Examines the mechanics of a large-scale writing portfolio assessment at the University of Michigan, including its impact on matriculation and placement; students' reactions to the requirement; and instructors' evaluation of the efficacy of placements under the new system. Examines the scoring process used by readers to assess portfolios, and…

Investigates how secondary teachers' perceptions of portfolio implementation barriers changed when teachers participated in a 1-year portfolio implementation effort. Suggests that teachers' apprehension about portfolio barriers increased slightly, but that this increase can be attributable to teachers with little portfolio experience. (SC)

Presents a study where 148 students in 15 grade 4-6 classrooms were taught over an 8-week period how to evaluate their work. Notes that treatment group students became more accurate in their self-evaluations than controls. Discusses how, contrary to the beliefs of many students, parents and teachers, students' propensity to inflate grades…

Investigates how experienced and inexperienced raters score essays written by English as a Second Language (ESL) students on two different prompts. Shows that the inexperienced raters were more severe than the experienced raters on one prompt but not on the other prompt, and that differences between the two groups of raters were eliminated…

Argues that writing research has not explored the ethical implications of using self-evaluations in classroom and large-scale writing assessment. Explores portfolio cover letters, reflective essays, self-grading, and self-placement as depicted in college composition literature using this postmodern ethical framework. Demonstrates a process of…

Argues that grading and evaluation need not be as pervasive as they seem. Explores ways teachers can step outside grading: nongraded writing assignments, portfolios, and grading contracts. Explores how it is possible to go further and step outside the mentality of evaluation by using certain descriptive and analytic responses to student writing.…

Explores how a portfolio assessment project in the University of Cape Town's Chemistry Department developed (within staff) new understandings of the role of writing as a vehicle for learning, which resulted in a reexamination of the relationship of the written assignments to the existing curriculum. Discusses challenges of designing assessment…

Examines one aspect of elaboration in student writing as a product of the encounter between writers and readers. Studies a stratified random sample of student placement tests. Finds patterns that correlate significantly with readers' evaluations of texts. Concludes these patterns are two strategies for managing discursive conflict in this…

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…

Applies to the reading of student texts in a college composition portfolio assessment the notion that evaluations of text vary because readings take place in specific contexts and are shaped by cultural and historical exigencies. Concludes that in every reading of a text, readers posit an "implied author" that can strongly influence the reader's…

Details the three major forms of evaluative authority (administrator, teacher, outside instructor) in the portfolio program at a large, urban, Midwestern university. Documents and theorizes the rhetorical and political dynamics by which the three forms of authority interact. Explores and maps the contested borders of authority among outside…

Reviews findings of an investigation in which four European-American teachers assessed fifth- and sixth-grade students' written texts. Replicates the study using African-American teachers assessing the same texts. Finds that the teachers held consistently different views about assessment. Presents the voices of the African-American teachers, who…

Examines relationships between writing instruction and functional composition performance of third-year secondary education Dutch students. Finds that, of 36 instructional characteristics, effective ones included instruction and exercises in writing functional texts, writing for a specific purpose, tailoring to a particular audience, global rating…

Describes the work of the Literacy Unit of the New Standards Project and uses that description to raise a broader set of issues about assessment in the K-12 English language arts. Notes that the performance assessment uses on-demand tasks lasting three to five days and involves the reading of a selection and writing of an essay and portfolios. (RS)

Investigates gender effects in critique of student writing. Finds that readers spontaneously constructed the author's sex even when they were not informed of it; rated the essays lower when they knew the writer was of their own sex; and showed an anti-male bias (measured by holistic rating) and an anti-feminine bias (measured by attribution of…