Evaluating College Writing Programs


Evaluating College Writing Programs
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Evaluating College Writing Programs


Evaluating College Writing Programs
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Author : Stephen Paul Witte
language : en
Publisher: SIU Press
Release Date : 1983

Evaluating College Writing Programs written by Stephen Paul Witte and has been published by SIU Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1983 with Education categories.


Noting that present evaluation systems are so limited that they are neither reliable nor valid, this monograph critically reviews studies designed to evaluate composition programs at four major universities. The book offers theoretical and practical guidance through discussion of generalities from the four studies and pertinent questions and guidance to evaluators of composition programs. The first chapter looks at the state of the art of evaluating writing programs, discussing the need for such evaluation, and at two dominant approaches to writing program evaluation. The second chapter discusses a quantitative model of writing program evaluation in terms of four university studies, giving an overview of the dominant quantitative approach. Chapter 3 discusses a framework for evaluating college writing programs, including five components of writing program evaluation, and the final chapter discusses accommodating context and change in writing program evaluation. (HTH)



Very Like A Whale


Very Like A Whale
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Author : Edward M. White
language : en
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Release Date : 2015-03-15

Very Like A Whale written by Edward M. White and has been published by University Press of Colorado this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2015-03-15 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.


Winner of the 2015 CPTSC Award for Excellence in Program Assessment Written for those who design, redesign, and assess writing programs, Very Like a Whale is an intensive discussion of writing program assessment issues. Taking its title from Hamlet, the book explores the multifaceted forces that shape writing programs and the central role these programs can and should play in defining college education. Given the new era of assessment in higher education, writing programs must provide valid evidence that they are serving students, instructors, administrators, alumni, accreditors, and policymakers. This book introduces new conceptualizations associated with assessment, making them clear and available to those in the profession of rhetoric and composition/writing studies. It also offers strategies that aid in gathering information about the relative success of a writing program in achieving its identified goals. Philosophically and historically aligned with quantitative approaches, White, Elliot, and Peckham use case study and best-practice scholarship to demonstrate the applicability of their innovative approach, termed Design for Assessment (DFA). Well grounded in assessment theory, Very Like a Whale will be of practical use to new and seasoned writing program administrators alike, as well as to any educator involved with the accreditation process.



Guide To College Writing Assessment


Guide To College Writing Assessment
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Author : Peggy O'Neill
language : en
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Release Date : 2009-04-15

Guide To College Writing Assessment written by Peggy O'Neill and has been published by University Press of Colorado this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2009-04-15 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.


While most English professionals feel comfortable with language and literacy theories, assessment theories seem more alien. English professionals often don’t have a clear understanding of the key concepts in educational measurement, such as validity and reliability, nor do they understand the statistical formulas associated with psychometrics. But understanding assessment theory—and applying it—by those who are not psychometricians is critical in developing useful, ethical assessments in college writing programs, and in interpreting and using assessment results. A Guide to College Writing Assessment is designed as an introduction and source book for WPAs, department chairs, teachers, and administrators. Always cognizant of the critical components of particular teaching contexts, O’Neill, Moore, and Huot have written sophisticated but accessible chapters on the history, theory, application and background of writing assessment, and they offer a dozen appendices of practical samples and models for a range of common assessment needs. Because there are numerous resources available to assist faculty in assessing the writing of individual students in particular classrooms, A Guide to College Writing Assessment focuses on approaches to the kinds of assessment that typically happen outside of individual classrooms: placement evaluation, exit examination, programmatic assessment, and faculty evaluation. Most of all, the argument of this book is that creating the conditions for meaningful college writing assessment hinges not only on understanding the history and theories informing assessment practice, but also on composition programs availing themselves of the full range of available assessment practices.



Assessing And Improving Student Writing In College


Assessing And Improving Student Writing In College
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Author : Barbara E. Walvoord
language : en
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Release Date : 2014-07-07

Assessing And Improving Student Writing In College written by Barbara E. Walvoord and has been published by John Wiley & Sons this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2014-07-07 with Education categories.


Step-by-step guidance for shaping better writers while keeping faculty workloads manageable Effective communication is a critical skill for many academic disciplines and careers, and so colleges and universities and their faculty members are rightfully committed to improving student writing across the curriculum. Guiding and assessing student writing in classrooms, general education, and departments takes knowledge, planning, and persistence, but it can be done effectively and efficiently. Written in the concise, accessible style Barbara Walvoord is known for, Assessing and Improving Student Writing in College: A Guide for Institutions, General Education, Departments, and Classrooms offers administrators, program chairs, general education leaders, and classroom instructors the guidance they need. The book provides concrete suggestions for how to: Articulate goals for student writing Measure student writing Improve student writing Document that improvement The book begins by addressing four basic concepts: what we mean by writing, what we mean by "good" writing, how students learn to write, and the purposes of assessment. Next, Walvoord explains the various approaches and methods for assessing writing, urging a combination of them adapted to the institution's purposes and political context. After this introduction, successive chapters offer realistic, practical advice to institution-wide and general education leaders, department members, and classroom instructors. Walvoord addresses issues such as how to engage faculty, how to use rubrics, how to aggregate assessment information at the department and institutional levels, and how to report assessment information to accreditors. The chapter for classroom instructors offers practical suggestions: how to add more writing to a course without substantially increasing the grading load; how to construct writing assignments, how to make grading and responding more effective and time-efficient, how to address grammar and punctuation, and how to support students whose native language is not English. The book also includes four helpful appendices: a taxonomy of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) and Writing in the Disciplines (WID) programs; sample outlines for faculty development workshops; a student survey on teaching methods instructors can use to inform their choices in the classroom; and a student self-check cover sheet designed to help students take ownership of their own learning and responsibility for turning in complete, correct assignments. Practical, step-by-step guidance for each point in the assessment and improvement process creates a cohesive, institution-wide system that keeps students, faculty, and administrators on the same page.



Teaching And Assessing Writing


Teaching And Assessing Writing
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Author : Edward M. White
language : en
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Release Date : 1994-03-18

Teaching And Assessing Writing written by Edward M. White and has been published by Jossey-Bass this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1994-03-18 with Education categories.


@PQ:White's new edition of Teaching and Assessing Writing retains its place as the best one-source examination of issues and techniques. Sensible, thorough, even-handed--it is useful for both the novice teacher and the experienced administrator in designing writing classes and programs that can serve many kinds of students fairly. @PQS:?Richard Lloyd Jones, professor of English, University of Iowa In this thoroughly revised and completely reorganized second edition, White offers the latest theoretical and practical materials that instructors in English and across the disciplines will need in order to help students build strong writing skills.



Assessing Writing Assessing Learning


Assessing Writing Assessing Learning
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Author : Dudley W. Reynolds
language : en
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Release Date : 2010-06-07

Assessing Writing Assessing Learning written by Dudley W. Reynolds and has been published by University of Michigan Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010-06-07 with Foreign Language Study categories.


The goals of this resource are broader than many standard books on writing assessment, which focus on evaluating an individual’s ability to create an effective piece of writing for a particular purpose. Assessing Writing, Assessing Learning seeks to support teachers, administrators, program directors, and funding entities who want to make the best use of the resources at their disposal to understand what students are learning and why and then take actions based on what they have learned. It also seeks to provide a common basis for communication among all the interested parties—the writing professionals, the people who identified the need for the program, and the students. The book has sections on planning, tools (different ways of collecting data and links to instruments), and reporting (examples provided). Each section includes a discussion of issues and advice for working through the issue along with numerous examples, plus a list of resources to consult to learn more. The final chapter provides worksheets that may be reproduced and used to help those in charge of setting up and delivering a writing program to think through the issues presented. A glossary of terms is also included.



Beyond Outcomes


Beyond Outcomes
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Author : Richard Haswell
language : en
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Release Date : 2001-05-30

Beyond Outcomes written by Richard Haswell and has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2001-05-30 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.


Writing assessment programs help place entering and mid-career students in composition courses at the appropriate level, monitor the progress of those students, and assist in placing them in writing courses throughout their undergraduate careers. These same universities also have writing instruction programs, which might include writing centers, writing-across-the-curriculum initiatives, and freshman and advanced composition programs. At many institutions, though, writing assessment is not necessarily considered fundamental to writing instruction, and there is little communication between the assessment program and the composition program. This book demonstrates that writing assessment and instruction programs may be successfully integrated. The contributors analyze the development of the writing assessment and instruction program at Washington State University, which is nationally recognized for its success. In doing so, they provide guidance to other institutions planning to develop similar integrated programs. The volume argues that writing assessment and instruction should inform and influence each other; that they should evolve together; and that they should be developed locally. By tracing the success of the WSU program, the authors directly challenge the use of national packaged assessment programs, such as standardized placement tests.



A Program Development Handbook For The Holistic Assessment Of Writing


A Program Development Handbook For The Holistic Assessment Of Writing
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Author : Norbert Elliot
language : en
Publisher: University Press of America
Release Date : 1990

A Program Development Handbook For The Holistic Assessment Of Writing written by Norbert Elliot and has been published by University Press of America this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1990 with Education categories.


This book is a major breakthrough for developers of writing assessment programs who must certify the writing competency of undergraduate students. Legislators and accreditation boards across the nation have called for and implemented large scale projects to measure educational outcomes. This single source provides comprehensive information on the history, underlying concepts, and process of conducting a large scale writing assessment program at a specific institution of higher education. The handbook opens with an analysis of the rationale for the assessment of writing during the junior year of the undergraduate curriculum. The authors then turn to a case study of the success of their own institutional wide assessment program. A history is provided of 20th century writing assessment practices; as well, attention is given to defining levels of literacy. After describing an assessment process model, discussion turns to the design of questions, the administration of the assessment, the rating of papers, and the statistical analysis of data. Attention is also given to the design of a course for those who are unsuccessful on the assessment. The study closes with directions for further research and over 200 references in the bibliography.



Assessing Writing Across The Curriculum


Assessing Writing Across The Curriculum
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Author : Kathleen Blake Yancey
language : en
Publisher: Praeger
Release Date : 1997-10-20

Assessing Writing Across The Curriculum written by Kathleen Blake Yancey and has been published by Praeger this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1997-10-20 with Business & Economics categories.


Noting that the term "assessment" sounds formal and institutional and frequently generates fear and anxiety, this book presents 14 essays that demonstrate that assessment can help students, teachers, and administrators in writing across the curriculum (WAC) programs learn about what they are doing well and about how they might do better. The first set of essays in the book focus on informal, formative WAC assessments; the second set discuss more formal efforts to assess WAC; and a concluding essay provides a theoretical and historical look at WAC assessment. After a preface, "The WAC Archives Revisited" (Toby Fulwiler and Art Young), essays in the book are: (1) "Introduction--Assumptions about Assessing WAC Programs: Some Axioms, Some Observations, Some Context" (Kathleen Blake Yancey and Brian Huot); (2) "From Conduit to Customer: The Role of WAC Faculty in WAC Assessment" (Barbara Walvoord); (3) "Documenting Excellence in Teaching and Learning in WAC Programs" (Joyce Kinkead); (4) "Contextual Evaluation in WAC Programs: Theories, Issues, and Strategies for Teachers" (Cynthia L. Selfe); (5) "Beyond Accountability: Reading with Faculty as Partners across the Disciplines" (Brian Huot); (6) "How Portfolios for Proficiency Help Shape a WAC Program" (Christopher Thaiss and Terry Myers Zawicki); (7) "Listening as Assessment: How Students and Teachers Evaluate WAC" (Larry Beason and Laurel Darrow); (8) "Program Review, Program Renewal" (Charles Moran and Anne Herrington); (9) "The Crazy Quilt of Writing across the Curriculum: Achieving WAC Program Assessment" (Meg Morgan); (10) "Integrating WAC into General Education: An Assessment Case Study" (Martha A. Townsend); (11) "Adventures in the WAC Assessment Trade: Reconsidering the Link between Research and Consultation" (Raymond Smith and Christine Farris); (12) "Research and WAC Evaluation: An In-Progress Reflection" (Paul Prior, Gail E. Hawisher, Sibylle Gruber, and Nicole MacLaughlin); (13) "WAC Assessment and Internal Audiences: A Dialogue" (Richard Haswell and Susan McLeod); and (14) "Pragmatism, Positivism, and Program Evaluation" (Michael M. Williamson). (RS)



First Year Writing Program Assessment At Small Liberal Arts Colleges


First Year Writing Program Assessment At Small Liberal Arts Colleges
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Author : Nathan W. Henton
language : en
Publisher:
Release Date : 2019

First Year Writing Program Assessment At Small Liberal Arts Colleges written by Nathan W. Henton and has been published by this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019 with Education, Humanistic categories.


This project examines first-year writing program assessment practices at small liberal arts colleges and universities in an effort to understand how these practices resemble or diverge from prevailing scholarship on writing program assessment. There is extensive literature on best practices in writing program assessment, but nearly all of it by scholars and researchers working at public comprehensive universities who assume that type of institution as their model. At the same time, scholarship on writing program assessment at small liberal arts institutions is scant, amounting to fewer than ten publications in the last twenty years, even as these schools are structurally and philosophically different enough from public comprehensive universities that prevailing best program assessment practices often do not fit their contexts and needs. Small liberal arts universities are historically important to higher education in United States, remain numerically significant, and serve hundreds of thousands of students per year. To better understand how they engage with bet practices in writing program assessment, the author distributed a survey to more than 120 institutions, ultimately receiving responses from 42. Using these responses and in-depth interviews with the directors of first-year writing programs at three other small liberal arts universities, the author tested his hypothesis that these schools are either not engaging in writing program assessment or are not doing so in ways that are consistent with best practices. The combined results ultimately reveal that (1) the responding schools are shifting, including in their approaches to first-year writing and in their assessment of those programs; (2) many assessment projects show signs of interference from upper-level administrators; and (3) these institutions are engaging in writing program assessment, but often in ways that are out of line with prevailing scholarship. The study examines the possible reasons for these themes, makes suggestions for how the directors of first-year writing programs at small institutions can gain better control of and improve their program assessment efforts and for how program assessment scholars might consider the small liberal arts experience, and closes with suggestions for further research.