In 1991-92 Vermont initiated a statewide portfolio assessment program in mathematics and writing in grades 4 and 8. An evaluation of the program found mixed results--although the portfolio scores were unreliable for individual or school-level reporting and teachers had concerns about implementation, the assessment had marked positive effects on…

A review of writing and reading competencies among college students in general and education majors in particular indicates possible directions in setting teacher education admission standards, in providing language instruction courses for student teachers, and in establishing criteria for exiting teacher education programs. As is suggested by…

This paper reports on the New Jersey State Department of Education's research process for developing a scoring rubric that assesses test objectives and higher order thinking skills through writing. New Jersey's statewide assessment program includes a written essay portion to test students' ability to write on a given topic and communicate an…

Intended for teachers, this document provides curriculum specifications for the Grade 12 Diploma Examinations in English 30 in Alberta, Canada. Introductory information (1) indicates the approximate time to be devoted to teaching various components of the language arts, the relative importance of concepts and skills, and priorities for instruction…

Intended for teachers, this document provides curriculum specifications for the Grade 12 Diploma Examinations in English 33 in Alberta, Canada. Introductory information (1) indicates the approximate time to be devoted to teaching various components of the language arts, the relative importance of concepts and skills, and priorities for instruction…

This report describes the Learning Disabled College Writer's Project, implemented at the University of Minnesota during the 1985-86 school year and designed to aid learning disabled college students master composition skills through training in the use of microcomputer word processors. Following an executive summary, an introduction states the…

College instructors concerned about student writing quality are provided with information on writing in the content areas and writing across the curriculum. Following an overview of writing in the content area, the chapters focus on writing and learning--"workaday" writing (personalizing knowledge through writing, forms of workaday…

This guide presents research-based teaching strategies to assist teachers in implementing the Essential Learning Skills--symbol systems, literal meaning of information, implied meaning of information, evaluation of content and use of communication skills, expression of ideas, reasoning and study skills--in all curriculum areas. The first of three…

This document was developed as a resource for implementing the teaching of writing in adult education programs. Based on curriculum, assessment, diagnosis, prescription, instruction, evaluation, and classroom management. The program is presented in a 12-step systematic sequence. The steps are the following: (1) develop/customize/adopt a writing…

This collection of 10 selected conference papers report the results of language testing research. Titles and authors are: "Computerized Adaptive Language Testing: A Spanish Placement Exam" (Jerry W. Larson); "Utilizing Rasch Analysis to Detect Cheating on Language Examinations" (Harold S. Madsen); "Scalar Analysis of…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 20 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: predictors of primary grade reading achievement; factor analysis of the WISC-R to distinguish disabled readers at three grade levels; a process model for…

Only one out of five high school teachers believes that students are learning to write well according to research from Public Agenda. Test results confirm their opinion. In 1998, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) administered a writing assessment to gauge fourth- and eighth-grade students' proficiency in writing narrative,…

For the past five years, Vermont has been developing an innovative statewide assessment system in which portfolios of student work in mathematics and writing are a key element. The use of mathematics portfolios, particularly in elementary school, is a novel aspect of the assessment system. This study examines the elementary school mathematics…

A teacher of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to adults in a non-English-speaking country describes use of classroom writing conferences to improve student language use and introduce writing into the communicative syllabus. The approach is based on a conference format and focuses on self-directed inquiry. Students are provided with monolingual…

This paper reports on a survey that examined writing pedagogy and assessment across the State University of New York (SUNY) system. The survey attempted to identify "best practices" in writing pedagogy, the extent to which these practices are being implemented, characteristics of campuses implementing these practices, and whether…