"Rethinking College Admissions" probes the many facets of higher education admissions and translates research-backed insights into actionable strategies for innovative, equitable admissions practices. Edited by scholars OiYan A. Poon and Michael N. Bastedo, this collection gives readers an evidence-based understanding of postsecondary…

Offers guidelines and illustrations for developmental writing teachers to help them implement holistic assessment of student writing. Presents a rationale for separating assessment and placement. Discusses the design of writing tasks and the training of raters. Includes a sample scoring rubric. (DMM)

In response to growing concern about the lack of basic writing skills, this paper presents an overview of the issues involved in selecting a method for the assessment of students' writing skills. After general criteria for determining the appropriateness of a writing evaluation procedure are outlined, the merits and limitations of objective tests…

Presents an integrated generalized model of education, called Holistic Education, which the author feels is equally relevant to all adult educators regardless of their area of specialization. The author describes those characteristics which distinguish the Holistic Education model from other approaches. (CT)

Discusses the problems of evaluating creativity, and explains a particular approach used by the author. (JL)

Describes a "focused holistic" method of writing evaluation, which considers a total piece of writing, but in terms of predefined criteria. Provides sample evaluations. (HTH)

Describes how an elementary teacher uses portfolios to determine her students' math knowledge. Most of the portfolios contain student-selected problem-solving activities, reflective writings, and teacher-selected work samples. The article explains portfolio evaluation and presents tips on streamlining the portfolio process. A parent portfolio…

This paper explains the construction of a grading rubric that is designed to empower students with expectations of quality work. Teachers and students "negotiate" a mutually acceptable consensus. The contract process is based on the idea that when students feel they are valued participants in the assessment process, they become motivated to strive…

This handbook has been built around the experiences of teachers and cognitive psychologists working together in opera education to identify, design, and produce an effective approach to bring together the divergent approaches to assessment and evaluation, mandated testing, and authentic documentation of learning. The handbook is designed to…

This paper recommends the replacement of student evaluation methods based on the behaviorist model with holistic assessment based on principles of seeing individuals as active learners who interact with their physical and social environment. Four approaches are recommended: (1) gathering information from a variety of sources and contexts; (2) a…

Designed to evaluate the degree to which an essay is successful in giving information, this instrument is an analytic/holistic scoring guide for evaluating any writing that contains generalizations supported by elaboration. The following criteria are applied: (1) relevance--any statement that gives information or elaborates on information already…

Eight direct scoring indices of written expression were intercorrelated, factor analyzed, and used to predict holistic judgments of writing samples of 172 middle-school students in compensatory/specialized education programs. Strongest predictors of holistic ratings were percentage of words correctly sequenced and percentage of correctly spelled…

Listening is an integral element of the curricular goals of all modern foreign language classrooms because it is: (1) a motivator and facilitator, (2) a reliable predictor of language learning success, and (3) a skill contributing to success in many endeavors in life. A variety of classroom teaching and testing procedures based on listening skills…

The Primary Trait System (PTS) of scoring was devised by the National Assessment of Educational Progress to score large numbers of natural writing samples. Essentially, PTS permits evaluation of writing in an objective way, but one that does not rely on scoring surface features such as mechanics, grammar, or spelling. While the assessment value of…

Impromptu writing on tests is a useful way to evaluate student comprehension and encourage students to use critical thinking skills. Students' performance on essay tests can improve, and teachers' time required for grading can decrease through the use of an adapted holistic grading scale that clearly states expectations. First, a carefully written…