The chapter describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of repeated peer review assignments in a health sciences program. Details of the assignment, quantitative and qualitative indirect assessments, and considerations for implementing this type of assignment in other courses are provided.

In fall 2010, the University of Massachusetts Amherst instituted a new upper-division General Education requirement, the Integrative Experience (IE), designed to help students integrate the various components of their undergraduate experience and reflect upon their learning and development as a result of those experiences, both key dimensions of…

Problems with handwriting can negatively impact the writing of students with learning disabilities. In this article, an example is provided of a fourth-grade special education teacher's efforts to assist a new student by using a problem-solving approach to help determine an efficient course of action for special education teachers who are trying…

With adequate guidance and support, parents can be surprisingly effective helpers in a schoolwide writing assessment. Allentown (Pennsylvania) School District relied on parent volunteers to evaluate the overall effectiveness of ninth graders' essays describing a meaningful experience. Because parents' expectations were unbiased, they found…

Describes the implementation of portfolio assessment in a writing program at Kenai Peninsula College, a small college in Alaska. Discusses adjustments to the program, problems, and future applications. Suggests that portfolio assessment can be useful to a writing program even if it is implemented for only one or two semesters. (SR)

Discusses implementation at Conestoga Elementary School in Gillette, Wyoming, of an electronic portfolio system to store both two-dimensional information, such as writing and drawing, and full-motion video sequences for each student. Notes that teachers, parents, and students can access the portfolios, which reside on rewritable optical disks; and…

A high school English teacher found that one easy way to keep the idea of positive reinforcement foremost in her mind when she works with students was to use writing portfolios. A Portfolio Assessment project was designed in which portfolios were used in two sophomore and two junior regular English classes. A flexible plan was developed for using…

Describes the objectives and background of a project designed to implement change in a school district's written communication program and analyzes the data obtained from writing evaluation forms. (HOD)

Describes a program created by members of the English department at Youngstown State University that achieves the goal of fostering cooperation between universities, area schools, and the community at the same time that it demonstrates the potential of raising the levels of basic writing skills and stimulating a desire to read. (HOD)

Explores the portfolio process as an evaluation tool for authentic assessment of writing. Discusses (1) current literature related to use of portfolios; (2) the critical elements of the portfolio process; (3) their relationship to the authentic assessment of writing; and (4) effective ways of implementing individual educational portfolios for…

This book presents essays by researchers, practitioners, and policy makers who study the impact of classroom portfolios in the assessment of writing achievement by elementary and middle-grade students. Essays in the book report on a national survey of exemplary projects and presents contributions to a Portfolio Conference held at Stanford…

Writing across the curriculum (WAC) programs had their genesis in grass-roots efforts to promote attention to writing in all disciplinary areas. At first based on generic faculty-development activities with little regard to systemic and institutional concerns, WAC programs are now more often engaged in assessment and research of writing,…

The results of an evaluation of Vermont's statewide assessment initiative are presented, with information about the implementation of the program, its effects on educational practice, the analytic challenge presented by the portfolio scoring process, the reliability and validity of portfolio scores, and the tensions between assessment and…

In 1980-81 field tests were undertaken in North Carolina to develop a procedure for making writing competency a minimum requirement for graduation from high school. Measuring writing skills with adequate validity and reliability requires planning for data collection and varied scoring methods, personnel training, dissemination of assessment…

The main objectives of this project were to conduct a writing contest for adult basic education/high school equivalency/English as a Second Language (ABE/GED/ESL) and basic literacy students and to publish an anthology of selected prose (fiction and non-fiction) and poetry entries by those students. Secondary objectives were to promote a greater…