Describes the need for the standardization of portfolio evaluation procedures. Discusses the problems involved with evaluating portfolios at Mount Vernon High School and how interviewing students helped to provide a fuller vision of student writing for the instructors. Asserts that portfolios are more valuable when kept in the hands of writers.…

Provides guidelines for student portfolios so that they can be accurate indicators of the student's work. Discusses what portfolios are and why they are used, guidelines to follow in getting started, how to manage portfolios, selecting material for reading/writing portfolios and for mathematics portfolios, and evaluating reading/writing and…

A language-in-context model is presented that integrates linguistic analysis of higher levels of organization in writing with analysis of student use of grammatical resources. Procedures for assessing student writing that are based on this model and used for diagnostic purposes are illustrated with texts by seven year olds. (23 references)…

Examines the relationship between the characteristics of second-year MBA student writing groups and the quality of their group-written reports. Finds that the most significant correlation between the groups and their writing was whether or not individuals chose to form teams on the basis of having worked together previously in writing projects.…

A study examined peer reviews of faculty manuscripts submitted for journal publication for meanings deeper than the specific correctives and suggestions they contain, based on reviewers' reactions, editor letters to authors, and authors' reactions. The peer review process is seen as constructing and reconstructing faculty membership in…

Uses a student essay and dialog journal entries to discuss problems raised by context in grading student writing. Encourages teachers to rethink the whole system of grading and to discuss their conclusions openly. (SR)

Offers a brief history of portfolio assessment, addresses question teachers should consider when implementing portfolios, and gives a classroom scenario using portfolios. Describes the impact of portfolio grading on students, discussing power issues and student attitudes, and increasing student power. (SR)

Describes and discusses the Rio Grande Holistic Scale (a grading scale developed at the Rio Grande Campus of Austin Community College). Notes that the scale has been so successful that it now undergirds the entire basic writing program, crystallizing student thinking about the process of writing, unifying grading criteria, informing course…

Suggests that poetry teachers can make children's lives richer and happier and give them more alternatives. Urges teachers to persist in selecting and then learning poems to read aloud to the class. Notes that students will give teachers their trust when teachers point out to students where they are at their best in their work. (RS)

Addresses issues arising concerning work undertaken by the National Center for Education Statistics to begin development of a National Assessment of College Student Learning (NACSL). Reviews assessment forms; identifies conditions assessment of "advanced ability to communicate" should meet; suggests how the communication component of the…

Describes the establishment of a hermeneutic circle of portfolio researchers (writing teachers from Alaska to Florida) acting as "outside readers" for each other--six months into the project, the group established an e-mail network called "Portnet." Contemplates the group's experiences during Portnet's first year. (PA)

Addresses, in an empirical study, the role personality types of writers and of raters play in the holistic rating of writing, and whether there is a relationship between writers' personalities and raters' personalities. Indicates writers' personality types affect the ratings their essays receive and raters' personality types affect the ratings…

Describes consequences of an inadvertent misalignment in grading practice by analyzing an instructor's essay evaluation checklist. Finds that, in trying to promote evaluative consistency, the checklist privileges product over process, academic discourse over students' own voices, and an analytic predisposition to student writing over an…

Presents a model of the cognitive frameworks and processes used by essay scorers. Investigates the relationship between a scorer's reading style and proficiency with a scoring rubric. Finds that proficient scorers are better able to withhold judgment and may focus their efforts more intensely on the process of evaluation. Discusses implications of…

Examines the potential interactive effects of target race (African American/Caucasian), weight (overweight/nonoverweight), and gender (female/male) on American Caucasian students' ratings of writing competency. Reports differences in evaluation ratings based on the gender of the evaluator, the weight of the author, and the gender of the author.…