support a response or claim
• EXPLANATION/ANALYSIS- Draw accurate conclusions
• ORGANIZATION- Develop a strong body of writing that demonstrates an understanding of content 
• CONVENTIONS- Utilize grammar, vocabulary and spelling appropriately.  

We are proud to share that our efforts have paid off!  The data chart below shows that all grade levels made gains between the first and second assessment administration.  Congratulations Spartans!