Strategy instruction is an effective method for improving the writing skills of students who struggle when writing. It is critical when implementing strategy instruction that assessment of the strategy takes place in addition to assessment of writing. Practitioners should consider strategy assessment to ensure student proper use of strategy. This…

We investigated the promise of a novel approach to formative writing assessment at scale that involved an automated writing evaluation (AWE) system called MI Write. Specifically, we investigated elementary teachers' perceptions and implementation of MI Write and changes in students' writing performance in three genres from Fall to Spring…

Writing assessment can be used for a variety of purposes, both inside the classroom and outside: supporting student learning, assigning a grade, placing students in appropriate courses, allowing them to exit a course or sequence of courses, certifying proficiency, and evaluating programs. Given the high-stakes nature of many of these assessment…

This study investigates how aspects of collocational proficiency affect the ratings that expert examiners give to second language (L2) English learner essays. Lexical proficiency is a multi-faceted phenomenon and certain aspects of it are particularly impactful on human judgements, including lexical sophistication and accuracy. However, the…

Social movements seeking to dismantle white supremacy within academia cast long-running debates over writing instruction in a new light. This conversation approaches these critiques as an opportunity for pedagogical reinvention. I put forward new theory that centers the social performance and psychological rewards of authenticity. I first review…

This paper reports findings from two studies of student writing performance carried out in undergraduate political science courses to test whether low-cost interventions could lead to improvements in writing outcomes. Students enrolled in an introductory comparative politics course (N = 180) and a sophomore-level survey course (N = 101) were…

None of the most well-established indices within curriculum-based measurement of writing (CBM-W) assess students' use of vocabulary within writing. Yet vocabulary knowledge is fundamental to writing, as well as the other three domains of English language proficiency (reading, speaking, listening), and it is particularly crucial for English…

This conceptual article discusses a collaborative approach to building teacher capacity to support multilingual learners in secondary science classrooms. The article advocates for the collaborative analysis of student writing samples and the sharing of pedagogical insights between English language and content area teachers. Samples of student…

With the exponential increase of digital assessment, different types of data in addition to item responses become available in the measurement process. One of the salient features in digital assessment is that process data can be easily collected. This non-conventional structured or unstructured data source may bring new perspectives to better…

This study conducts a comprehensive quantitative evaluation of OpenAI's language model, ChatGPT 4, for grading Task 2 writing of the IELTS exam. The objective is to assess the alignment between ChatGPT's grading and that of official human raters. The analysis encompassed a multifaceted approach, including a comparison of means and reliability…

The resiliency of literacy clinics was tested during 2020-2021, as many pivoted from in-person (F2F) to online or 3-way remote learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic. University-based literacy clinics advance teacher education, provide services to K-12 students who may need instructional support, and are a laboratory for research. The purpose…

Complex noun phrases (NP) are central to mature academic writing and often a focus of explicit teaching. The National Curriculum in England, for example, requires specific components of NP complexity to be taught at specific educational stages. However, the evidence base for such practices is unclear. Research on the emergence of NP components is…

Writing in English as a second or additional language has become an important skill that can be applied in many areas of human activity. As we become a society within which written text is an important instrument that helps create new ideas, services, and products, English text is often used as a preferred mode of communication. Traditionally…

Studies on automatic scoring systems in writing assessments have also evaluated the relationship between human and machine scores for the reliability of automated essay scoring systems. This study investigated the magnitudes of indices for inter-rater agreement and discrepancy, especially regarding human and machine scoring, in writing assessment.…

Despite the early emergence of oral argumentation, written argumentation is slow to develop, insensitive to alternative perspectives, and generally of poor quality. These findings are unsettling because high quality argumentative writing is expected throughout the curriculum and needed in an increasingly competitive workplace that requires…