One aim of this article is to shift mindsets from the traditional identification of written language abilities that are "missing" in students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) to writing assessment as the discovery of more complex language strengths foundational to success across disciplines. The multiple language-levels (MLL)…

This study evaluates the effect of attending a U.S. public middle or junior high school as compared with a K-8 school on eighth graders' academic and psychosocial outcomes. In a national sample, we conducted propensity score weighted regression analysis. Initial findings indicated that for eighth-grade students, attending a middle or junior high…

Morphological skills have previously been found to reliably predict reading skill, including word reading, vocabulary, and comprehension. However, less is known about how morphological skills might contribute to writing skill, aside from its well-documented role in the development of spelling. This correlational study examines whether…

Developed to evaluate secondary school students' writing fluency skills, this study is descriptive in nature and uses a mixed method approach. During the research, the researcher attempted to identify students' abilities to write in terms of quantity and complexity, on the one hand, and also attempted to identify findings on accuracy, the…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to develop and test a strategy to support middle grade students' persuasive writing skills. The sample included 52 eighth-grade students who were either proficient or struggling writers. The students were randomly assigned to either receive training on a graphic organizer designed to scaffold effective…

This paper explores automated methods for measuring features of student writing and determining their relationship to writing quality and other features of literacy, such as reading rest scores. In particular, it uses the "e-rater"™ automatic essay scoring system to measure "product" features (measurable traits of the final…

The authors examined the predictor-criterion relationship between measures of written expression using spring curriculum-based measures (W-CBM) and the spring administration of the state-mandated high-stakes test the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) in writing. Students (N = 83) in Grades 6, 7, and 8 wrote expressive narratives for 3…

The current study examines data from students in grades 4-8 who participated in a statewide computer-based benchmark writing assessment that featured automated essay scoring and automated feedback. We examined whether the use of automated feedback was associated with gains in writing quality across revisions to an essay, and with transfer effects…

A study investigated how the introduction of a computer writing tool that provides metacognitive guidance to students interacting with it--the Writing Partner2 (WP2)--influenced the classroom environment, and explored both effects "with" and effects "of" working with such a computer tool. Data was gathered from an eighth-grade…

A study examined the writing performance of American schoolchildren based on a survey conducted in 1992 by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Nationally representative samples of fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students attending public and private schools--approximately 30,000 in all--responded to a variety of writing…

A study examined the influence of mode of discourse, experiential demand and gender on quality of student writing. All of the eighth-grade students (125,756) who participated in a statewide assessment of writing during spring 1989 and spring 1990 were included in the study. Eighteen writing tasks were administered during these two years. The…

To evaluate the writing abilities of American students, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) asked nationally representative samples of fourth, eighth, and twelfth graders--approximately 20,000 students in all--to perform a variety of informative, persuasive, and narrative writing tasks. In addition, students were asked about the…

Examines whether differences in the functional strategies of texts written by English-speaking children of concrete and low formal operations levels of intelligence also exist in texts written by Polish-speaking children. Studies fifth and eighth grade elementary school children. Concludes that formal operational subjects were better able to…

A study with 28 fourth graders, 30 eighth graders, and 30 college students demonstrates that the relationship between knowledge of the requirements of a globally coherent essay and the ability to produce such an essay generally remains statistically significant when the effect of grade level is removed. (SLD)