TELPAS Writing Test: Rubric, Prompts and Samples

Until 2022, TELPAS writing in grades 2–12 was rated by teachers from a collection of each student's classroom writing. From spring 2023, writing became part of the online reading and writing test, scored against rubrics like the TELPAS speaking test.

A writing collection is still used for some special holistic administrations in grades 2–12. In kindergarten and grade 1, teachers rate writing holistically from classroom observation, and no formal collection is required (see TELPAS for kindergarten and first grade). For most students in grades 2–12, though, writing now means the online test described here.

Writing counts for 25 percent of the TELPAS composite rating, the same as each of the other three domains.

The writing part of the test has nine items, in two reporting categories. Reading and writing share grade clusters: grade 2, grade 3, grades 4–5, 6–7, 8–9 and 10–12.

In the constructed responses, the student reads a prompt and types an answer. Prompts ask students to narrate, describe or explain: to tell about an experience, describe something in detail, or explain an idea or a process. The prompts become more demanding in the older grade clusters.

The key skill is answering the whole prompt. Completeness is part of the scoring, so if a prompt has more than one part, a response that handles only one of them leaves points behind however well it is written.

The editing items each show a short piece of writing with an error to find and fix. Each is worth one point. They come in four formats:

Sentence rewrite is the format students find hardest. It scores 1 point if the response is one or more complete sentences and corrects all the errors. Punctuation and capitalization are not counted for this item type, so the student should focus on the grammar, word forms and spelling the item is testing.

• Multiple choice: choose the correct version of a word or phrase.
• Text entry: type the corrected word or words into a box.
• Two-part text entry: a text entry item with two parts to complete.
• Sentence rewrite: type the whole sentence again, correctly.

The rubric depends on the grade.

Grades 2–3: each written response is scored with a single four-point holistic rubric. The scorer judges the response as a whole rather than trait by trait. TEA's released grade 2 answer key shows each response scored by two human scorers whose scores are added, so one response is worth 2 to 8 points, and three responses make up the 24 points in the blueprint.

Grades 4–12: each written response is scored on three separate traits, vocabulary, usage and completeness, each from 1 to 4 points, for up to 12 points per response.

TEA publishes the official rubrics and writing scoring guides alongside the TELPAS released tests. The scoring guides are the best TELPAS writing samples available: real student responses at each score point. Reading a few of those is the quickest way for a teacher to calibrate what each level looks like.

Grades 4–12 writing uses a hybrid scoring model. Each response is first scored by an automated scoring engine, at least 25 percent of responses are also scored by trained human scorers, and responses the engine is not confident about are routed to human scorers.

Grades 2–3 writing is scored entirely by human scorers.

Each editing item has a correct answer and is worth one point. A district can request a rescore; there is a fee, which is waived if the score changes.

Writing improves with writing, and with talking about writing. A few short pieces a week, discussed with an adult, beat one long piece a month.

Practice typed writing in particular. A student who can say a great deal but types very slowly will often write less than they can, and completeness is one of the scored traits.

• Before writing, underline every part of the prompt. Check each part off after writing.
• Answer in full sentences, and add a detail or example to each main point.
• Push for precise words: not 'nice' but 'friendly', 'sunny' or 'comfortable', depending on what is meant.
• Vary sentences: join ideas with because, but, so, when and although.
• Reread for the errors you know you make. Many students have two or three habitual errors, such as dropping past-tense endings or plural -s.
• For grades 4–12, score a practice response on the three traits together. Ask: which trait is weakest, and what would raise it by one point?
• Type regularly. Ten minutes of keyboard practice a few times a week adds up.

Editing is a skill of noticing. Give students short sentences with a single error and ask them to find and fix it. Common targets include verb tense, subject-verb agreement, plurals, pronouns, word forms such as quick and quickly, and spelling of common words.

Practice sentence rewrites as their own skill. Students should copy the sentence carefully, fix every error, and make sure what they type is a complete sentence. The rubric does not count new errors against the student, but every tested error must be corrected and the correction spelled correctly; missing one loses the point.

The writing practice on this site, such as TELPAS writing practice for grade 3 and TELPAS writing practice for grades 10–12, includes original editing questions that are checked as you go. On the real test some of these are typed answers; here they are multiple choice so they can be checked. The written-response prompts come with a rubric and a sample answer but are not scored, because rubric scoring cannot be reproduced honestly by a practice site. Students can ask for AI practice feedback on a response instead: what went well and what to try next, with the rubric points it looks closest to. That is a guide for practice, not a TELPAS score.