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5-8 Grade Level Illinois Alternative Assessment Program Scoring Rubric ITEM: Illinois and Other States This item presents a list of six states. Students are asked to select a state from the list and to describe five ways that it is geographically similar to and five ways that it is geographically different from Illinois. Students are expected to focus their responses on major similarities and differences in the cultural and/or physical geography of the two states. Level Four Performance A Level Four performance is characterized by five accurate comparisons of major cultural characteristics and physical features of the chosen state and Illinois, e.g. population and urban characteristics, economic activities, political and locational aspects, climate, and landforms. For example, such a response might mention that the total population, as well as the population density, of Kansas is less than that of Illinois, but that both states have a major or primate city. Physical geography comparisons might make mention of the relatively flat terrain in both states and the decrease in precipitation from east to west in Kansas compared to the south to north decrease in Illinois. The response demonstrates an indepth understanding of the content chosen for the comparison, e.g. that grasslands in eastern Kansas are more like those in Illinois than the grasslands in western Kansas, not simply that there are grasslands in both states. Responses are well organized and use complete sentences and paragraphs. Level Three Performance Performance at this level reveals a general understanding of the similarities and differences between Illinois and another state in the list. The comparisons made are generally correct, but some may contain misperceptions, e.g., "Louisiana and Illinois are alike because they were part of the Louisiana Purchase." Major cultural and physical phenomena of geography are addressed in a response at this level, but accuracy may suffer somewhat, e.g., "It [Louisiana] is bigger than Illinois," or an obvious comparison may be given, e.g., "They both are part of the continental United States." Usually, the number of accurate comparisons is less than in a level three response, e.g., three or four compared to five. Responses are less well organized than in Level Four, but use complete sentences and paragraphs. Level Two Performance This level response is characterized predominantly by incorrect comparisons. For example, in comparing landforms a response indicates that "Hawaii and Illinois are mainly flat. Neither one of them have mountains." Frequently, the response reveals only basic and elementary understanding of similarities and differences in the cultural and physical geography of areas, e.g., pointing out that people live in both states or that both states have towns or that green plants grow in both regions. Often the organization and development of a response is lacking, e.g., no comparisons are made; only lists of geographical characteristics are provided beneath each state. Usually, fewer than the called for number of comparisons are made--two or three. Level One Performance The response at this level is usually quite brief and often devoid of comments that directly address the question, e.g., "Kansas is dumb nothing to do same as us." Inaccurate comparisons are the rule, rather than the exception, e.g., "Kansas doesn’t look anything like our state." and "Colorado is a quiet town and it has mall like Illinois." There is little attempt to organize a coherent response and those given are basic, e.g., "There in the same country. There states." In some instances, a few characteristics of a state are provided, but no comparisons are made with Illinois.