Grounded in the principle that writing assessment should be locally developed and controlled, this article describes a study that contextualizes and validates the decisions that students make in the modified Directed Self-Placement (DSP) process used at the University of Michigan. The authors present results of a detailed text analysis of…

I use Burkean analysis to show how neoliberalism undermines faculty assessment expertise and underwrites testing industry expertise in the current assessment scene. Contending that we cannot extricate ourselves from our limited agency in this scene until we abandon the familiar "stakeholder" theory of power, I propose a rewriting of the assessment…

This article argues for and models an approach to writing program assessment that relies on study of the writing practices of program graduates as a way to inform revisions in curriculum and teaching practices. The article also examines how conducting such assessments can help nondisciplinary publics understand the nature of composition …

In a FIPSE-funded assessment project, a group of diverse institutions collaborated on developing a common, course-embedded approach to assessing student writing in our first-year writing programs. The results of this assessment project, the processes we developed to assess authentic student writing, and individual institutional perspectives are…

Assessment, including writing assessment, is a form of social action. Because standardized tests can be used to reify the social order, local assessments that take into account specific contexts are more likely to yield useful information about student writers. This essay describes one such study, a multiple-measure comparison of accelerated…

Although most portfolio evaluation currently uses some adaptation of holistic scoring, the problems with scoring portfolios holistically are many, much more than for essays, and the problems are not readily resolvable. Indeed, many aspects of holistic scoring work against the principles behind portfolio assessment. We have from the start needed a…

This article describes how readers from a graduate program in anthropology evaluated student writing in a general education course. Readers voiced the concerns of their discipline when they focused on the stance writers assumed and how they made value judgments.

Draws upon a longitudinal study of four undergraduate student writers and focuses on the progress of one of them. Questions assumptions that confuse skills assessment with the measurement of academic and personal development. Argues for a broader view of writing development and a teaching approach that fosters it. (SG)

Presents survey results from 37 different colleges and universities represented in the 13 years of survey results, as compiled by the Missouri Colloquium on Writing Assessment (CWA). Notes the collected data are unique in that the same cohort of schools responded to the same detailed inquiries related to the assessing, curricular design, delivery,…

Considers what it means to be "bothered" by errors. Transforms the study of error from mere textual issues to larger rhetorical matters of constructing meaning. Presents a study of 14 business people that indicates a range of reactions to errors. Reveals patterns of qualitative agreement--certain ways in which these readers constructed a negative…

Evaluates a three-year pilot project in mainstreaming basic writers at the City University of New York. Suggests that the social and political contexts of a project need to be taken into account in the earliest stages of evaluation. Claims the empirically verifiable account that researchers sought was compromised by the socio-political forces…

Offers an account of three "waves" of writing assessment: objective tests, holistic scoring, and portfolios. Scrutinizes these modes of assessment for how they can serve needs beyond the institutional demands of sorting and selecting students, to discover what they can tell educators about writing, teaching, and courses and programs. (SR)

Focuses on the nature and problems presented by grading student essays. Offers some solutions to those problems and reasons why it makes sense to put the burden of proof for grading on students so that a constructive dialog can develop between students and teacher. (TB)

Analyzes 208 comments written at the end of student papers by 10 teaching assistants at Penn State. Analyzes a second sample containing end comments written earlier at other universities. Identifies 16 primary genres, falling into 3 groups: judging genres, reader response genres, and coaching genres. (PA)

Explores the ability to construct a theory of writing assessment based on an understanding of the nature of language, written communication, and its teaching. Looks at current practices at universities that have been using assessment procedures that are site-based, practical, and have been developed and controlled locally. (TB)