FSA ELA Reporting Categories
FSA ELA assessments measure student performance of the Florida Standards in English language arts. For all grade levels tested, the FSA ELA tests assess what students know and are able to do in the broad reporting categories listed below. The difficulty of the concepts assessed on the FSA ELA tests progresses systematically from grade to grade, as does the complexity of the text presented to the student at each grade level.
Grades 6–10 and Retake
Key Ideas and Details
In this category, students are expected to read closely to understand information; cite textual evidence to support inferences/conclusions; analyze development and interaction of central ideas, themes, individuals, events, or supporting ideas; and summarize key concepts.
Craft and Structure
In this category, students are expected to interpret connotative and figurative meanings of words/phrases, analyze how word choice affects meaning/tone and how text structures impact the text, and determine the effects of point of view or purpose.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
In this category, students are expected to integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media formats; evaluate arguments for claims, validity, relevance, and sufficient evidence; and analyze treatment of similar themes or topics.
Language and Editing
In this category, students are expected to demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar, usage, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.
Text-Based Writing In this category, students are expected to draw relevant evidence from various texts to support a claim or controlling idea and produce clear and coherent writing with development, organization, and style appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
Purpose, Focus, and Organization
In this domain, students are expected to write a response that is fully sustained and consistently focused within the purpose, audience, and task. It should have a clearly stated controlling idea/opinion and effective organizational structure creating coherence and completeness.
Evidence and Elaboration
In this domain, students are expected to write a response that provides thorough and convincing support with cited evidence for the controlling idea/writer’s claim that includes the effective use of sources, facts, and details.
Conventions of Standard English
In this domain, students are expected to write a response that demonstrates an adequate command of basic conventions. The response may include some minor errors in usage, but no patterns of errors. It should include adequate use of punctuation, capitalization, sentence formation, and spelling.
FSA EOC Reporting Categories
The content of the FSA EOC assessments is organized by reporting categories that are used for test design, scoring, and reporting purposes. Reporting categories group the assessed student knowledge and skills into broad content areas. Definitions for each reporting category are provided below for each of the FSA EOC assessments.
Algebra 1 and Retake
•Algebra and Modeling
In this category, students are expected to perform operations on polynomials; understand the relationship between zeros and factors of polynomials; use mathematical structure of expressions; create, solve, and reason with equations and inequalities; and choose and use appropriate mathematics to model situations.
•Functions and Modeling
In this category, students are expected to understand the concept of a function; interpret functions and key features in a context; analyze and graph functions; build a function that models a relationship; construct linear, quadratic, and exponential functions; and solve problems using functions.
•Statistics and the Number System
In this category, students are expected to extend the properties of exponents to rational exponents; use properties of rational and irrational numbers; summarize, represent, and interpret data for one- and two-variable data; and interpret linear models.
Geometry
•Congruence, Similarity, Right Triangles, and Trigonometry
In this category, students are expected to understand congruence and similarity in terms of transformations, prove and use geometric theorems, demonstrate geometric constructions, define trigonometric ratios, solve problems involving right triangles, and use congruence and similarity criteria for triangles.
•Circles, Geometric Measurement, and Geometric Properties with Equations
In this category, students are expected to prove and apply theorems about circles, find arc lengths and areas of sectors, derive the equation of a circle, use coordinates to prove theorems and to solve problems algebraically, and explain and use volume formulas.
•Modeling with Geometry
In this category, students are expected to apply geometric concepts in modeling situations.
Molecular and Cellular Biology
In this category, students are expected to compare prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, differentiate between mitosis and meiosis, relate the structure and function of the four major categories of biological macromolecules, and differentiate the processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration.
Classification, Heredity, and Evolution
In this category, students are expected to identify evidence that supports the scientific theory of evolution, classify organisms into domains or kingdoms, identify scientific explanations of the origin of life, determine conditions required for natural selection, and analyze patterns of inheritance.
Organisms, Populations, and Ecosystems
In this category, students are expected to relate structure and function of organs and tissues in plants and animals, evaluate factors contributing to changes in population size, determine consequences of the loss of biodiversity, and evaluate the impact of biotechnology.
Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (1860–1910)
In this category, students are expected to understand and articulate the impact of issues related to the Civil War, Reconstruction, the closing of the frontier, the industrialization of the nation, and changes in American society at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Global Military, Political, and Economic Challenges (1890–1940)
In this category, students are expected to understand and articulate the impact of the issues related to the rise of American military power; America’s increased involvement in world affairs; and changing social, political, and economic forces affecting the 1920s and 1930s.
The United States and the Defense of the International Peace (1940–2010)
In this category, students are expected to understand and articulate the impact of issues related to World War II, the Cold War, the social revolutions of the late twentieth century, and the challenges of the early twenty-first century.