Governor Phil Murphy • Lt. Governor Tahesha Way

NJSLA-ELA Companion Guide: Grades 3–8

The New Jersey Student Learning Assessments for English Language Arts (NJSLA-ELA) measure student proficiency with grade-level skills, knowledge, and concepts that are critical to college and career readiness. On each assessment, students read and analyze passages from authentic fiction and nonfiction texts. Test forms can also include multimedia stimuli such as video or audio. The ELA assessments emphasize the importance of close reading, synthesizing ideas within and across texts, determining the meaning of words and phrases in context, and writing effectively when using and/or analyzing sources.

The NJSLA-ELA blueprints define the total number of tasks and points for any given grade-level assessment. To maintain the content coverage while shortening the assessment, it was necessary to create two blueprints for grades 3 through 8. One test form was assembled according to each blueprint.

The grades 3 through 8 ELA assessments:

  • align to a representative sampling of standards and evidence statements;
  • reflect the balance between literary and informational texts;
  • include a writing task in each unit and associated scoring rubrics;
  • align with the ELA Task Models;
  • maintain all item types (Evidence-Based Selected Response; Technology-Enhanced Constructed Response; and Prose Constructed Response); and
  • report on all five subclaims and performance

Blueprint 1 for grade 3 consists of a Literary Analysis Task and Research Simulation Task. Blueprint 2 is composed of a Narrative Writing Task, Short Passage Set, and Research Simulation Task. The units, ELA task types, and testing times for each blueprint are outlined in Tables 1 and 2.

Table 1: ELA Grade 3—Blueprint 1

Unit Task Time (minutes)
Unit 1 Literary Analysis Task 75 
Unit 2 Research Simulation Task 75
Total: 2 Units All Tasks Total: 150 

 

Table 2: ELA Grade 3—Blueprint 2

Unit Task Time (minutes)
Unit 1
  • Narrative Writing Task
  • Short Passage Set
 75
Unit 2 Research Simulation Task 75
Total: 2 Units All Tasks Total: 150

 

Blueprint 1 for grades 4 through 8 consists of a Literary Analysis Task, Short Passage Set, and Research Simulation Task. Blueprint 2 is composed of a Narrative Writing Task, Long or Paired Passage Set, and Research Simulation Task. The units, ELA task types, and testing times for each blueprint are outlined in Tables 3 and 4.

Table 3: ELA Grades 4 through 8—Blueprint 1

Unit Task Time (minutes)
Unit 1
  • Literary Analysis Task
  • Short Passage Set
 90
Unit 2 Research Simulation Task 90
Total: 2 Units All Tasks Total: 180

 

Table 4: ELA Grades 4 through 8—Blueprint 2

Unit Task Time (minutes)
Unit 1
  • Narrative Writing Task
  • Long or Paired Passage Set
 90
Unit 2 Research Simulation Task 90
Total: 2 Units All Tasks Total: 180

 

Two NJSLA-ELA forms adhere to stringent content specifications and statistical requirements to ensure that the forms are comparable and fair for all students. Total points vary between the two forms due to the nature of the design of the Literary Analysis Task and Narrative Writing Tasks. However, they both ask students to read and respond to literary texts. Both tasks report and align to the Literary Text subclaim, standards, and evidence statements. The forms are designed so that students, regardless of which form they are assigned, will need to demonstrate the same level of knowledge to meet a specific performance level.

Expert analysis was conducted to ensure that scores are comparable across forms. First, the two forms were built to be similar in content and difficulty. Then, the two forms were equated by means of a statistical process conducted to establish comparable scores on different forms of an assessment.

The two forms will be randomly assigned to students. Therefore, all students need to be prepared to respond to all three task types.

The NJSLA-ELA blueprints and additional test support documents (e.g., evidence statements, scoring rubrics) can be found on the Test Content and Other Information webpage of the New Jersey Assessments Resource Center under Educator Resources. The New Jersey Assessments Resource Center also includes links to access the ELA Practice Tests and Released Items.

If you have any questions, please contact the Office of Assessments at assessment@doe.nj.gov.