The Writing Sample Administration Guidelines for the administration of the state assessment are sent to district assessment coordinators prior to the assessment, and test administrators also receive administration directions in time to preview them.
Students randomly receive one of the nine prompts on which to write.
Two 40-minute sessions over two consecutive days are set aside for completing the assignment. Students are permitted to use a dictionary, thesaurus and electronic spell checker. Although elements of the writing process are incorporated into this assessment, it is a large-scale, on demand performance assessment, and they are not permitted to get assistance from teachers or peers. The Writing Assignment One of the most critical tasks in the design of the writing assessment is the development of the writing prompts. A prompt is a statement or group of statements about a specific topic, constructed to motivate students' thoughts and elicit their best writing on the topic.