A GUIDE TO COLLEGE WRITING ASSESSMENT

UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Contents

Acknowledgments...........................................................................................................................................vii1 Introduction: Embracing the Power of Assessment.........................................................................................................12 Historicizing Writing Assessment........................................................................................................................143 Considering Theory......................................................................................................................................354 Attending to Context....................................................................................................................................595 Assessing Student Writers: Placement....................................................................................................................806 Assessing Student Writers: Proficiency..................................................................................................................947 Conducting Writing Program Assessments..................................................................................................................1098 Evaluating Writing Faculty and Instruction..............................................................................................................137Appendix A: Timeline: Contextualizing Key Events in the History of Writing Assessment.....................................................................157Appendix B: Writing Assessment: A Position Statement, the Conference on College Composition and Communication Committee on Assessment.....................161Appendix C: Sample Scoring Rubrics........................................................................................................................169Appendix D: Sample Classroom Observation Form.............................................................................................................174Appendix E: Sample Outcome-Based Student Survey...........................................................................................................177Appendix F: Sample Teaching Portfolio Table of Contents...................................................................................................180Appendix G: Sample Course Portfolio Directions............................................................................................................181Appendix H: Sample Course Portfolio Reading Guidelines....................................................................................................184Appendix I: Getting Started Guide for Program Assessment..................................................................................................186Appendix J: Sample Program Assessment Surveys.............................................................................................................188Appendix K: Sample Student Focus Group Outline............................................................................................................191Appendix L: Selective Annotated Bibliography of Additional Readings.......................................................................................193Glossary..................................................................................................................................................197References................................................................................................................................................206Index.....................................................................................................................................................216About the Authors.........................................................................................................................................219

Chapter One

This question, asked in an e-mail from a dean at a liberal arts college to the composition director, illustrates just how central writing and writing assessment have become to discussions about institutional assessment goals and practices that are occurring at colleges and universities across the country (and around the globe). When considered within a historical context, the contemporary embrace of writing as a means for evaluating learning outside of the composition classroom is not surprising. Writing, after all, has been linked to large-scale assessment ever since college entrance examinations evolved from oral tests of literacy abilities to written ones (Brereton 1995; Elliot 2005; Trachsel 1992) and is still a component of entrance evaluations at most institutions of higher education. Writing frequently plays a role in campus-wide assessments of individual student achievement as well, through rising-junior exams, graduation tests, and other competency certifications (Haswell 2001a; Murphy, Carlson, and Rooney 1993).

That a composition director would be included in discussions about institutional assessment is not surprising either, given that more and more program-level administrators are being asked to provide information for campus-wide self-studies and accreditation reviews. Colleges and universities are under such pressure these days to demonstrate the quality of their programs that it is rare for any administrator to be excluded from calls for assessment data of one kind or another. This is especially true for writing program administrators, who typically participate in cross-curricular general education initiatives by way of coordinating introductory composition courses and supporting the instructors who teach them.

What is, perhaps, most compelling about the e-mail query is the implicit message, conveyed by the second sentence, about the potential role of the composition director in the broad-based assessment this dean is beginning to imagine. The dean seems not to be ordering or cajoling the writing program administrator (WPA) to fall in line with an assessment regimen that has already been envisioned (as higher-ed administrative lore might encourage us to expect) but rather inviting the WPA to take an active part in designing and facilitating what promises to become a significant campus-wide initiative.

The proposition embedded within this e-mail is an important one indeed. As research shows, writing assessments do much more than simply allow administrators to demonstrate that their institutions, departments, and programs are successful; they have the power to influence curriculum and pedagogy, to categorize teachers and writers, and, ultimately, to define "good writing" (e.g., Hillocks 2002; O'Neill, Murphy, Huot, and Williamson 2005). In fact, specific writing assessments, especially those perceived to have high stakes for students and teachers, function as what Deborah Brandt (1998) calls "literacy sponsors" because they encourage and support the development of certain types of writing and writing abilities over others. In short, a department-level administrator who embraces assessment-especially the kind of assessment that extends beyond the boundaries of her specific program-is in a...