Beginning in 1999, all of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) had to be aligned with the Pennsylvania Academic Standards. This handbook describes the PSSA writing assessment, which was designed to measure individual student performance and to influence instruction. The guide contains a chart of the Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Writing and an overview of the assessment that describes modes of writing and the purposes of the assessment. Two chapters on elements of the assessment focus on strategies in writing and the writing sample for grades 6, 9, and 11. A chapter on "Assessing Writing" presents the domain scoring guide and a description of the domains. "Reporting Writing Assessment Results" discusses the results of the "Strategies in Writing" section of the assessment and the results of the Writing Assessment itself. Samples of student essays are presented for grades 6, 9, and 11. Two appendixes contain a list of members of the Writing Assessment Advisory Committee and a description of sources describing testing accommodations. (SLD)