PWA
The Placement Writing Assessment (PWA) is designed as a pre-assessment by the College of William & Mary. It is aligned to Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts.
Students are asked to read a passage and respond to a writing prompt. Their extended response is rated in the following areas:
- Statement of a Claim
- Inclusion of Supporting Details
- Elaboration with Information from the Text
- Use of a Conclusion
These components are assessed because they are critically important in the writing process. As discussed in Common Core State Standards for English Language Art & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, "...students need to learn to use writing as a way of offering and supporting opinions, demonstrating understanding of the subjects they are studying, and conveying real and imagined experiences and events. They learn to appreciate that a key purpose of writing is to communicate clearly to an external, sometimes unfamiliar audience, and they begin to adapt the form and content of their writing to accomplish a particular task and purpose." (pg. 18)
The maximum score a student can achieve on the PWA is 28. The range of scores varies from year to year, although D181 students typically score between 12 - 18. A score of 20 is needed for students to be considered for traditional placement into Enriched Language Arts and/or the Affective Cognitive Enrichment (ACE) program in middle school.
