Investigates whether training raters to interpret the scoring dimensions on a rubric would increase reliability. Compares two groups of kindergarten and first-grade teachers: one group with training, one without. Finds that training increases raters' abilities to reliably interpret scoring items. (SC)

Offers an account of three "waves" of writing assessment: objective tests, holistic scoring, and portfolios. Scrutinizes these modes of assessment for how they can serve needs beyond the institutional demands of sorting and selecting students, to discover what they can tell educators about writing, teaching, and courses and programs. (SR)

Notes many networked composition classrooms can be considered "transitional;" focus of the classes is neither exclusively on print-oriented skills nor on electronic-literacy skills. Focuses on an instructor's first-year composition courses in a computerized environment. Outlines ways teachers may employ a portfolio pedagogy in networked…

Presents accounts of two teachers using electronic portfolios. Relates how moving peer reviews and explanatory papers from manila folders to electronic portfolios helped students become more aware of peers as audience. Describes the unsettling effect of students who chose to invest their energy in dynamic online dialogs rather than in the…

Reports a year-long study of middle school language arts students. Finds that average students who are instructed in the art of reflective analysis by way of the systematic use of reflective questions and reflective events do, in fact, over time become more aware of the increasingly more sophisticated challenges that writers face. (SR)

Notes impact of high-stakes language arts assessments on teachers in Georgia rural districts. Provides additional support for what many English teachers already believe--that rich classroom discussion, reading from a variety of texts, student-centered writing assignments, and metacognitive awareness of one's reading and writing strategies…

Interviewed teachers from around the world to examine a specific purpose (SP) versus general purpose (GP) distinction in their orientations to the work they do. The difference in orientation was signaled in the criteria the teachers use to assess students' writing. (Author)

Reviews a study examining the influence of rhetorical specification in writing prompts on the writing quality of 7th-, 9th-, and 11th-grade students, and college freshmen. Analyzes the main and interactive effects of topic, purpose, and audience on writing quality. Indicates that students use different kinds of rhetorical information at different…

Examines the response of one high school to three of the explicit aims of the Kentucky writing portfolio assessment. Suggests limitations to the presumed validity of the assessment by revealing some of the intended and unintended consequences of the state's attempt to use the assessment to shape school writing programs, to encourage classroom…

Suggests that when teachers use student self-assessment to learn more about the contexts of student writing, they can respond more effectively. Argues that teachers need to (1) develop and use a variety of context-gathering tools; (2) actively solicit information about the contexts informing the production of student texts; and (3) use this…

Presents conversations with parents, teachers, and children around portfolios that provide a better picture of a child's growth and understanding than standardized test scores ever can. Concludes that the involvement of students, teachers, and parents in conversation about children's literacy development brings the potential of a common vision and…

Investigates written communication concepts and strategies integrated into core courses in the College of Business and Economics at the California State University Northridge. Finds striking differences in writing policies, writing standards, assignments, types and results of assessment, and faculty perceptions about writing across the curriculum.…

Studied children's perceptions of what constitutes good writing to see how those might better inform the teacher's instruction. Found that when supported by peers and teachers, the children were able to balance their need to produce conventionally correct writing with their need to make writing interesting to themselves and others. (Author)

Drawing on sociological and philosophical studies of science, science educators have begun to view argumentation as a central scientific practice that students should learn. In this article, we extend recent work to understand the structure of students' arguments to include judgments about their quality through content analyses of high school…

This article reports on a collaborative study involving ESL teachers in an Australian English Language Centre as they work through some of their concerns about reliability and validity in their assessment practices. The focus of this article is on how teachers work with the Curriculum Standards Framework (CSF) as an assessment tool. The discussion…