## SAT Reading & Writing -- Curriculum Overlay

This addendum applies only to Digital SAT Reading and Writing questions. Use it for
SAT-specific rules that are narrower than the base and type guidance.

---

## Required Stimulus

Treat every Digital SAT R&W item as Mode B: a stimulus is required. Missing or null stimulus
fails `stimulus_quality`.

### Stimulus Form by Substandard

**INI.1-4, CS.2-3, EOI.2: prose passage**
- Nonfiction academic prose with a 25-150 word stimulus range.
- SAT-level prose may use embedded clauses and college-admissions vocabulary.
- Sentence count is guidance, not a hard rule. Do not fail solely because a strong passage
  has 3-4 sentences; fail `stimulus_quality` when the passage is outside the word range or
  too short/simple to support the tested skill.

**EOI.1: rhetorical synthesis notes**
- Must be notes, not prose: "While researching a topic, a student has taken the following
  notes:" followed by 3-5 factual bullet points.

**CS.1: words in context**
- Usually 1-2 sentences containing the tested word and enough context to disambiguate it.

**SEC.1 / SEC.2: Standard English Conventions**
- Short passage with a blank (`______`) or clearly marked span. If no blank or marked span
  is present → fail `specification_compliance`.
- The correct answer text must not appear verbatim elsewhere in the stimulus; if it does,
  fail `specification_compliance`.
- The blank is a complete substitution: inserting any option must not duplicate adjacent
  stimulus words. If inserting an option duplicates boundary words, fail
  `specification_compliance`.

**EOI.2: transitions**
- Uses the same blank-boundary/no-duplication rule as SEC.

---

## Substandard-Specific Rules

Apply only the matching substandard section.

### INI.1 Central Ideas and Details

- The central idea should emerge from the passage as a whole. If a single topic sentence
  states the full answer, fail `curriculum_alignment`.
- Distractors should cover distinct failure modes: supporting detail as main idea,
  overgeneralization, and plausible but unsupported reading. If they all use the same trap,
  fail `distractor_quality`.

### INI.2 Command of Evidence (Textual)

- The task claim must be directly testable against the stimulus, and every option must be
  evaluable as evidence for or against that claim. A tangential claim fails
  `curriculum_alignment`.

### INI.3 Command of Evidence (Quantitative)

- Requires a data graphic in the stimulus: Markdown table or inline `<svg>`.
- No table/graphic fails both `curriculum_alignment` and `stimulus_quality`.
- Options must cite specific numeric evidence. Options that cite only vague trends fail
  `distractor_quality`.
- The task line must ask which option uses data to support or challenge a specific claim.

### INI.4 Inferences

- The correct answer should require combining at least two pieces of stimulus information.
  A one-sentence restatement fails `curriculum_alignment`.
- Distractors should represent distinct inference errors: explicit statement, over-inference,
  or contradiction. If all distractors are variations of the same failure mode, fail
  `distractor_quality`.

### CS.1 Words in Context

- The tested word must have multiple plausible senses, and the contextual sense should not
  be answerable without the passage.
- The correct answer must fit the word's contextual sense in the passage, which should differ
  from its most common dictionary meaning. If the correct answer is the word's primary
  dictionary meaning and reading the surrounding context adds no disambiguating information,
  fail `curriculum_alignment`.
- The word should be Digital SAT tier: academic, multi-meaning, context-dependent, not basic
  and not obscure specialist vocabulary.
- All options should be plausible near-synonyms for some common sense of the tested word.
  A non-synonym giveaway fails `distractor_quality`.

### CS.2 Text Structure and Purpose

- Valid formats: whole-text purpose/structure, or function of a specific sentence.
- If asking about an underlined/specific sentence, the stimulus must clearly mark or identify
  that sentence; otherwise fail `specification_compliance`.

### CS.3 Cross-Text Connections

- Requires two separately labeled passages ("Text 1" and "Text 2"). One unbroken passage
  fails `curriculum_alignment`.

### EOI.1 Rhetorical Synthesis

- Must use the notes format described above. A prose paragraph stimulus fails
  `stimulus_quality`.

### EOI.2 Transitions

- Options must contain only the transition word or short phrase, with no duplicated boundary
  words after insertion.
- The four options should cover at least three logical relationships. Four options from the
  same relationship family fail `distractor_quality`.

### SEC.1 Boundaries

- Options should be punctuation marks or short conjunctions only, not content words copied
  from the stimulus.
- Every distractor must produce a specific grammatical error when inserted. If two options
  are grammatically defensible, fail `distractor_quality`.
- Name the actual error; do not label every wrong boundary answer as a fragment. Subordinators
  with independent clauses can create valid complex sentences, and doubled contrast markers
  are redundancy errors.

### SEC.2 Form, Structure, and Sense

- Options should be forms of the same word or construction, varying the tested grammatical
  property. Different words/constructions fail `distractor_quality`.
- The item should test one grammatical property at a time. Multiple simultaneous grammar
  targets fail `specification_compliance`.
- The SEC.1 grammatical-error and blank-boundary rules apply.

---

## Cross-Substandard SAT R&W Rules

### factual_accuracy

Fail `factual_accuracy` for a false, fabricated, or materially misleading claim in the
stimulus, key, or explanation. This includes invented studies, fabricated data, fake
quotations, misattributed claims, or named people/institutions/events presented as real.
Vague phrasing such as "a researcher" or "an early twentieth-century author" is acceptable
only when the item does not present specific factual attribution or data as real.

### specification_compliance

- The `question` field must contain only the student-facing task line, not the passage.
  Passage text belongs in `stimulus`; passage text in `question` fails
  `specification_compliance`.
- If the task asks for a quotation, excerpt, span "from the text," support for a claim,
  the option that best illustrates a claim, or the option that best completes the text,
  answer choices must be verbatim spans from the stimulus. Ellipses are allowed only for
  shortening; paraphrased or fabricated options fail `specification_compliance`.
- If the task references a passage, text, chart, diagram, or figure, the referenced artifact
  must exist in the stimulus; otherwise fail `specification_compliance`.

### distractor_quality

- Distractors for INI/CS/EOI items should reflect coherent wrong reasoning, not noise or
  unrelated content.
- For prose options, the correct answer should not be conspicuously longer or shorter than
  the distractors. Do not apply this length-parity check to CS.1 vocabulary or SEC grammar
  options.

### educational_accuracy

A student should not be able to identify the key from the task line alone. A number, named
entity, or technical term appearing only in one option can telegraph the answer if it is
also cued by the task line; in that case, fail `educational_accuracy`. Ordinary topic-word
overlap is acceptable.

### curriculum_alignment

The 11 Digital SAT R&W substandards are:
- Information and Ideas: INI.1 central ideas/details, INI.2 textual evidence,
  INI.3 quantitative evidence, INI.4 inferences.
- Craft and Structure: CS.1 words in context, CS.2 text structure/purpose,
  CS.3 cross-text connections.
- Expression of Ideas: EOI.1 rhetorical synthesis, EOI.2 transitions.
- Standard English Conventions: SEC.1 boundaries, SEC.2 form/structure/sense.

Items must exercise the named substandard, not describe it in the abstract.

---

## Difficulty Calibration

Use these Digital SAT-specific definitions unless the Curriculum API provides definitions.

**Easy**
- One inferential step from information literally stated in the stimulus.
- On-grade vocabulary; correct answer still requires the tested skill, not rote word matching.

**Medium**
- Synthesizes two distinct pieces of the stimulus.
- At least one distractor is a plausible misapplication of one piece of evidence.

**Hard**
- Three or more reasoning steps, or transfer of the skill to a novel but supported context.
- Distractors represent plausible rival interpretations, not surface errors.
- Length alone is not difficulty.
- EOI.2 can be Hard when the student must identify the relationship, reject three distinct
  incorrect logical relationships, and select the only connector that fits.

### Text Complexity and Declared Difficulty

College Board allows multiple text-complexity bands on a form; task demand matters more than
prose complexity. Do not fail `difficulty_alignment` solely because the prose seems simple.

Expected bands by `grade` metadata:
- SAT / Digital SAT / 11 / 12: grades 6-8 through 12-14 permitted; grades 11-14
  typical, with embedded subordination, college-admissions vocabulary such as
  *assiduous* or *equivocate*, abstract subject matter, and sophisticated paragraph
  structure.
- PSAT/NMSQT / PSAT 10 / Digital PSAT 10 / Digital PSAT-NMSQT and PSAT 10 / 10:
  grades 6-8 through 12-14 permitted; grades 9-11 typical, with multi-clause
  sentences, academic vocabulary, and some abstraction, but less complex than SAT and
  clearly above middle-school level.
- PSAT 8/9 / PSAT 8-9 / Digital PSAT 8/9 / Digital PSAT 8-9 / 8 / 9: grades 6-8 and
  9-11 only; grades 12-14 register is excluded. Expected register is
  accessible-to-academic vocabulary and clear sentence structure; college-admissions
  register is prohibited.

For PSAT 8/9, a grades 12-14 register fails `stimulus_quality`.

For other mismatch concerns, fail `difficulty_alignment` only when both are true:
- the stimulus register is clearly below the expected band, and
- the task demand also falls below the declared difficulty.
