PSSA English Language Arts Grade 7 Item and Scoring Sampler - August 2023

Sep 30, 2026

Pennsylvania Department of Education provides the PSSA English Language Arts Grade 7 Item and Scoring Sampler for classroom use in aligning instruction with Pennsylvania Core Standards. The sampler includes released sample items, stimulus reading passages, conventions of Standard English questions, and a text-dependent analysis prompt with scoring guidelines and answer keys. It includes examples of scored student responses to illustrate response ranges and supports educators in independently or collaboratively scoring, while clarifying that it is not a pretest, curriculum, or benchmark for operational testing.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages54

Reading Time2 h 16 min

AccessFree to download

INFORMATION ABOUT ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

INTRODUCTION

General Introduction

Pennsylvania Core Standards (PCS)

What Is Included

Purpose and Uses

Item Format and Scoring Guidelines

Multiple Choice

Evidence-Based Selected-Response

Text-Dependent Analysis (TDA)

The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment English Language Arts Item and Scoring Sampler Pennsylvania Department of Education Bureau of Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction—August 2023 TABLE OF CONTENTS INFORMATION ABOUT ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS .................................... 1 Introduction ................................................................. 1 General Introduction ....................................................... 1 Pennsylvania Core Standards (PCS) ........................................... 1 What Is Included .......................................................... 1 Purpose and Uses ......................................................... 1 Item Format and Scoring Guidelines .......................................... 2 Testing Time and Mode of Testing Delivery for the PCS-Based PSSA ................. 3 English Language Arts Grade 7 .............................................. 3 Item and Scoring Sampler Format ............................................ 4 PSSA ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS GRADE 7 .......................................... 6 English Language Arts Test Directions for Reading Passages and Questions .............. 6 Passage 1 ................................................................... 8 Multiple-Choice Questions ................................................. 12 Evidence-Based Selected-Response Question ................................. 18 Passage 2 .................................................................. 20 Text-Dependent Analysis Prompt ............................................ 23 Text-Dependent Analysis Scoring Guideline .................................... 27 English Language Arts Test Directions for Conventions of Standard English Questions ...... 45 Conventions of Standard English Multiple-Choice Questions .......................... 46 English Language Arts—Sample Item Summary Data ................................ 49 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................... 51 PSSA Grade 7 English Language Arts Item and Scoring Sampler—August 2023 ii INFORMATION ABOUT ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS INTRODUCTION General Introduction The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) provides districts and schools with tools to assist in delivering focused instructional programs aligned with the Pennsylvania Core Standards (PCS) . These tools include Academic Standards, Assessment Anchors and Eligible Content (AAEC) documents, assessment handbooks, and content-based item and scoring samplers . This Item and Scoring Sampler is a useful tool for Pennsylvania educators in preparing local instructional programs by providing samples of released test items, of test item types, and scored student responses . The item sampler is not designed to be used as a pretest, a curriculum, or any other benchmark for operational testing . This Item and Scoring Sampler is available in Braille format . For more information regarding Braille, call (717) 901-2238 . Pennsylvania Core Standards (PCS) This sampler contains examples of test questions designed to assess the Pennsylvania Assessment Anchors and Eligible Content aligned to the PCS . The Mathematics, Reading, and Writing PSSA transitioned to PCS-based operational Mathematics and English Language Arts assessments starting with the spring 2015 PSSA administration . The PCS-aligned Assessment Anchors and Eligible Content documents are posted on this portal: ¾ [www.education.pa.gov](www.education.pa.gov) [Hover over “Data and Reporting,” select “Assessment and Accountability,” and select “PSSA-PA System of School Assessment .” Then select“Assessment Anchors/Eligible Content” on the right side of the screen .] What Is Included This sampler contains stimulus reading passages with test questions, Conventions of Standard English questions, and a text-dependent analysis (TDA) prompt that have been written to align to the Asses

FAQs

What materials are included in the English Language Arts Grade 7 item sampler?

The sampler includes stimulus reading passages with test questions, Conventions of Standard English questions, and a text-dependent analysis prompt, along with answer keys, scoring guidelines, and related stimulus material. Sample student responses are also provided for open-ended items.

How are multiple-choice questions scored in the Grade 7 PSSA?

Each multiple-choice question has four answer choices, and each correct response is worth one point.

How should educators use this sampler according to the document?

Educators may use the items as examples for creating classroom assessment items and may use the sampler to score text-dependent analysis responses independently or with colleagues. The document states it is not designed to be used as a pretest, curriculum, or other benchmark for operational testing.

Sep 30, 2026

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