Examines whether certain student essays produce widely diverging holistic assessments from trained readers, using an essay from the 1986 Early English Composition and Assessment Program (from Miami University's Ohio Writing Project) and evaluating rater response with a questionnaire. Finds that the same paper evoked very different scores and rater…

This paper provides practical description, examples, and step-by-step guidelines for using portfolio assessment. Both advantages and limitations of portfolio assessment are offered, although the authors clearly argue for the benefits of using portfolios to evaluate learning. Contains a sample format for holistic grading of a portfolio. (Author/RS)

Claims that holistic scoring offers significant advantages over conventional grading systems for: (1) placing students in extra help or enrichment classes; (2) evaluating incoming or transfer students; (3) regrouping existing classroom situations; and (4) providing an expedient measure of writing achievement. (RAE)

Urges teachers to set up a program for testing writing which uses holistic scoring. (DD)

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

Outlines critical weaknesses of many assessment procedures. Argues that, to be meaningful, the act of assessment must in some way enhance the learning process. Discusses establishing purpose for assessment and selecting criteria. Outlines alternative assessment techniques. (SR)

Analyzes the persuasive essays of high school juniors and seniors to determine the specific rhetorical and linguistic features that contributed to raters' holistic judgments about the overall quality of the essays. Reports that use of logical appeals, five-paragraph structure, coherence, and number of words were strongly correlated with overall…

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…

Makes certain observations relating to the use of general-impression marking as a partial determinant of admission to tertiary educational institutions in Western Australia. (HOD)

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…

Five studies of holistic writing assessment procedures examined interactive relationships of the participants, processes, and products of writing assessment episodes. The first study examined practices in designing writing test prompts. The second study investigated the effects of variation in the specification of audience in a writing test prompt…

Examines the questions: (1) What criteria do raters use when making holistic judgments of brief, impromptu essays? and (2) Do raters judge such essays in the same way they think they do? (FL)

The complexity of writing as a skill domain and the lack of consensus about its components have engendered much controversy about the type, length, or number of tasks that should be administered in a given test form and even about whether some aspects of composition require direct assessment through writing samples. Acknowledging this, a study was…

This book describes a procedure for scoring writing samples with holistic methods and for analyzing the results with methods from primary trait scoring, analytical scoring, and discourse scoring. Following an introduction, the four chapters in the book focus on (1) the selection of topics to be used in a writing assessment, (2) the format for…

Describes a study that developed a valid method of assessing coherence based on current linguistic theory and discourse analysis that was then used to reanalyze the "Describe" essays written by 13- and 17-year-old students for the 1969, 1973-74, and 1978-79 NAEP assessments. (HOD)