NJPEP: Virtual Academy (New Jersey Professional Education Port)

Test Specifications
Contents
Language Arts Literacy

Introduction
In May 1996, the New Jersey State Board of Education adopted Core Curriculum Content Standards that define New Jersey's expectations for student learning. These standards, along with their Cumulative Progress Indicators (CPIs), define expected achievement in seven core content areas:
.    Visual and Performing Arts
.    Comprehensive Health and Physical Education
.    Language Arts Literacy
.    Mathematics
.    Science
.    Social Studies
.    World Languages

In addition, all areas of instruction include the following cross-content workplace readiness standards:
1.     All students will develop career planning and workplace readiness skills.
2.     All students will use technology, information, and other tools.
3.     All students will use critical-thinking, decision-making, and problem-solving skills.
4.     All students will demonstrate self-management skills.
5.     All students will apply safety principles.

Since public education must prepare all students for the world of work, all content areas need to address these cross-content workplace readiness standards. To gauge student progress toward meeting the Core Curriculum Content Standards, the New Jersey Department of Education is developing a comprehensive set of assessments that measure knowledge and skills at grades four, eight, and eleven. The eleventh-grade High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) is the third component of the state's assessment program, which also includes the fourth-grade Elementary School Proficiency Assessment (ESPA) and the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment (GEPA). Since not every indicator can be assessed through a statewide, standardized, written examination, individual districts will be involved in measuring the attainment of some performance expectations outlined in the standards.

This document, [from the] Directory of Test Specifications and Sample Items for the Elementary School Proficiency Assessment (ESPA), Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment (GEPA), and High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) in Language Arts Literacy, delineates the specifications used to create the fourth-grade, eighth-grade, and eleventh-grade language arts literacy assessments and to measure student proficiency in the knowledge and skills outlined in New Jersey's Core Curriculum Content Standards (May 1996). Curriculum developers and teachers may use these specifications, along with the Language Arts Literacy Curriculum Framework (due in spring 1998) and the standards themselves, to improve instruction at the district, school, and classroom levels.