Skip To Main Content

WCS Students Prepare for TCAP Writing Assessment

Published January 17, 2014

Throughout the month of February, Williamson County students in grades 3 through 11 will participate in the TCAP Writing Assessment. This differs from years past when the assessment was only given to students in grades 5, 8 and 11. This year’s TCAP Writing Assessment focuses on the following skills:

  • Reading and comprehending grade-level complex texts
  • Writing an analysis or argument in response to sources, incorporating textual evidence

The structure of the TCAP Writing Assessment has evolved from previous years to be more like the expected Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments in 2014-15.

Whereas previous TCAP Writing Assessments required students to write a single essay in response to a simple prompt, this year’s TCAP Writing Assessment requires two writing tasks – one informative/explanatory or argument essay and one literary analysis – based on two texts given to the student. These two texts will cover social studies or science topics in order to provide practice with informational texts.

All students will take the TCAP Writing Assessment online through the same application used for the TCAP Writing Assessment in grades 8 and 11 last year. Students and parents will still receive individual results as before, with reporting expected to be delivered in late spring or early summer.

For more information about the TCAP Writing Assessment, please visit the state’s TNCore website: http://tncore.org/english_language_arts/writing_test.aspx.