Defends the CUNY-WAT against the charges made by Fishman (CS 731 865). Offers suggestions for those wishing to undertake research into the choice of topics for writing assessment tests. (FL)

Offers a brief history of an attempt to establish predictive test validity with holistic scoring of writing tests. Asserts that holistically scored writing samples may be practical for some local purposes, but they must be used judiciously. Suggests monitoring the validity of local tests with statistical packages and using teacher ratings as…

Argues that when tests equate proficiency, competency, and literacy with writing academic essays, they maintain a severely understated and mistaken notion of what it means to write well and usefully and vigorously. (FL)

Provides strategies designed to help both mainstream and underrepresented students meet the rhetorical demands of placement exams and gain control in these situations. Describes the University of California Santa Barbara's Preparatory Program which serves a large, culturally diverse student population, acknowledges the variables embedded in the…

Describes efforts in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, British Columbia, New Brunswick, and Ontario to require actual samples of student writing on English performance tests. Includes a bibliography, a holistic marking scale, and an outline of criteria typical in analytic scoring. (EL)

Arguing that writing assessment and instruction should inform and influence one another, should evolve together, and should be developed locally, this book presents essays that analyze the development of the writing assessment and instruction program at Washington State University. The essays in the book directly challenge the use of national…

Explores the effects of a high-stakes, direct writing test on three teachers and their students. Suggests that an emphasis on test preparation diminished the likelihood of the teachers' engaging in reflective practice that is sensitive to the needs of individual students, and that the high-stakes assessment process discounted the validity of…

Competency in the three skills areas of reading, writing, and mathematics is a requirement for high school graduation in the state of New York. The writing competency requirement consists of two tests: the Preliminary Competency Test in Writing, given to students in the eighth or ninth grade, and the Regents Competency Test in Writing, given to…

Discusses the gap between the perspectives and practices of (1) teachers in classrooms where writing and reading are being learned and put to good use and (2) those who test students' language competence. Considers ways to narrow this gap, including the notion of teachers acting as tester-researchers. (JD)

In most colleges and universities, the task of assigning students to basic or remedial writing courses is handled the same way--students are tested during a summer orientation program by a combination objective and essay examination or during the first few days of the term by a composition instructor. Whereas the intentions of the testing are…

Describes an experiment conducted by the English department at the University of Missouri, Columbia, in which a brief essay written at home was used to help place incoming freshmen in appropriate writing classes. (JL)

A former reader-evaluator of essays for "Advanced Placement Examination in English" explains why he cannot with good conscience continue as "part of a process which tells these students they are (to different degrees) 'qualified."' (RL)

To revitalize humanities courses and to improve student thinking, a workshop for faculty members of the University of the Sacred Heart (Puerto Rico) will cover two models of collaborative learning, collaborative group work and peer criticism. In collaborative group work, students should be able to learn how to reach a consensus about a specific…

Standardized tests of writing ability have individual and shared limitations and deficiencies that should be acknowledged by test designers and users. Most institutions use the portions of standardized tests that test ability to proofread and edit, but they do not use the optional essay sections that actually require students to write. To assure…

This document contains the following manuscripts: "Effects of Alternate Scoring Options on the Classification of Entering Freshmen Writing Competencies," by Edys Quellmalz and Eva Baker; "Implications of Learning Research for Designing Competency Based Assessment," by Edys Quellmalz; "Effects of Alternative Discourse and…