Reframing Writing Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning

Linda Adler-Kassner, Peggy O'Neill

• Publisher: Utah State University Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780874217988
• eBook ISBN: 9780874217995
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Evaluation & Assessment in Education
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

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.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Higher Education, Framing, and Writing Assessment
• 2. Framing (and) American Education
• 3. The Framing of Composition and Writing Assessment
• 4. Reframing Strategies and Techniques
• 5. Reframing in Action
• 6. Reframing Assessment: Why Does My Participation Matter?
• 7. Reimagining Writing Assessment
• References
• Index
• About the Authors