Educators often have to choose among different types of rating scales to assess second-language (L2) writing performance. There is little research, however, on how different rating scales affect rater performance. This study employed a mixed-method approach to investigate the effects of two different rating scales on EFL essay scores, rating…

In this essay, the author suggests that performance studies--a large and varied body of work that takes the fluidity of self and the relationship between word and action as its central concepts--offers theories and methodologies for writing teachers to use to help students construct discoursal identities. Although the performative screen offers…

Educational administrative practitioners evaluate theories, implement practices, and refine leadership strategies daily. The exploration of the leadership gap between theory and praxis is a quantum undertaking. Leadership from the educational perspective takes many forms and presents many challenges. This document examines leadership from several…

"Teaching for Joy and Justice" is the much-anticipated sequel to Linda Christensen's bestselling, "Reading, Writing, and Rising Up." Christensen is recognized as one of the country's finest teachers. Her latest book shows why. Through story upon story, Christensen demonstrates how she draws on students' lives and the world to teach poetry, essay,…

While today's curriculum is largely driven by standards, many teachers find the lack of specificity in the standards to be confounding and even intimidating. Now this practical book provides middle and high school teachers with explicit guidance on designing specific objectives and developing appropriate formative and summative assessments to…

Within large scale educational assessment agencies in the UK, there has been a shift towards assessors marking digitally scanned copies rather than the original paper scripts that were traditionally used. This project uses extended essay examination scripts to consider whether the mode in which an essay is read potentially influences the…

The critical thinker is one who is, according to Harvey Siegel, "appropriately moved by reasons." This characterization of critical thinking combines a "reason assessment" component (the principled assessment of reasons and their ability to warrant beliefs, claims and actions) and a "critical attitude" component (the…

This book contains a collection of 76 original essays produced by students at a model adult literacy program run by Literacy Volunteers of America-Chippewa Valley (Wisconsin). The essays were produced by the students with the encouragement of their tutors. The essays are grouped into the following topic categories: life's lessons, citizenship,…

In a recent debate on authority in the discourse of English Studies scholarship, writers seem to line up on two sides: the "friends of the familiar essay," and those who advocate "the article." The essay/article debate seems to be part of the conflict opened by the Renaissance over writing, selfhood, power, and knowledge. What…

Unstable, and potentially invalid, variance component estimates may result from using only a limited portion of available data from operational performance assessments. However, missing observations are common in these settings because of the nature of the assessment design. This paper describes a procedure for overcoming the computational and…

This volume of essays is collected and reconfigured from more than 150 original speeches and papers of Milton Meltzer. Throughout the book, Meltzer makes a case for the value of good writing and the importance and utility of literacy instruction using nonfiction. Meltzer addresses the need for better-written history texts and encourages students…

This paper contains three parts. Part 1 consists of a poem, "An Apology for Performative Writing." Part 2, "The Traditional Scholar's Game--An Argument," discusses the arguments regarding performative writing. It identifies several key arguments both for and against the works that cluster around such labels as performative…

A collection of 18 essays originally published in "The American Biology Teacher" in a column headed "Biology Today" are presented. The essays have been reprinted in chronological order and begin with an essay published in March 1982. A variety of types of writings were selected: some focus on teaching biology, others on the science itself. Several…

A survey gathered information on the uses of writing assessment and its potential impact on writing instruction, programs, and students. Respondents, 128 members (out of a random sample of 350) of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) from four-year colleges, two-year colleges, and institutions offering graduate degrees,…

This newsletter contains 32 abstracts of approximately 1000 words each of papers presented at the 1988 conference of the National Testing Network in Writing. Abstracts, listed with their authors, include "Instructional Directions from Large Scale K-12 Writing Assessments" (C. Chew); "Portfolio Assessment across the Curriculum: Early Conflicts" (C.…