Reframing Writing Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning

Adler-Kassner and O'Neill show writing faculty and administrators how to frame discussions of writing assessment so that they accurately represent research-based practices, and promote assessments that are valid, reliable, and discipline-appropriate.

Public discourse about writing instruction is currently driven by ideas of what instructors and programs "need to do," "should do," or "are not doing," and is based on poorly informed concepts of correctness and unfounded claims about a broad decline in educational quality. This discussion needs to be reframed, say Adler-Kassner and O'Neill, to help policymakers understand that the purpose of writing instruction is to help students develop critical thinking, reading, and writing strategies that will form the foundation for their future educations, professional careers, and civic engagement.

Reframing Writing Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning is grounded in the best of writing assessment research, and focuses on how to communicate it effectively to publics beyond academe.

Linda Adler-Kassner is professor of writing and director of the writing program at University of California, Santa Barbara, where she teachers undergraduate and graduate writing courses. Through 2011, she is also the President of the Council of Writing Program Administrators and served an additional five years on the Executive Board of that organization, including working as founding coordinator of the WPA Network for Media Action. Most recently, her research has focused both on analyzing the implications of public policy for writing instruction, and on developing strategies for writing instructors and program directors to affect policy. She is also author of The Activist WPA: Changing Stories about Writers and Writing (Utah State University Press, 2008), and co-author or co-editor of five additional books. She also has published many articles and book chapters in journals such as College Composition and Communication, WPA Journal, and Journal of Basic Writing.

Peggy O'Neill, associate professor, directs the composition program and teaches writing and rhetoric courses in the department of writing at Loyola University Maryland. Her scholarship focuses primarily on writing assessment and pedagogy. Her work appears in academic journals, such as the Journal of Writing Assessment and College Composition and Communication, as well as in several edited scholarly collections. Her most recent book is A Guide to College Writing Assessment (Utah State University Press, 2009), which she co-authored with Cindy Moore and Brian Huot. O'Neill has also edited or co-edited four books: Assessing Writing: A Critical Sourcebook (Bedford St.Martin's / NCTE 2009); Blurring Boundaries: Developing Writers, Researchers and Teachers (Hampton Press 2007); A Field of Dreams: Independent Writing Programs and the Future of Composition Studies (Utah State University Press, 2002);and Practice in Context: Situating the Work of Writing Teachers (NCTE, 2002).