NSCAS English Language Arts (ELA)
NSCAS English Language Arts for general assessment is administered to students in grades 3-8. If a student is taking the English Language Arts Alternate Assessment you will want to go to NSCAS Alternate Summative Assessment Page.
2021 Range Achievement Level Descriptors (ALD)
The ELA Achievement Level Descriptor (ALD) tool was created through a partnership with Nebraska educators and NWEA. Achievement level descriptions (ALDs) describe a student’s level of achievement (e.g., Developing, On Track, and Advanced) on Nebraska’s statewide assessment. The Nebraska Department of Education develops ALDs in order to guide educators during the standard setting process for our statewide assessment, offer score interpretation on student reports, and further teacher understanding of expectations for the various progressions of student performance at each achievement level.
Educators may use the ALDs to enable valid inferences about student content area knowledge and skill in relation to Nebraska’s 2021 College and Career Ready Standards for English Language Arts. This document provides detailed descriptions for a student’s content area knowledge and skill at each achievement level for each assessed standard. Educators may click on the tabs along the bottom of the spreadsheet to adjust their instruction for all ranges of student learning.
2021 Range Achievement Level Descriptors (ALDs) Grade 1-12 (Excel)
Achievement Level Explorer – A resource that allows you too:
- access the progression of grade-level performance expectations defined by your state’s standards-based achievement level descriptors,
- analyze student performance by achievement level,
- plan instruction so all students have the opportunity to learn and meet the expectations for their highest levels of achievement, and
- analyze student progress and identify target standards for growth.
ELA Tables of Specifications (TOS)
*NEW Item Specifications Documents*
These draft versions of our item specifications documents provide guidelines on the length, text complexity, and genres of stimuli to be used for assessing ELA standards. It also provides an overview the Achievement Level Descriptors to meet the needs of all leaners.
ELA Quick Links
For more English Language Arts resources:
Approved K-3 reading assessments:
NSCAS ELA Sample Test (Item Type Sampler)
For Grade 3-8 sample tests (called Item Type Samplers), visit the NWEA Nebraska Portal.
Contacts
For general assessment questions , contact Statewide Assessment.
nde.stateassessment@nebraska.gov
For more information about English Language Arts, contact Becky Michael, ELA Education Specialist.