Skip To Main Content

WCS Students Prepare for TCAP Writing Assessment

Published January 30, 2015

Throughout the month of February, Williamson County students in grades 3 through 11 will participate in the TCAP Writing Assessment. In this assessment, students are asked to read grade-level complex texts and then write a constructed response essay about those texts. Specifically:

  • Students in grades 3-5 will read two texts and write one essay that is either informational/explanatory or opinion about both texts.
  • Students in grades 6-11 will read two texts and write two essays, one that is informational/explanatory about one text and a second that is an argument about both texts.

The structure of the TCAP Writing Assessment is similar to what students experienced last year, which had evolved from previous years to be more like the expected Tennessee Ready ELA assessments in 2015-16. The two texts will include social studies or science topics in order to provide practice with reading informational texts, and student responses are scored against a rubric addressing four components: development, focus/organization, language and conventions.

All students will take the TCAP Writing Assessment online through the Measurement Incorporated Secure Testing (MIST) application, the same one used for the TCAP Writing Assessment last year as well as several online writing activities this year. Although scores are not part of any student’s grade, parents will still receive individual results in late spring or early summer.

For more information about the TCAP Writing Assessment, please visit the Tennessee Department of Education’s website at http://www.state.tn.us/education/assessment/writing_assessment.shtml.