In addition to determining students' writing proficiency, holistic writing scores obtained through a standardized evaluation provide useful data in making value judgments concerning various aspects of high school writing programs. In a cross-sectional study using holistic scoring, average scores of groups of students can be compared, and the…

Addressing the need to develop an evaluation system that assesses the effectiveness of a writing program on students' performance, the Holistic Writing Assessment Program of Mosley High School (Florida) was devised to ascertain and document the extent to which improvement occurred in students' compositions. On a designated day in the semester, all…