A study examined Maryland high school teachers' attitudes toward specific individual characteristics of the Maryland Writing Test as well as their overall attitudes toward the test. Subjects, 538 English/language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies teachers in Maryland's 176 public high schools, responded to a survey designed to elicit…

A study examined student responses to teacher comments on a student essay. First-year students at the Citadel, an all-male military school, imagined they wrote a paper on which a teacher had made 16 comments (eight positive and eight negative, eight having implied answers, eight having open-ended answers) and then rated those comments based on how…

In this collection, English language arts teachers describe methods they use to increase their students' interest in and appreciation of writing. The book focuses on the benefits of using portfolios in assessing student writing and incorporation of the revision process into writing. The 16 essays drawn from the elementary, secondary, and, college…

As part of the American school reform movement, administrators are searching for ways of measuring students' skills and progress within the system. This book focuses on the qualitative assessment possible through the use of student portfolios, particularly at the college level. It begins with a critical examination of multiple-choice, standardized…

This guidebook is designed to help teachers think about the important role of assessment in guiding students' narrative writing, with an emphasis on the close connections among curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The assessments that are given as examples stem from a long-term collaboration between the Center for Research on Evaluation,…

In the spring semester of 1997 an ethnographic study of the teaching of personal narrative at Boston College was conducted. A doctoral student worked with an undergraduate who wrote a personal narrative about her alcoholic father. Two issues arise when teaching autobiographical writing: potential problems with psycho-cognitive distance between…

Intended for both beginning and experienced teachers at the secondary and college levels as well as teacher educators and assessment teams, this book reviews strengths and weaknesses of the major types of writing assessment, both for large-scale evaluations and for the individual classroom. The book includes: practical examples, applications, and…

A study examined the problems that four graduate students of various linguistic and cultural backgrounds encountered during their initiation to the written discourse community of American academia during their first year of graduate study in the United States, and how these problems were dealt with. Qualitative data including participant and…

Essays for the Graduate Management Admissions Test must be written with a word processor (except in some foreign countries). The test sponsors, the Graduate Management Admissions Council, believed that this is fair because some word processing skill is a prerequisite for advanced management education. Furthermore, it might also be unfair to…

This document begins with a presentation of research results concerning teachers' comments on student papers. It asserts that positive comments are usually more helpful than negative ones, teachers should play different roles when responding to papers (such as average reader, coach, or editor), comments should be written in the first person and…

Combining three strategies, a composition instructor has attempted to bridge the gap between peer response and teacher expectation in the first-year writing course taught at Florida State University. The focus is on writing that is exploratory and based on personal experience. The instructor: (1) establishes a criteria for producing and evaluating…

A study examined the effect of a computer network which was designed to create a functional learning environment to engage students in writing as a communicative act with a real audience. Subjects, 44 seventh-grade Israeli students, wrote an essay as part of their regular midterm examination and, a week later, wrote another essay for their peers,…

In an attempt to make grading a less arduous, and more accurate, objective task, a checklist of criteria was utilized to grade psychology term papers at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. The method appeared to generate more feedback and lead to greater consistency, as well as a better understanding among students of the grade received. In order…

The purpose of this booklet is to discuss how the curriculum is changing and what assessment methods are needed to monitor and measure the performance of students in the restructured science curriculum. Sections in this booklet include: (1) The need for alternate assessment, (2) Performance assessment, (3) Observation and questioning, (4)…

Intended to give teachers some ideas about how they can implement portfolios in their classrooms, this book contains reproductions of actual materials used by teachers in classrooms as well as examples of students' portfolios across subjects and grades. It also provides research-based information to help teachers explain portfolio concepts to…