Argues that the evaluation of a basic writing program can demonstrate a program's effectiveness and can be useful in opening up a dialog among the instructors. Describes an evaluation program that combines a variety of writing assessments (essays, a multiple-choice editing test, and portfolios assessment) that provide a comprehensive examination…

Maintains that racism sustains basic writing programs as Jim-Crow way stations for African-American and Latino students by insisting on a hierarchy of intelligence among races. Argues that the success of historically black colleges can serve as models for writing programs for inexperienced African-American and Latino students writers, encouraging…

Outlines four ways the basic writing enterprise has failed: by giving insufficient attention to public relations; by allowing itself to be co-opted by traditional academic politics; by not unraveling the confusion of legitimate differences of dialect with "bad grammar"; and by not taking a more critical and enterprising approach to research. (SR)