Introduction
No one wants more testing. But teachers do want — and need — to know how their students are doing. And we believe that a student’s daily work provides the clearest window into their progress. That’s why Amplify ELA provides in-lesson formative, embedded assessments that give educators clear measurement data about student performance without needing to take valuable class time away from instruction. This formative assessment, paired with our summative assessments and data reporting tools, helps educators make confident decisions about instructional strategies and choose the supports that will allow their students to grow as readers and writers. When teachers have the data and tools they need to support all students, students have what they need to learn, progress, and prepare for high school — and beyond.
Assessments
All core Amplify ELA units include a robust system of formative, summative, interim, and embedded assessments that provide teachers with actionable student performance data.
Learn more about the Vocab app.
Learn more about assessments.
Formative assessments
Built-in daily formative assessments — including Exit Tickets, Formative Writing Prompts, independent reading assignments, and independent vocabulary practice — enable teachers to make timely decisions about instructional strategy and provide the guidance students need to thrive as readers and writers.
Embedded Measure
Beginning with Unit B, all core units leverage formative assessment for a robust system of embedded measurement that provides teachers actionable student performance data long before end-of-unit or benchmark exams. The Embedded Measure (EM) reports allow teachers to easily track and interpret student performance against the three core domains of Reading, Writing, and Language without interrupting the flow of daily instruction to test students.
The EM system examines student performance on selected lesson activities, taking into account the difficulty of each activity. Reading scores come from student submissions in Solos, Exit Tickets, and additional in-lesson selected-response questions. Writing scores come from Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) scores for Focus and Use of Evidence on Formative Writing Prompts. Language scores come from AWE scores for Conventions and any in-lesson vocabulary questions.
Components
Exit Tickets: Each core lesson ends with an Exit Ticket aligned to the lesson’s primary learning objective. Exit Ticket reports provide data about how well students understood the lesson’s close reading focus.
Formative Writing Prompts: Two or three times a week, the lesson’s performance task takes the form of a response-to-text writing prompt, where students write for 10–15 minutes in response to a text-based question. These regular, integrated writing prompts receive an AWE for key writing skills: Focus, Use of Evidence (where applicable), and Conventions. Teachers can also assign their own rubric-aligned scores in Classwork. Writing reports show patterns of skill development within each unit.
Independent Reading Assignments: In between lessons, students complete Solos, which are daily, independent reading assignments accompanied by comprehension questions. All selected-response questions are auto-scored, allowing teachers to see a daily report of students’ independent reading comprehension, assess class readiness for the following lesson, and monitor patterns over time.
Independent Vocabulary Practice: The Amplify Vocab App is an independent, adaptive app used in most lesson warm-ups. It assesses student progress against text and academic vocabulary words, adjusting students’ assigned words in response to their performance. In-app reporting provides teachers with visualizations of student mastery data as they progress through the activities.
Learn more about formative assessments.
Differentiation
Most formative assessments come with built-in differentiated supports. Formative Writing Prompts are differentiated to support struggling students by providing segmented prompts with simplified language, guiding questions, and sentence starters. Differentiated supports in reading comprehension Solos include text previews, which are written at a lower Lexile level and help students focus on key ideas; reduced text, which focuses students on the most critical passages; and a reduced selection of comprehension questions. Activities in Amplify’s adaptive Vocab App provide students with differentiated content in response to student performance.
Learn more about Differentiation.
Summative assessments
All core Amplify ELA units culminate in two major summative assessments: essays and reading assessments. Many units also include a range of nontraditional performance tasks — such as debates, Socratic seminars, creative assignments, and presentations — which teachers can assign as alternative summative assessments.
Essay sub-units
End-of-unit essays are performance tasks that engage students in the writing process over multiple days. Essays provide teachers opportunities to assess whether students can integrate the understanding and skills they’ve built throughout a unit into the production of an extended piece of writing. Prompts ask essential questions that invite students to synthesize ideas over the course of full texts and across multiple texts. Genres vary from unit to unit, to provide a balance of argumentative and informational prompts. Common elements across essay sub-units — including brainstorming, revising, and editing stages — allow students to build familiarity and confidence with the process of sustained writing, as well as the conventions of formal essays.
Materials for essay sub-units also include essay rubrics, which build on and extend the skills practiced in Formative Writing Prompts. Student submissions in essay sub-units are not auto-scored against rubrics; teachers can provide custom, rubric-aligned scores using the Classwork app.
Reading assessments
Amplify ELA’s reading assessments are summative assessments that serve three purposes: to assess student understanding of content from the unit, to assess student mastery of reading skills and objectives, and to provide practice for students with the types of questions and activities they may encounter on end-of-year state and national assessments. Reading assessments include 10–20 selected-response items and 1–2 constructed-response prompts that require on-demand writing about 1–2 core unit texts.
Reading Assessment reports provide raw scores for the selected-response portion of the assessment as well as color-coded performance level reporting. Performance level scores were developed using statistical analysis of real student performance on these assessments compared with their state-mandated end-of-year assessments.
Summative assessments do not come with built-in differentiated supports. In essay sub-units, students all respond to the same prompt and receive the same directions. However, essay sub-units come with optional scaffolds that can be provided to some or all students at the teacher’s discretion: graphic organizers for planning and sentence starters for writing each section of the essay. In an effort to mirror the conditions of most state standardized tests, unit reading assessments are also not differentiated. However, these assessments include scaffolds that meet many students’ accommodation needs, such as audio for passages, questions, and prompts.
Nontraditional performance tasks
In addition to more traditional summative assessments, core units include performance tasks that invite students to demonstrate their knowledge and creativity in various ways. In different units, students have opportunities to plan and deliver a multimedia presentation, write a speech, defend their claims in debates, conduct Socratic seminars, present performances, and collaborate on projects of their own choosing. These tasks often include differentiation support.
Learn more about summative assessments.
Interim assessments
Amplify also provides interim assessments designed to give teachers baseline data on students’ proficiency with reading and writing skills and concepts, and to measure students’ progress over the course of the year. Each grade level has two interim reading assessments and two interim writing assessments. Teachers are encouraged to administer the first interim reading and writing assessments within the first 4–8 weeks of the school year, and to administer the second interim reading and writing assessments 4–8 weeks before any end-of-year state or national assessments.
Reading interim assessments include three 3 text passages, 22–23 selected-response items, and 2 constructed-response prompts. Writing interim assessments include 2 text passages and 1 essay prompt. Reading and writing interim assessments are each designed to be completed within a single class period of about 50 minutes, though teachers may adjust the time as they deem appropriate.
Interim assessments are available as printable files and may be administered on paper. There are digital versions that can be turned on for customers who use the Illuminate assessment platform.
Learn more about interim assessments.
Reporting
Reporting provides teachers with detailed information on student progress with reading and writing skills. In the Reporting app, teachers can track students’ performance in formative assessments, such as Writing Prompts, Solos, and Exit Tickets, as well as in summative reading assessments.
Teacher reporting
Writing Prompts
The Writing Prompts report pulls the AWE scores from Formative Writing Prompts across an entire unit. AWE scores are always provided for Focus and Conventions. Use of Evidence AWE scores are provided for most prompts that require text evidence. Teachers can override AWE scores and provide their own rubric-aligned scores in Classwork; a teacher’s override scores feed into reporting. Learn more about Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE).
In this report:
See individual student progress by skill, target skills for students to practice in revision assignments, and decide whether to change students’ differentiation levels.
Track progress by skill across a unit, and identify writing prompts for revision assignments.
Learn more about Writing Prompts report.
Solos
The Solos report pulls raw scores for all selected-response questions (multiple choice, drag and drop, etc.) included in Solo reading assignments. Note that differentiation may impact the total questions each student receives. Amplify’s report automatically includes that context in scoring.
In this report:
See the average performance of your class in each lesson. Here, you can set a goal and see how many students are hitting it.
The Unit Overview shows raw scores for each student for all Solos in a unit.
The By Solo view shows the differentiation level and the performance on each question for each student.
The By Question view shows whole-class performance by question in each Solo.
Before class, review the previous lesson’s Solo scores to determine how comfortable students are with the core text. See how well students are reading independently, and decide if any students need their differentiation level changed.
Learn more about Solo reports.
Exit Tickets
The Exit Tickets report pulls the raw scores on selected-response questions included in all Exit Tickets in a unit.
See the proportion of students getting each Exit Ticket fully correct, partially correct, or fully incorrect across a unit.
The Class Overview shows raw scores for each student.
The By Question view shows performance by question.
Assess whether to reteach a lesson or assign extra practice using Instructional Modules during a Flex Day.
Learn more about Exit Ticket reports.
Embedded Measure
Starting in Unit B, all core units use formative assessment to provide teachers with actionable student data before end-of-unit or benchmark exams. The EM report examines student performance on selected lesson activities, taking into account the difficulty of each activity. Reading scores come from student submissions in selected-response Solo questions, selected-response Exit Ticket questions, and any other selected-response reading questions in lessons. Writing scores come from AWE scores for Focus and Use of Evidence on Formative Writing Prompts. Language scores come from AWE scores for Conventions and any in-lesson vocabulary questions.
In this report:
See the percentage of class at color-coded performance levels in each domain.
Recommendations suggests grouping for differentiated instruction on Flex Days.
The Student Roster view shows percentile for each student in each domain.
EM reports provide an at-a-glance look at which students are at risk in each of the three core domains. EM reports also provide recommendations about how to group students for both 1) differentiated instruction and 2) extra practice during Flex Days.
The EM report includes all available data for a given student. Absences or decisions to complete content in print will not negatively impact a student’s level, but the more work students have completed, the more accurate their scores will be.
Learn more about the Embedded Measure (EM).
Reading Assessments
The Reading Assessments report pulls submissions data from the selected-response questions on the Unit Reading Assessment.
See proportion of students at color-coded performance levels.
The Class Overview shows raw scores for each unit.
The By Question view shows how many students selected each possible response for each question.
The By Strand view shows student performance across question types.
Admin Reports
Many of these assessment measures can also be viewed in Admin Reports. Learn more about Amplify ELA Admin Reports.
Classwork
With Classwork, teachers can view and comment on student work and progress.
In the Activities tab, teachers will see activities submitted by their students. Teachers can choose to see all activities or select specific activities. When viewing a specific activity, teachers can see students’ raw scores as well as the differentiation level each student was set to when they completed that activity. Teachers can click on an individual student’s name to view the student’s work, provide feedback, review auto-scores for AWE, or provide a custom score or grade.
In the Portfolios tab, teachers can view student work, one student at a time. This tab also allows teachers to review the status of each assignment, see any auto and custom scores that have been assigned, and view any feedback that has been provided. This comprehensive collection of an individual student’s work can be useful during individual conferences with students and/or families.
The Insights tab provides data-driven recommendations for students who would benefit from teacher feedback.
The Levels tab allows teachers to quickly view student differentiation levels, so they can easily make adjustments based on student work or scores.
Grading
Amplify ELA’s assessments, Reporting app, and Classwork app are all designed to help teachers make the most of the ELA curriculum, so they can tailor lessons, scaffolds, and supports to their students’ needs. The Classwork and Reporting apps provide raw score data, performance levels, and grouping recommendations. They also enable teachers to provide custom scores and in-line comments and feedback on student writing.
Raw scores in Reporting and Classwork are not necessarily meant to be used as student grades. Individual teachers, schools, and/or districts can determine the best way to assign grades for student performance in their ELA classes. Some teachers balance performance with participation. Others focus on mastery of skills or objectives. Whatever grading model is used in your context, scoring and feedback tools in Amplify ELA are there to help.
Learn more about grading in Amplify ELA.
Learn more about Amplify ELA rubrics.
Auto scores
AWE scores: Amplify’s AWE tools have been developed in conjunction with the Formative Writing Prompts in Amplify ELA. The goal of AWE is to give teachers a tool to understand, track, and support student progress with three foundational writing skills, which are a strong indicator of a student’s analytic writing proficiency: Focus, Use of Evidence, and Conventions. Amplify encourages teachers to review student work alongside the AWE score, and to override the AWE scores with their own rubric-based assessment if they disagree with the automated scores. AWE should not be relied on as the sole source of any grade for student writing. Whenever teachers plan to assign a grade to student writing, they should review the submissions and apply their judgment in translating the scores into grades.
Raw scores for selected-response items: All selected-response items (multiple choice, drag and drop, etc.) in Amplify ELA — on both formative and summative assessments — are auto-scored with a possible point value of 1. Students receive either a 1 for a completely correct response (including selecting the correct answer in both parts of a two-part multiple choice question) or 0 for a partial or completely incorrect response. Teachers are encouraged to use their professional judgment when determining how to assign grades for any auto-scored items in Amplify ELA. Teachers may choose to use custom scoring tools in Classwork to assign partial credit for partially correct answers, to assign grades that incorporate levels of class participation, or to assign grades based on a subset of assigned items.
Learn more about the Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE).
Grades for formative assessments
Formative assessments in Amplify ELA include Exit Tickets, Formative Writing Prompts, independent reading assignments, independent vocab practice, and other in-lesson activities. Teachers choose which activities are assigned grades. Some possible options are as follows:
Some teachers give a daily grade that balances student scores on the lesson’s performance task (such as a writing prompt) with other criteria, such as participation or work completion.
Some teachers give weekly grades for Solos and calculate custom scores that do not include the items with the lowest performance (opting, instead, to use these items for reteach moments).
Within the Vocab app, many teachers grade work completion combined with word mastery over a specified amount of time.
Some teachers invite students to select a number of assignments for each marking period that the students believe best demonstrate their knowledge and skill development and involve students in a process of reflection before assigning grades.
No matter which formative assessments teachers decide to use for assigning grades, it is up to teachers to consider the context of their classroom, and the priorities of their district, and translate assessed scores into grades in a way that they deem fair and appropriate.
Learn more about grading formative assessments.
Grades for summative assessments
All core Amplify ELA units culminate in two major summative assessments: essays and reading assessments. Many units also include a range of nontraditional performance tasks that teachers can assign as alternative summative assessments. It is up to teachers to decide which summative assessments they want to assign and how they want to assign grades for these assessments.
Essays: Essays do not receive AWE scores, as the writing skills included in essay rubrics build on and extend the skills practiced in Formative Writing Prompts. Teachers can provide custom, rubric-aligned scores using the Classwork app. In assigning scores and grades to essays, some teachers use the essay rubrics included in Amplify ELA. Other teachers use the essay rubrics provided by state or district leadership, or developed in conjunction with local colleagues.
Reading assessments
Reading Assessment reporting provides raw scores for the selected-response portion of the assessment as well as color-coded performance level reporting. The cut-off points for each performance level vary slightly by unit, as they were developed using statistical analysis of real student performance on these assessments compared with their state-mandated end-of-year assessments.
Reading assessments were designed to mirror high-stakes standardized tests. Average scores range between 50% and 70%, which allows reporting to capture the entire range of student achievement. Like high-stakes assessments, these assessments often include difficult questions that few students are expected to answer correctly. Amplify designed assessments this way for two reasons. First, this gives teachers and administrators better data about their higher-performing students, rather than having a large group of students hit a “ceiling” on the test. Second, this allows students to become familiar with the experience of taking a test that includes challenging questions.
Amplify ELA recommends that teachers translate raw scores for the selected-response items into grades in whatever way is most appropriate to their specific context and criteria.
In addition to 10–20 auto-scored selected-response items, each unit reading assessment also includes 1–2 constructed-response prompts. Teachers can determine whether to assign one or both of these prompts, and can assess these prompts using the rubric included in assessment rationales.
It is up to teachers to determine how they want to translate scores into grades, including the amount they want to weight constructed responses versus selected-response items, and how many of the selected-response items they want to include when calculating grades.
Some teachers use the student performance level breakdowns as a guide in doing this. For example, some teachers give A's to students who have scored in the exceeds performance level range, B's to students in the meets performance level range, C's to students in the approaching performance level range, and D's to students in the below performance level range.
Learn more about grading summative assessments.
LMS integrations
Amplify’s Classwork app does not calculate grades, as it is up to educators to consider the context of their classroom and the priorities of their district and to translate assessed scores into grades in a way that they deem fair and appropriate. Therefore, many educators sync specific grades directly from Amplify Classwork into their gradebooks. Amplify prioritizes interoperability, and works continually to expand integration offerings.
Learn more about Amplify LMS integrations.