Investigation of the use of a multiple-trait scoring procedure to obtain communicative writing profiles of adult nonnative English speakers found that the scoring method was highly reliable in composite assessment, but provided little psychometric support for assessing certain individual writing components. (28 references) (Author/CB)

Describes a writing assignment in which students from two different first-year composition classes evaluated and graded each other's papers. Discusses how this established a genuine audience, empowered students, and generated enthusiasm. (SR)

Describes how a writing teacher used Classroom Assessment Techniques to improve the functioning of editing groups in her classroom, involving students directly and honestly in classroom management and evaluation of instruction. (SR)

Presents the historical background of competing models of education as a context for the development of assessment in American education, contending, however, that practical considerations, such as efficiency and fairness, have often been more important than theoretical issues. Analyzes the specific case of writing assessment. (PA)

Examines the informal and formal measures of assessing developmental students' writing. Puts forth implications for classroom guidelines, making suggestions based on research results of composition scholars. Discusses paper grading and management of paperwork load. Contains 17 references. (VWC)

Discusses some of the major issues faced in attempting to assess systematically the effectiveness of business-communication courses (by assessing the level of improvement of students' writing competency). Discusses goals of assessment, type of test (standardized versus custom-made), guidelines for scoring, use of results, and reliability and…

Describes how two teachers approach poetry writing with at-risk high school students over a 12-week period, structuring activities to initiate poetry as language play, selecting model poems that are developmentally appropriate, and organizing writing assignments that encourage students to draw on their individual experiences. Discusses conducting…

A review of research on the assessment of second-language writing focuses on these areas: critical variables in writing assessment; types of writing assessment scales (holistic and analytic); the scope of writing assessment (single-campus and large-scale), issues in use of portfolios for assessment (portfolio content, constraints); and the…

Discusses results of a college writing instructor's initial experiment with electronic portfolios-in-progress that caused her to reconsider how she used the system and what she would change. Notes that the instructor found herself taking charge of student texts in ways she had not done in years, and effectively violated most of her beliefs about…

Argues for having first-year composition students "publish" electronic portfolios on the World Wide Web. Provides background on attaining a computer-mediated pedagogy that accounts for its electronic presence and transcends traditional classroom practice. Presents an actual electronic portfolio. Concludes that making an electronic…

Theorizes that three features of electronic texts have changed writing and writing instruction: the creation of a seamless flow of text, word publishing as a rhetorical act, and hypertextual writing and thinking. Discusses implications for how teachers read, respond to, and evaluate student writing. Stresses importance of linking writing…

Discusses use of "mediated texts" as a classroom practice which meets requirements of "accommodation" for alternative demonstrations of competency in academic writing. Defines mediated texts, describes case studies which use these texts with deaf students who are basic writers; and shows connection between this heuristic and…

Explored the usefulness of Galileo, a computerized neural-network content analysis program, in analyzing 11th-grade students' essays on the problems of Chicago public schools and how to solve them. Without subjective coding or characterization of the essays, the program detected salient, meaningful patterns of statistically associated words that…

Examines current reforms in writing assessment, including the California Learning Assessment System writing portfolio. Compares language writing to "the clay that makes the pot." Concludes that writing revolves around criticism, but if assessment stays on the surface, then criticism may not be helpful in pushing the generative aspect of…

School-level assessment of student writing ability using a group-level polytomous item response theory (IRT) model was illustrated in this study. Results with approximately 20,000 students support the viability of an IRT-based school assessment as an alternative to the conventional approach based on aggregation of individual scores. (SLD)