In February 2007, the State Education Department released a revised generic scoring rubric for the Document Based Question (DBQ) that will be used with the Grade 5 Elementary-Level Social Studies Test beginning in November 2007. This revised generic scoring rubric forms the basis for the content-specific DBQ scoring rubric and rating guide used for the scoring of this test.

The Department has revised the rubric to improve its overall clarity. The revisions require very little change to the basic scoring criteria for each score point. The primary changes affect the criteria for scores of two, one, and zero on the DBQ. While the changes to the actual scoring criteria are minimal, elementary-level teachers should be aware of these changes as they prepare their students for the November 2007 Grade 5 Elementary-Level Social Studies.

A PDF file of the revised rubric and an explanation of each revision is available for download online at:

www.emsc.nysed.gov/osa/scostei/gr5revisedrubric07.pdf .