NC Check-Ins 2.0 Reading Grades 3-8 Specifications

NC Check-Ins 2.0
Reading Grades 3–8 Specifications

Purpose and Overview

The North Carolina Personalized Assessment Tool is a system of through-grade assessment opportunities aimed toward a balanced assessment system that will provide granular data for immediate feedback about students’ performance throughout the year. The system was developed as a pilot study under the U.S. Department of Education’s Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority (IADA) and includes three interim resources (NC Check-Ins 2.0) and an end-of-grade assessment for mathematics and reading at grades 3–8.

The NC Check-Ins 2.0 are the through-year formative component of the NCPAT system. The purposes are to:

• provide educators, students, and stakeholders with immediate and detailed feedback on student performance on grade-level-specific content standards to inform instruction for individual student's needs; and
• provide a reliable estimate to inform a student's end-of-grade (EOG) assessment experience.

Content Specification Development

The NCDPI Office of Accountability and Testing/Test Development Section facilitated a specification workshop in January 2020 as part of the process to gather input from relevant stakeholders. The goal of the specification workshop was to gain input from teachers and curriculum specialists from across the state on assessment design features for the NC Check-Ins 2.0. Participants at the workshop reviewed reading content standards to recommend whether there were any currently assessed reading standards that would not be suitable for the NC Check-Ins 2.0. Participants guided future development by identifying other standards that could be assessed through other item types. At the conclusion of the review process, the workshop participants endorsed the NCDPI proposed design that all grade standards assessed on the End-of-Grade assessment be included on NC Check-Ins 2.0.

Table 1. Content specifications NC Check-Ins 2.0 Reading Grades 3–8 Reading for Literature standards assessed by grade. 

Table 2. Content specifications NC Check-Ins 2.0 Reading Grades 3–8 Reading for Information standards assessed by grade. 

Table 3. Content specifications NC Check-Ins 2.0 Reading Grades 3–8 Language standards assessed by grade. 

NC Check-Ins 2.0 Format

The NC Check-Ins 2.0 for reading are online resources with twenty-four total questions divided across three reading selections. The distribution of reading selection type will vary across interims, but all interims will have at least two distinct selection types [Informational, Literature, or Poetry (grades 6–8 only)]. Each reading selection will have six to nine multiple-choice or technology enhanced questions.

Poetry is included on the NC Check-Ins 2.0 for Reading Grade 6 C, Grade 7 B, and Grade 8 C.

Administration and Review

To accommodate local control of curriculum, the NCDPI will offer a flexible administration and review window for all interims that will open the third week of September to the end of May. PSUs may choose to administer interims in the order that best aligns with their curriculum. The NCDPI recommends one interim administration per quarter.

Proctors are not recommended for the administration of interims. The interims are not timed; however, the estimated time for most students to complete a twenty-four-question interim is about ninety minutes. Schools have the option to administer the interims in one school day or over multiple school days. For multiple school days, the total administration time can be divided into mini sessions.

The interim item-review window for teachers will also be available from the third week of September to the end of May. Teachers may access interim forms after administration so they can conduct formative reviews with their students. The main purpose of these interims is to provide reliable formative data on grade-level-specific content standards so teachers may adjust instruction. Previewing or disclosing interim content to students before an administration may result in an invalid interpretation about student performance on grade-level-specific content standards.

Some schools may not have completed the entire scope for all standards assessed in a NC Check-In 2.0 before the administration.

Supplemental Materials and Additional Resources

The NCTest tutorial page has been updated to include technology-enhanced question sets for grade spans (grade three, grades four and five, middle school, and high school). These practice questions are not included in the Online Assessment Tutorial requirement but offer students additional exposure to grade-specific technology enhanced question types and may be accessed via https://go.ncdpi.gov/NCTest.

These materials must not be used for personal or financial gain, are copyrighted to the NCDPI, and cannot be uploaded into third-party applications. Released items may be accessed via NCTest by clicking on the released items icon.