Currently, students are administered the North Carolina Writing Assessment at grades 4 and 7. The North Carolina Standard Course of Study emphasizes writing as a basic skill that can be improved with appropriate instruction. The measurement of writing ensures that ample time and resources are allotted for its development in the classroom. Student performance in writing is measured statewide at grades 4 and 7. At each grade the writing prompt provides instructions that set forth the task.
Students write a composition in response to the prompt.
Students in grade 4 must write a short story based on something they have experienced, read, or imagined. Recently, the State Board of Education decided that a Writing Task Force is to evaluate writing assessments in North Carolina to determine changes that may need to be made to the assessments, if any. The Writing Task Force is evaluating state writing assessments at the time of this publication. Each year students' scored compositions and a scoring guide are returned to all fourth and seventh-grade teachers several weeks after scoring. Teachers are encouraged to use the scoring guides and the scoring criteria to interpret scores for students and parents.