This second annual report on student achievement in Illinois describes and synthesizes the results of four different achievement measures: the Illinois Inventory of Educational Progress (IIEP), High School and Beyond Test, Scholastic Aptitude Test, and the American College Test. This report provides an analysis of student progress across years,…

The writing skills item bank contain 82 objectives each represented by two writing prompts with criteria for holistic scoring. Grade levels covered are one through eight. The objectives deal with aspects of composition such as grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, logic, and creativity. The "items" are writing prompts to which the student…

The methods used by the General Educational Development Testing Service (GEDTS) to establish and maintain score stability and reading reliability on its direct assessment of writing are described. Using the 1988 site certification and monitoring results of several scoring sites, the focus is on describing how the score scale was established and…

This paper isolates and examines separately three distinct sources of error in essay scores: lack of agreement between raters; inconsistencies in performance within mode of discourse, and inconsistencies in performance between modes of discourse. Essay prompts in the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) Writing Supplement were designed to assess…

Viewing writing as both a form of language learning and an intellectual skill, this book presents essays on how writers acquire trusted inner voices and the roles schools and teachers can play in helping student writers in the learning process. The essays in the book focus on one of three topics: the language of instruction and how response and…

This study examined the difficulty level of essay topics used in the large-scale assessment of writing in relation to five different scoring models, and sought to determine what effects the scoring models would have on passing rates. In model one, examinee's score is the direct result of a score assigned by the reader or the sum of scores assigned…

In the spring of 1985, the Oregon Department of Education conducted an assessment of eighth graders' writing skills. It was the first statewide assessment to be scored analytically according to six traits: ideas and content, organization and development, style, word choice, syntax/sentence structure, and conventions (grammar, punctuation,…

Intended for students preparing for the General Educational Development (GED) test, this workbook enables them to complete lessons in writing and spelling skills and to take the simulated writing skills tests. The first section contains worksheets on basic writing skills, such as sentence structure, capitalization, and punctuation and the use of…

The effect of increased writing or planning time on a test of basic college level writing ability was studied. The essay portion of the New Jersey College Basic Skills Placement Test was given to students in nine New Jersey public colleges and three New Jersey public high schools. Each student wrote two essays on two different topics. The first…

The supplementary information on "Alberta Essay Scales: Models" presented here includes similar models to employ in grading essays, the background and development of the scales, and the rationale for developing two scales of English mechanics and style/content. A standard is presented for evaluating current writing achievement by…

Many local and state education agencies in the United States now mandate annual assessments of student writing ability. To comply with these mandates, schools across the country have developed a variety of assessment procedures. To determine the "state of the art" of large-scale writing assessment in the country, a questionnaire was sent…

The nine articles in this guide discuss the problems involved in teaching writing and offer suggestions for improving writing instruction. The first article presents responses given by educators to a nationwide survey concerning the causes of writing problems, concluding that until recently the biggest problems were untrained teachers and a lack…

One elementary school writing sample written to cue under a 5-minute time limit was presented to 33 teachers who had been trained to use a holistic and a primary trait writing sample assessment system. Working on the assumption that teachers would recognize mechanical errors on sight, training in mechanical control was limited to orientation…

Using data consisting of descriptive and expressive-narrative essays written in 1969 and 1979 by black 17-year-old students in the stratified probability sample from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a study investigated which language patterns differentiated the NAEP essays written by black students in 1969 from those…

Intended to help writing teachers create a classroom climate where real writing can be inspired, valued, and enjoyed, the WEDGE (Writing Every Day Generates Excellence) manual addresses first the problem of motivating students to communicate in writing, next, finding words and structures appropriate for clarity and eloquence, and finally, the…