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The College and Work Readiness Assessment (CWRA) is used to evaluate high school students on the skills of critical thinking, analytic reasoning, problem solving, and written communication. These skills are necessary for success in work and college environments in the 21st century.
The long-range goal of Compass to 2015, the strategic plan for Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS), is the successful preparation and graduation of every student with the primary focus on teaching and assessing the skills that students need to thrive as 21st century learners, workers, and citizens. The VBCPS outcomes for student success include critical and creative thinking, problem solving, and effective communication.
To assess our students' abilities to think critically, reason analytically, solve problems, and write clearly, VBCPS will be administering the CWRA at all high schools during the weeks of midterm exams in January. All students enrolled in grade 11 English courses will be required to participate in the CWRA. This online performance task presents students with a realistic problem and related documents that must be analyzed in order to construct written responses to several questions.
The results of the CWRA will allow VBCPS to evaluate our students' higher-level thinking skills, readiness for college and/or work, and provide a comparison between VBCPS juniors and college freshmen. Insights gained from assessment results will assist VBCPS in improving instruction and learning in the areas of critical thinking, problem solving, and written communication.