"Classroom Assessment in Action" clarifies the multi-faceted roles of measurement and assessment and their applications in a classroom setting. Comprehensive in scope, Shermis and Di Vesta explain basic measurement concepts and show students how to interpret the results of standardized tests. From these basic concepts, the authors then…

Because there is no commonly accepted view of what makes for good writing, automated essay scoring (AES) ideally should be able to accommodate different theoretical positions, certainly at the level of state standards but also perhaps among teachers at the classroom level. This paper presents a practical approach and an interactive computer…

As environmental education strives to create an informed citizenry capable of addressing complex problems, critical thinking is an integral part of this effort. This research guides environmental educators in defining, teaching, and evaluating critical thinking by summarizing a pilot study with an undergraduate forest issues course designed to…

Histories of rhetoric in composition studies have been determined largely by the politics of the discipline. Rhetoric tends to be thought of in a somewhat narrow sense, defined by the writing courses and programs of universities. The field has strengthened itself by researching the histories of rhetoric in the academy from classical time to the…

In this collection of 35 brief essays, openly gay and lesbian teachers describe their experiences with homophobia and homosexuality in the education community. Following "Prologue: A Letter to Jerry" (D. Ellison), the book is in four parts. Part 1, "Memories," includes: (1) "I Remember" (K. Jennings); (2)…

This paper reports the results of an analysis of the relationship between scorer behaviors and score variability. Thirty-six essay scorers were interviewed and asked to perform a think-aloud task as they scored 24 essays. Each comment made by a scorer was coded according to its content focus (i.e. appearance, assignment, mechanics, communication,…

In "The Uses of Diversity," the interpretive anthropologist, Clifford Geertz, says that it is impossible to completely get inside the point of view of another culture. Geertz contends, however, that despite multiple voices in the growing body of reflexive ethnographies there is still an author composing the work. Besides Geertz,…

This handbook helps students with writing the college application essay, moving them through each state of planning, composing, revising, and polishing their application essays. Essays written by students are analyzed for vagueness, overwriting, and pompous vocabulary. The authors emphasize that admissions officers are looking for essays that…

A pilot project in portfolio assessment was carried out at Northwest Missouri State University by the English department for the general proficiency assessment which the administration had requested. The portfolio was designed around the central feature of the second semester composition course: the research essay. Besides the research essay, the…

This document presents the seven best 1991 portfolios, written by high school students entering Miami University (Ohio) seeking credit and advanced placement as part of the university's optional portfolio writing program. The program requires students to submit four pieces: (1) a reflective letter introducing the writer and the portfolio; (2) a…

Six scientific essayists were interviewed to gain some understanding of their writing processes. The writers were Roger Sawin, who writes for "Horticulture"; Harold Morowitz who writes for "Hospital Practices,""Science 82" and "Science 83"; Stephen Jay Gould who writes for "Natural History"; Jeremy…

Skilled writers, contrary to what we tell students, do make frequent use of cliches.

Recent research on effects of different ways of marking student compositions is reviewed.

Asking students to select materials for tests, prepare them, score them, and analyze them is a valuable learning experience. (RC)

This study examined how the practice of prepublishing prompts used on the writing section of the Graduate Record Examinations® (GRE®) General Test impacts test-preparation behavior, test performance, test validity, and examinee perceptions of the value of prompt prepublication. Researchers imposed modest experimental control over how participants…