Accommodations or modifications to the Statewide assessment system
Changes in testing procedures or formats that provide students with disabilities and students with limited English proficiency an equitable opportunity to participate in assessment and demonstrate their knowledge and skills in the areas assessed. 

Advanced Proficient
A score achieved by a student at or above the cut score which demarks a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the knowledge and skills measured by a content-area component of any state assessment. 

Assessment
A state-developed or state-approved standardized instrument or process that measures student performance levels on the Core Curriculum Content Standards. 

Cluster
A group of items that measures similar skills. The skills in a given cluster are typically taught together to allow students to make appropriate connections. 

Core Curriculum Content Standards
Standards adopted by the State Board of Education May 1, 1996, and as thereafter revised by the State Board, which describe the knowledge and skills all New Jersey students are expected to acquire by the benchmark grades of four, eight, and 11-12. These standards are established for the provision of a thorough and efficient education. 

Cross-Content Workplace Readiness Standards
Statements adopted as an integral part of the Core Curriculum Content Standards, which are infused across all academic content areas and address the knowledge and skills needed to prepare all students to maximize their ability to be self-sufficient and contributing members of society. 

Cumulative progress indicators
The statements which further delineate the Core Curriculum Content Standards. 

Curriculum frameworks
Documents published by the Department of Education that include and elaborate on the Core Curriculum Content Standards for kindergarten through grade 12 education and that may assist in the development of local curricula. 

Cut scores
Scores on the assessment scales that demarcate the various performance levels (that is, Partially Proficient, Proficient, and Advanced Proficient). 

District Factor Group
Data were gathered from the 1990 United States Census to obtain a measure of the socioeconomic status of the population residing in each district. These groups are labeled from A (lowest) to J (highest). 

ESPA
Elementary School Proficiency Assessment is used to determine cumulative achievement of the Core Curriculum Content Standards through fourth grade as measured by the statewide assessment system.  ESPA score This is a scale score used to report the Language Arts Literacy, Mathematics, and Science section results. The score scale ranges from 100 to 300 with the Proficient standard at a score of 200 and the Advanced Proficient standard at a score of 250.  

EWT
Early Warning Test administered in grade 8 from 1991-1998 was used as a primary indicator for determining those students who might need instructional intervention in reading, mathematics, and/or writing. The EWT was intended to give an indication of the progress students were making in mastering the skills they needed to pass the HSPT11. GEPA Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment replaced the EWT.

GEPA
Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment March 1999 marked the first administration of the Grade 8 Proficiency Assessment (GEPA). The GEPA takes the place of the Grade 8 Early Warning Test, which had been administered to eighth graders since March 1991. The GEPA is intended to provide information about student progress toward mastery of the skills specified by the Core Curriculum Content Standards in all seven subject areas.  GEPA score This is a scale score used to report the Language Arts Literacy, Mathematics, and Science section results. The score scale ranges from 100 to 300 with the Proficient standard at a score of 200 and the Advanced Proficient standard at a score of 250. 

HSPA
High School Proficiency Assessment will replace the HSPT and will be used to determine student achievement of the knowledge and skills specified by all areas of the Core Curriculum Content Standards and Workplace Readiness Standards. The HSPA will test all of the standards, and students must pass all sections of the test as one of the requirements for a high school diploma. 

HSPT
High School Proficiency Test, administered in the fall of the junior year, consists of three sections-reading, mathematics, and writing-that students must pass as one of the requirements for a high school diploma. Students who do not pass all three sections receive additional instruction and are retested on the section or sections they did not pass. HSPA The High School Proficiency Assessment, which is used to determine student achievement of the knowledge and skills specified by the Core Curriculum Content Standards. HSPT, The High School Proficiency Test, which is used to determine student achievement of knowledge and skills in reading, writing, and mathematics. This test is to be replaced by the HSPA. 

IEP
Individualized Education Program, which is a written plan for students with disabilities developed at a meeting according to N.J.A.C. 6A:14-2.3(h)2 that sets forth present levels of performance, measurable annual goals, and short-term objectives or benchmarks, and describes an integrated, sequential program of individually designed instructional activities and related services necessary to achieve the stated goals and objectives. 

Limited English Proficient
A student whose native language is other than English. The student has sufficient difficulty speaking, reading, writing, or understanding the English language, as measured by an English language proficiency test, so as to be denied the opportunity to learn successfully in the classroom where the language of instruction is English. 

Open-ended Response
This is an item type that requires students to construct their own written response, giving the student the opportunity to demonstrate the depth of their own understanding. 

Partially Proficient
A score achieved by a student below the cut score which demarks a solid understanding of the content measured by an individual section of any State assessment. 

Performance Assessment
Demonstrations of what students know and can do, including such things as open-ended or constructed response questions, essays, portfolios of student work, projects, and reports of laboratory or work-based experiences. 

Performance Level
One of several categories describing student proficiency with regard to the achievement of the State's Core Curriculum Content Standards defined by cumulative progress indicators.

Proficient
A score achieved by a student at or above the cut score which demarks a solid understanding of the content measured by an individual section of any State assessment.

Special Education (SE)
There are 13 codes for Special Education classifications:

1. Auditorily impaired (Auditory Handicapped)
2. Other Health Impaired (Chronically Ill)
3. Communication Impaired (Communication Handicapped)
4. Emotionally Disturbed
5. Cognitively Impaired (Mentally Retarded)
6. Multiply Disabled (Multiply Handicapped)
7. Traumatic Brain Surgery (Neurologically Impaired)
8. Orthopedically Impaired (Orthopedically Handicapped)
9. Specific Learning Disability (Perceptually Impaired)
10. Social Maladjustment (Socially Maladjusted)
11. Visually Impaired
12. Speech-language Services Only
13. Autistic

Title I (T-I)
A Title I student is a student who lives in an eligible attendance area, who fits the criteria for selection to participate in the federal Title I program, and who is receiving federal Title I services.

Void
This is a process used to indicate that a student's test booklet will not be scored. A test booklet may be voided either at the time of testing because of illness, disruptive behavior, or some other reason, or at the time of scoring, if he or she answered fewer than 20% of the test questions in a given content area. Instead of a score, a void code would be listed. The five codes are as follows:

V1: illness

V2: disruptive behavior

V3: other reason

V4: fewer than 20% of the questions answered

V5: breach of security by school or district

Glossary References:
http://www.state.nj.us/njded/adopted/standards
http://www.state.nj.us/njded/genfo/acronyms.htm#assessment
http://www.state.nj.us/njded/specialed/faq_assess_dis.htm

Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment (GEPA) and Elementary School Proficiency Assessment (ESPA) School and District Guidelines: Interpretation and Use of Individual Student Reports and Rosters for GEPA and ESPA, August 1999 by New Jersey Department of Education