FIGURE 1. Ninth Grade English Competencies
Date
Skills Measured
Assessment Format
1st Quarter
Understanding plagiarism; citing and referencing (MLA
Exam (multiple choice and short answer)
and APA)
Summaries, literary response, and analysis
Vocabulary development
9 weekly literacy letters
9 weekly tests
Research paper on essential question using writing
strategies, applications, and conventions
Research paper ( 1,500 words) and creative
component
2nd Quarter
Media analysis, persuasive techniques, and propaganda Exam (multiple choice and short answer)
Summaries, literary response, and analysis
9 weekly literacy letters
Vocabulary development
9 weekly tests
Persuasive essay on essential question using writing
strategies, applications, and conventions
Persuasive essay ( 1,500 words) and creative
component
3rd Quarter
Analyzing oral communication and speeches
Exam (multiple choice and short answer)
Summaries, literary response, and analysis
9 weekly literacy letters
Vocabulary development
9 weekly tests
Informational report on essential question using writing Informational report ( 1,500 words) and creative
strategies, applications, and conventions
component
4th Quarter
Poetry analysis
Exam (multiple choice and short answer)
Delivering oral communication
Summaries, literary response, and analysis
Vocabulary development
Autobiographical account of essential question using
writing strategies, applications, and conventions
Retelling and dramatic monologue
9 weekly literacy letters
9 weekly tests
Personal statement ( 1,000 words) and creative
component
and differentiated instruction to demon- The student who does
of supports emerged. At the outset, the
strate competency. At the same time, it
gave us a mechanism for ensuring that
no homework yet aces
number of students who completed
class work and homework remained
students would be proficient across the
entire course—all students eventually the test could fail in
about the same as before the com-
petency policy was implemented. As
had to pass the same competency—and one school and earn
it enabled us to increase the rigor of our
expectations. Our decision to assign
incompletes led to the development of
a B in the other.
is typical in most high schools, the
majority of students complete in-class
work, and about 50 percent of students
regularly complete their homework.
one of the school’s guiding principles:
The adoption of course competencies
It’s never too late to learn.
If at First You Don’t Succeed
complete the practice work if it was
not part of their grade? What would
happen if a student failed to pass the
added accountability for practice work.
To be eligible to retake an assessment,
the student had to first complete all the
As the faculty implemented its ideas
competency? How might teachers align practice work. Anyone—not just those
about competencies, a number of
intervention efforts with competencies? who scored below 70 percent—could
questions emerged: Would students
As various situations arose, a system
choose to do a retake. Teachers used
