Responding to growing interests in alternative assessment practices, this article examines ungrading in two composition courses at a public university classified as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, detailing its implementation by two instructors in an Accelerated Learning Program composition class and a standalone composition class. Utilizing…

In this archival history, a college writing teacher and recent graduate together challenge the integrationist narrative of Basic Writing, grounded in "white innocence" and dating back to the 1970s. Joining other studies of physical and linguistic segregation in higher education, we recover the true birth of Basic Writing from 1969 to…

This article discusses a method of grammar feedback in Basic Writing that asks students to determine the extent of grammar feedback the instructor provides on their writing. Student-directed grammar feedback acknowledges students' agency and ownership of their own languaging and aligns with translingual writing pedagogy. Drawing on students'…

Since the 1970s, legacy Basic Writing systems have survived despite growing resistance grounded in an increasing awareness of their troubling roots and harmful effects. In this article, two 2017 basic writing students and their teacher conduct a mixed-method "postmortem" examination of the now eliminated zero-credit course and writing…

This article argues that the national trend to replace developmental writing programs with mainstreaming and corequisite courses presents an important opportunity to reconsider writing goals and assessment practices for all students. This insight emerges in part from data collected over several semesters at one community college, which showed that…

Scholars such as Diane Kelly-Riley and Patricia Bizzell have argued that the student writing feature most likely to place a student into a basic writing course is the presence of dialect other than standard academic English. This essay examines how assessment practices can foster students' diverse languages rather than inhibit them. I conducted a…

Describes, via a dialogic format, background and current practices in teaching and assessing writing in secondary schools in the People's Republic of China, as well as issues involved in assessing student writing on the current national university examinations. Suggests comparisons with similar issues and practices in the United States. (SR)

Describes a technique to create, administer, and monitor valid and reliable measures of basic students' writing skills. Shows how the test, requiring students to read a stimulus passage and prepare a written response, uses judgments of experienced language teachers to measure students' writing proficiency. Includes a sample exit-test prompt. (MM)

Discusses political challenges that basic writing programs face and describes strategies for meeting those challenges. Suggests ways to improve basic writing instruction and assessment to empower basic writing students. (SR)

Examines basic writers' analyses of essay examination questions. Reveals a number of preference patterns that may be weighed both against general teaching and assessment theory and against the particular constraints of specific contexts. Concludes that basic writers have much to contribute to the writing of essay examination questions and the…

Focuses on two endeavors to improve basic writing: the statement on writing assessment adopted by the Conference on College Composition and Communication and the reauthorization of Chapter 1 funds of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to support educational remediation. (RS)

Describes a videotape containing interviews with students, faculty, and external evaluators shown at the Conference on Basic Writers workshop; participants then experienced assessment techniques used to evaluate the project's success. Gives an account of the project, a detailed description of the means of assessing it, and suggestions for how and…

Challenges several myths about writing assessment held by educators. Argues for the validity of assessments developed within particular environments for particular purposes agreed to by those teaching within those environments. Celebrates the lack of conformity in grading as a sign of a rich and nurturing environment for the development of writing…

Claims compositionists misrecognize stylistic and institutionalized conventions of academic discourse in their own rhetoric and in the evaluation of their students. Argues that students should be included in the practices by which compositionists "normalize" these conventions. Suggests how students might be included in the evaluative…

Analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of a project that used a peer group leader to help build bridges between basic writers and academic writers. Discusses the implications for the further use of peer group leaders in basic writing. (NH)