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Assessment

Standardized Assessments

PSSA

The PSSA (Pennsylvania System of School Assessment) is an annual standards-based, criterion-referenced assessment for Pennsylvania published by the PA Department of Education.

  • Mathematics Grades 3-8
  • English Language Arts Grades 3-8
  • Science Grades 5 (moved from Grade 4 in 2025) and 8

 

Secondary School Standardized Assessments

Keystone Assessments

    • The Keystone Exams are end-or-course assessments that serve as one component of Pennsylvania's statewide high school graduation requirement. Keystone assessments are given in:
      • Biology
      • Algebra I (may be taken in Middle School)
      • Literature

SAT/PSAT

The SAT/PSAT measures knowledge and skills for college and career readiness. The College Board publishes the assessments. 

ACT

The ACT measures college and career readiness. The assessment is published by ACT Education Corporation. 

NOCTI

The NOCTI measures end-of-program technical knowledge and skills in several credential categories including Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources as well as other career clusters. The NOCTI assessments are taken by students enrolled in Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs.

 

Benchmark Assessments

Acadience Reading Assessment - Grades K-8

Acadience is a universal screening assessment that measures the acquisition of early literacy skills. The purpose of Acadience Reading is to monitor your child's development in reading, to identify students who need additional help, and to guide the teacher's classroom instruction. Acadience Reading is not factored into report card grades. The Acadience benchmark assessment is administered three times throughout the school year.

Acadience scores are reported across four categories:

    • At or Above Benchmark - students with scores in this range likely need core instruction to meet literacy goals
    • Below Benchmark - students with scores in this range likely need core instruction and potentially additional classroom support to achieve literacy goals
    • Well Below Benchmark - students with scores in this range likely require intensive support in addition to the core instruction to achieve literacy goals.

Features of the Acadience Assessment

    • First Sound Fluency (FSF) - an early indicator of phonemic awareness
    • Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) - measures the student's ability to identify letters
    • Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF) - measures a student's ability to segment a spoken word into its component parts
    • Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) - measures a student's knowledge of basic letter sound correspondences and the ability to blend letter sounds
    • Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) Words Correct - the number of words a student read correctly in 1 minute
    • ORF Accuracy - the percent of words a student read accurately in 1 minute
    • Retell - measures the ability to talk about a passage that the student just read
    • Maze - measures the ability to select the missing words in a passage correctly

LinkIt! Benchmark Assessment 

LinkIt! Benchmark Assessments measure a student's progress on mastery of the end-of-year content and skills for a mathematics, English Lanugage Arts, or science course. As students progress and learn new content throughout the year, the scores required to demonstrate proficiency increase with each form of the test. Students demonstrating proficiency on the spring LinkIt!  benchmark are likely to demonstrate proficiency on the associated PSSA or Keystone assessment. LinkIt! benchmark assessments are not used to determine report card grades but are instead used to provide classroom differentiation on the PA Core Standards.

Unlike the PSSA and Keystone assessments, the LinkIt! benchmarks are reported across five categories. 

    • Advanced - above expectations
    • Proficient - meeting expectations
    • Opportunity - on the cusp of moving up to proficiency
    • Basic - below expectations
    • Below Basic - well below expectations

Please remember that benchmark assessments are designed to measure the end-of-year content and skills, therefore:

  • The beginning-of-year benchmark may be a low score because students have not been taught the grade-level standards yet.
  • The mid-year benchmarks reflect what students should know in the middle of the year. At mid-year students should be able to score a 50%.
  • As the year progresses, students should continue to increase their fluency in these skills.
  • Performance on the end-of-year LinkIt benchmark is a good predictor of PSSA and Keystone scores. Students who score at proficient levels on the end-of-year LinkIt are statistically likely to score proficient on the statewide assessment.

 

 

LinkIt! Parent Portal Access

The ELCO LinkIT! Parent Portal is a data warehouse for parents/guardians to view the academic history of their student(s). Most of the assessments stored in LinkIT! are not included in report card calculations of grades but are instead used to provide multiple measures of progress on meeting grade-level mastery of standards.

How to Gain Access to LinkiT!

An email will be sent to the email address you enter (Look for an email from registration@linkit.com) with the subject line: LinkIt Parent Portal Account Registration. The email contains a unique code that you can use to create the account and password.  Visit https://elcsd.linkit.com/parent and click on "Have a registration code?" to create your account. If you have a Google account, you may link your Google account after you have entered the registration code.

Frequently Asked Questions

I completed the PowerSchool form but did not receive an account code. What do I do?  Accounts will be created and sent to parents/guardians after November Parent-Teacher Conferences. If you completed the PowerSchool form after that time, account access emails will be generated monthly. Check your email spam filters for an email from registration@linkit.com  If you did not receive an account code, please contact your school’s main office to be sure your correct email was entered into the form.

What do I do if my account code is not working?  Be sure you are using the same email address where you received the account code.  The account code is tied to a specific email address.  If the account code does not work, that means it has been activated already and you should do a password recovery (Lost password). Click on the "Forgot Password?" link on the login page. 

What is the website for the Parent Portal?  https://elcsd.linkit.com/parent

What do I do if I forgot my password?  Click on “Lost password?” link on the LinkIt login page and enter the primary email address that you used when you signed up for the account. A password reset email will be sent to that email address.

Why can't I see all of my children in LinkIt?   When you first completed the PowerSchool form to gain LinkIt access, you had to complete a form for each student. If you did not, you may go back in at any time to complete the form for additional children. 

Which assessments can I see in LinkIt? In the Parent Portal, you will be able to see assessments that your child has taken over the past several years including Acadience, PSSA, Keystone, and LinkIt Benchmarks.

Who do I contact if I have questions about my child's performance on the assessments or need more explanation? The first point of contact should always be your child's classroom teacher. The teacher will be able to answer questions for you regarding the academic growth of your child throughout the school year.