End-of-Grade Reading Tests at Grades 3–8 North Carolina Test Specifications

Sep 30, 2026

Upload by Hazel

End-of-Grade Reading Tests at Grades 3–8 outline the North Carolina ELA reading assessment framework aligned to the NCSCOS. It describes test purposes for school accountability and federal reporting, and provides the curriculum cycle from 2017 adoption through operational administration in Edition 5. It details item development practices, standard prioritization, domain weight distributions, Depth of Knowledge item ranges, and grade-level assessed standards across literature, informational text, and language.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Purpose of the Tests

Curriculum Cycle

Developing Tests

Prioritization of Standards

Domain and DOK Distributions

Table 1: Domain weight distributions

Table 2: Item distribution by DOK

Assessed Standards by Grade

Table 3: Reading for Literature

Table 4: Reading for Informational Text

Table 5: Language

Cognitive Rigor and Item Complexity

Testing Structure and Test Administration

Table 6: Selections and items by grade band

End-of-Grade Reading Tests at Grades 3–8 North Carolina Test Specifications Purpose of the Tests The Grades 3–8 End-of-Grade (EOG) Reading Tests measure students’reading proficiency on the North Carolina Standard Course of Study (NCSCOS) for English Language Arts, adopted by the North Carolina State Board of Education in June 2017. Test results are used for school accountability under the accountability model and for federal reporting purposes. Curriculum Cycle April 2017: North Carolina Board of Education adoption of the NCSCOS for English Language Arts 2017–18: Item development for the EOG Reading Tests 2018–19: Administration of embedded field test items for the EOG Reading Tests 2020–21: First operational administration of the EOG Reading Tests (Edition 5) Developing Tests North Carolina educators were recruited and trained to write new items. The diversity among item writers and their knowledge of the current standards was addressed during recruitment. Trained North Carolina educators also review items and suggest improvements, if necessary. The use of North Carolina educators to write and review items strengthens evidence of content validity of EOG assessments. For an in-depth explanation of the test development process, see North Carolina State Board Policy TEST-013: Multiple Choice Test Development or reference the Test Development Process: Item, Selection, and Form Development document. Prioritization of Standards Members of the North Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI)’s Test Development Section invited North Carolina educators to collaborate and develop recommendations for a prioritization of the standards, indicating the relative importance of each standard, the anticipated instructional time, and the appropriateness of the standard for test design. Subsequently, Academic Standards and Test Development staff from the NCDPI met to review these recommendations from teacher panels and adopt final weight distributions across the domains for each grade level. Tables 1 and 2 describe the range of total items by domain and Depth of Knowledge (DOK) that will appear on the EOG Reading Tests. The EOG only assesses reading standards. Tables 3–5 show the standards that are assessed on the EOG Reading Test at each grade . Table 1. EOG Reading grades 3–8 domain weight distributions. | Domain | Grades 3–5 | Grades 6–8 | | --- | --- | --- | | Reading for Literature | 38–42% | 36–41% | | Reading for Informational Text | 46–50% | 43–47% | | Language | 13–15% | 11–16% | | Total | 100% | 100% | Table 2. EOG Reading grades 3–8 item by DOK distribution . | Grade (s) | DOK 1 | DOK 2 | DOK 3 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 3 | 20–40% | 60–80% | – | | 4 | 12–25% | 50–75% | 5–10% | | 5 | – | 75–90% | 10–25% | | 6–8 | – | 60–82% | 18–40% | Table 3. EOG Reading grades 3–8 Reading for Literature domain standards assessed by grade . | Standard | Grade 3 | Grade 4 | Grade 5 | Grade 6 | Grade 7 | Grade 8 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | RL.1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | RL.2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | RL.3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | RL.4 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | RL.5 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | | RL.6 | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | RL.7 | No | No | No | No | No | No | | RL.8 | No | No | No | No | No | No | | RL.9 | No | No | No | No | No | No | | RL.10 | No | No | No | No | No | No | Table 4. EOG Reading grades 3–8 Reading for Information domain standards assessed by grade . | Standard | Grade 3 | Grade 4 | Grade 5 | Grade 6 | Grade 7 | Grade 8 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | RI.1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | RI.2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | RI.3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | RI.4 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | RI.5 | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | | RI.6 | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | | RI.7 | No | No | No | No | No | No | | RI.8 | Yes | Yes

FAQs

What is the purpose of the Grades 3–8 EOG Reading Tests in North Carolina?

The tests measure students’ reading proficiency in ELA and support school accountability under the accountability model and federal reporting.

How are standards prioritized for test design?

Educators collaborate to recommend relative importance, instructional time, and appropriateness for assessment. NCDPI staff then review these recommendations to adopt final weight distributions by grade and domain.

What do the tables specify about test content distribution?

The document provides domain weight distributions by grade bands and item distribution ranges by Depth of Knowledge (DOK). It also lists which literature, informational text, and language standards are assessed at each grade.

Sep 30, 2026

Upload by Hazel