The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) has defined three performance levels for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP):  Basic, Proficient, and Advanced.   Students not achieving the NAEP Basic level are reported as Below Basic.  The Idaho State Board of Education has defined four performance levels for results from the statewide assessment system:  Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced.  While the same terms are used by NAGB and the Idaho State Board of Education, the terms have not been defined to describe the same performance expectations.  In reference to reading achievement, NAEP Basic and Idaho Proficient for writing are somewhat similar, as indicated in the table below. 
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This level denotes partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at each grade.

PROFICIENT: Meets Standards

The student demonstrates mastery of knowledge and skills that allow them to function independently on all major concepts and skills related to their educational level. The student demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of all information relevant to the topic, at level. The student can perform skills or processes independently without any significant errors.
 

NAEP Basic Applied to Writing

Idaho Proficient Applied to Writing

The achievement levels are for first drafts, not final or polished students writing, that are generated within the limited time constraints of a large-scale assessment environment.

Basic:  Fourth-grade students performing at the Basic level should be able to:

• Demonstrate appropriate response to the task in form, content and language.
• Use some supporting details.
• Demonstrate organization appropriate to the task.
• Demonstrate sufficient command of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization to communicate to the reader.

Basic:  Eighth-grade students performing at the Basic level should be able to:

• Demonstrate appropriate response to the task in form, content, and language.
• Maintain a consistent focus.
• Respond appropriately to the task.
• Demonstrate organization appropriate to the task.
• Use supporting details.
• Demonstrate sufficient command of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization to communicate to the reader.

Proficient:  The paper demonstrates the student's ability to use and understand the basic concepts of writing.  Clear, organized, and easy to understand, a paper is frequently formulaic in its development. The writer has control of the conventions of written language at grade level. The student's writing for that particular day and prompt is at grade level.

A proficient paper for 8th grade students will have MOST of the traits listed below:

Audience/Purpose/Content/Organization

• Topic sentences with supporting details and examples rather than a list

• Multiple, obvious paragraphs with continuity between them

• Logical development throughout essay without stray sentences or paragraphs; every part adds to whole

• Intentional transitions to connect sentences and paragraphs

• Definite sense of audience awareness; anticipates and addresses reader s questions

• May demonstrate higher-level thinking skills

• Effective introduction (expressed or implied); may be mechanical

• Evident conclusion

• Evident purpose

Tone/Mood/Voice/Style

• Appropriate language for audience

• Interesting vocabulary which is appropriate to style

• Consistent point of view, verb tense, and voice

• Writes with ease and confidence; uses a natural voice

• Demonstrates risk: humor or enlightenment, shows rather than tells

• Personal connections, dialogue, or figurative language

• Varied sentences

Mechancis/Usage/Sentence Structure

• Mechanically correct

• Few surface errors; capitalization, punctuation, and/or spelling errors do not detract from meaning or readability

• Command of standard written English

• Varied sentence types and structures