School Improvement in Maryland

Public Release Item: Public Release items have appeared on HSA forms and then are released for public viewing and use. Releasing items is one step to ensuring that schools, districts, and other stakeholders understand how the core learning goals are assessed on the HSA.

Goal 2 Composing in a Variety of Modes

Expectation 2.3 The student will locate, retrieve, and use information from various sources to accomplish a purpose.

Indicator 2.3.3 The student will use a systematic process for recording and documenting information.

Assessment Limits:

  • Assessing the advantages, disadvantages, or limitations of sources of information (e.g., comprehensiveness, honesty, reliability, bias, accuracy, availability, variety, currency, multiple points of view)
  • Identifying information to include or exclude in a reference citation when using either traditional or electronic sources of information
  • Determining information that should be documented

Selected Response Item - Released in 2005

Mariah is interested in carrier pigeons and decides to write an essay about them. The draft of Mariah's essay requires revisions and edits. Read the draft, and answer the following question.

All of these sentences include information that should be documented on a works–cited page EXCEPT

  1. Sentence 1
  2. Sentence 2
  3. Sentence 4
  4. Sentence 10
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2005_233_eng49.xml

Correct Answer:
A

Selected Response Item - Released in 2006

After reading literature from around the world, students researched their own family backgrounds. One student, Shelli, decided to research her Irish heritage and learned that some Irish sports are popular in the United States. The draft of Shelli's essay, “Irish Sports,” requires revisions and edits. Read the draft. Then answer the following.

Which sentence in Shelli's draft includes information that requires documentation of a source?

  1. Sentence 1
  2. Sentence 5
  3. Sentence 8
  4. Sentence 15
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2006_233_eng47.xml

Correct Answer:
B

Selected Response Item - Released in 2007

Terry is writing about the War of 1812 and the origin of the national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The draft of the first part of Terry’s essay, “Oh, Say Can You See,” requires revisions and edits. Read the draft. Then answer the following:

In his essay, Terry used information from a pamphlet published by the Smithsonian Institution. Which piece of information must be included in a bibliography entry for the pamphlet?

  1. the name of his school
  2. the name of his school librarian
  3. the publication date of the pamphlet
  4. the number of sections in the pamphlet
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2007_233_eng50.xml

Correct Answer:
C

Selected Response Item - Released in 2008

In Jessica’s English class, students are writing about artists they admire. Jessica decided to write about the piano player and composer Eubie Blake. The draft of Jessica’s essay requires revisions and edits. Read the draft. Then answer the following item.

Jessica used information from an Internet site about famous Marylanders in her essay. All of these would be included in the bibliographic citation for the Internet site EXCEPT

  1. the title of the article
  2. the Internet site address
  3. the title of the Internet site
  4. the number of related links
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2008_233_eng51.xml

Correct Answer:
D
Resources for 2.3.3:
PUBLIC RELEASE ITEMS | Sample Assessment Items |