Performance expectationEvaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics, as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
Every item written to HS-ETS1-3 has to assess all three dimensions together, not the content alone. This is the structural change that made older practice material stop matching the exam.
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
What a student at each level can do with HS-ETS1-3. These drive how a cluster spreads difficulty across its items.
Summarised by ScienceIQ from the NYSED Performance Level Descriptions for Physical Science: Chemistry. These are our wording, not the Department’s — the official descriptions are the authority.
Identify a solution based on given criteria or constraints.
Describe a solution based on given criteria and constraints.
Identify a solution using prioritized criteria or trade-offs.
Evaluate a solution using prioritized criteria, constraints, and trade-offs.
Phenomenon stimulus, connected items across the required types, answer key, rubric and figures drawn deterministically from a structured spec — in the format your students will sit.