Pedagogical shifts that incorporate multimodal and digital literacies challenge the world in which literacy teachers have lived and worked. Effective professional development (PD) experiences may increase teachers' knowledge and enlarge their teaching paradigms about writing instruction. The current study explored ways PD might encourage teachers…

This study explored possible reasons why IELTS candidates usually score low in writing by investigating the effects of two different test designs and scoring criteria on Iranian IELTS candidates' obtained grades in IELTS and World Englishes (WEs) essay writing tests. To this end, first, a WEs essay writing test was preliminarily designed. Then, 17…

Standardized tests provide information about student achievement that are vital to understanding how well students are learning the state standards. The problem addressed in this study was the underachievement of 52% of third-grade students in the target district in English Language Arts on a state standardized test. Poor reading skills can cause…

Despite the importance of analytic text-based writing, relatively little is known about how to teach to this important skill. A persistent barrier to conducting research that would provide insight on best practices for teaching this form of writing is a lack of outcome measures that assess students' analytic text-based writing development and that…

Meeting standardized test benchmarks is a challenge for elementary school students in Texas. The problem is that some elementary schools do not meet the performance standards of the fourth-grade STAAR state test average. Problem-based learning is a model used in schools to initiate problem-solving skills with a hands-on approach to real-world…

We examined the degree to which content of states' writing standards and assessments (using measures of content range, frequency, balance, and cognitive complexity) and their alignment were related to student writing achievement on the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), while controlling for student, school, and state…

Automated writing evaluation (AWE) is a cutting-edge technology-based intervention designed to help teachers meet their challenges in writing classrooms and improve students' writing proficiency. The fast development of AWE systems, along with the encouragement of technology use in the U.S. K-12 education system by the Common Core State Standards…

This article addresses how an educational purpose of social efficiency, such as the one we have in England, affects each child's school Life-history and the process through which children thereby come to identify themselves. The author considers whether schools could engage in practices that decrease pupils' resignation to a system that controls…

The present study aimed at investigating whether academic IELTS candidates perform differently in writing on either a chart topic or a table topic of the IELTS writing task 1 with regard to the four IELTS writing marking criteria i.e. task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, and grammar range and accuracy. The study adopted a…

The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the 6+1 trait writing model on ESP university students' critical thinking and writing achievement. It was assumed that students who receive training using the 6+1 trait writing model would reveal greater gains in critical thinking and writing achievement. Six instruments -designed by the…

The effect of using a computer or paper and pencil on student writing scores on a provincial standardized writing assessment was studied. A sample of 302 francophone students wrote a short essay using a computer equipped with Microsoft Word with all of its correction functions enabled. One week later, the same students wrote a second short essay…

This study is an attempt to clarify the incremental and multidimensional nature of foreign language vocabulary development and its relation to the participants' reading and writing performances and general language ability of English as a foreign language (EFL). With this principle aim, the current study investigated the relationship between…

This study examined whether decoding and linguistic comprehension abilities, broadly defined by the Simple View of Reading, in grade 1 each uniquely predicted the grade 6 writing performance of English-speaking children (n = 76) who were educated bilingually in both English their first language and French, a second language. Prediction was made…

The adoption of Common Core State Standards by many states prompted the development of new standardized writing assessments. A limited number of studies investigated the predictive ability of curriculum-based measurements (CBMs) as related to state assessments in writing, and none have analyzed the Mississippi Assessment Program (MAP) for writing.…

This quasiexperimental investigation describes the relative effects of a technology-driven course redesign on retention and achievement in a developmental writing program at a large, urban community college in the southwest United States. The new program focused on student learning and included online as well as face-to-face components that…