Testing the hypotheses that reflective timed-essay prompts should elicit memories of meaningful experiences in students' undergraduate education, and that computer-mediated classroom experiences should be salient among those memories, a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods paints a richer, more complex picture than either…

Large-scale writing programs can add value to the traditional timed writing assessment by using aspects of the essays to assess the effectiveness of institutional goals, programs, and curriculums. The "six learning goals" prompt in this study represents an attempt to provide an accurate writing assessment that moves beyond scores. This…

To teach students how to write for the workplace and other professional contexts, technical writing teachers often assign writing tasks that reflect real-life communication contexts, a teaching approach that is grounded in the field's contextualized understanding of genre. This article argues to fully embrace contextualized literacy and better…

This article examines the influence of keyboarding versus handwriting in a high-stakes writing assessment. Conclusions are based on data collected from a pilot project to move Old Dominion University's Exit Exam of Writing Proficiency from a handwritten format into a dual-option format (i.e., the students may choose to handwrite or keyboard the…

We examined the technical adequacy of writing progress measures as indicators of success on state standards tests. Tenth-grade students wrote for 10 min, marking their samples at 3, 5, and 7 min. Samples were scored for words written, words spelled correctly, and correct and correct minus incorrect word sequences. The number of correct minus…

Despite the debate among writing researchers about its viability as a pedagogical tool in writing instruction [e.g., Helms-Park, R., & Stapleton, P. (2003). "Questioning the importance of individualized voice in undergraduate L2 argumentative writing: An empirical study with pedagogical implications." "Journal of Second Language Writing," 12 (3),…

This paper provides information about Alabama High School Graduation Exam, 3rd Edition, a comprehensive standards-based exam. The purpose of the exam is to: (1) Provide schools with student academic diagnostic information; (2) Determine prospective high school graduates' mastery of the state curriculum; (3) Increase alignment of local curriculum…

[Slides] presented at AERA in Denver, CO in April 2010. This study examined the relationship between students' self-reported high school grade point average (HSGPA) from the SAT Questionnaire and their HSGPA provided by the colleges and universities they attend. The purpose of this research was to offer updated information on the relatedness of…

A number of scholars have questioned the practice of assessing academic writing in the context of a one-off language test, claiming that the time restrictions imposed in the test environment, when compared to the writing conditions typical at university, may prevent learners from displaying the kinds of writing skills required in academic…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how Korean fourth graders' performance on reading comprehension and written summarization changes as a function of instruction in summarization across test times. Seventy five Korean fourth graders from three classes were randomly assigned to the collaborative summarization, direct instruction, and…

This study investigated the convergent and discriminant validity of the high-stakes Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) in both reading and writing at grade levels 4, 8, and 10. The data from the 2006 FCAT administration were analyzed via traditional multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) analysis to identify the factor structure and structural…

This study examines discussions of model papers in a high school Advanced Placement English classroom where students were preparing for a high-stakes writing assessment. Much of the current research on talk about writing in various contexts such as classroom discourse, teacher-student writing conferences, and peer tutoring has emphasized the…

Alderson (2005) suggests that diagnostic tests should identify strengths and weaknesses in learners' use of language and focus on specific elements rather than global abilities. However, rating scales used in performance assessment have been repeatedly criticized for being imprecise and therefore often resulting in holistic marking by raters…

Test-based accountability programs are designed to promote improved standards of teaching and learning within the systems of education that they are connected to. Brenan [Brenan, A. L. (2006). "Perspectives on the evolution and future of educational measurement." In: Robert (Ed.), "Educational measurement" (4th ed., pp. 1-16).…

Type and quality of revisions made by students between first and final drafts of a state writing test were scored using a revision taxonomy. Scorers categorized revisions first by unit (e.g., word, phrase, sentence), and then by type (e.g., addition, substitution, spelling). They then evaluated the impact of each revision on the readability of the…