Using the 2019 MCAS Sample Student Work and Scoring Guides Online Tool

Structure

Each page of this online tool contains student work samples and scoring guides for one grade level and one content area (e.g., Grade 5 Mathematics).

The sample responses provided here are selections of actual student work from the spring 2019 MCAS administration. In order to protect individual students' privacy, all names and references of a personal nature have been altered or removed. Otherwise, the responses appear as the students wrote them.

How to Access Student Work in the Online Tool

• In the Question Directory for Student Work locate the grade and subject of the MCAS student work you wish to access.
• Click on the link for the appropriate subject (for example, Grade 5 Mathematics). This will take you to a list of questions for which student work samples are available.
• Select the question for which you wish to see student work.
• When the page opens for the question you selected, scroll down to the "Scoring Guide and Sample Student Work" grid. Links to student work with the highest score points appear at the top of the "Score" column of the grid; score points linked to the lower-scoring student work follow in descending order.
• Click on the score-point link to the student work you wish to view. To view additional responses, continue clicking on score-point links in the "Score" column of the grid, or click on the score-point links located at the bottom of each window that contains a student work sample.
• In the "Description" column of the "Scoring Guide and Sample Student Work" grid, you will find the scoring criteria for each score point.
• For ELA essay questions, each student work sample is accompanied by an annotation explaining in detail how that particular response was scored.

Scoring of Test Questions

An overview of procedures used for scoring student responses and compositions is presented in the MCAS fact sheet, "Scoring Student Answers …."

Printing Instructions

Printing the Rubrics

Right-click on the appropriate page and select "Print" from the pop-up menu, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-p on a PC or Command-p on a Mac.

Printing the Samples

Select "Print Now" from the top or bottom right side of the page, or use the instructions given above for printing rubrics .

Last Updated: August 28, 2019