Is A Practical And More Accurate For Gsu

By Author: mattleung
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In summer 2008, buoyed by the data, a shift in the local administrative scene, and a better idea, the WPA approached the GSU decision makers with Wholesale Jewelry an idea for an in-house placement procedure that could be piloted in fall 2008. Rather than focus on eliminating SAT scores as a placement instrument, the WPA instead argued that SATs were weak tools that could be supplemented through a modest re-placement procedure conducted in the first two weeks of class and managed entirely within the department. She promised to take on all the headaches in return for approval of the following plan: abridging and modifying Peckham's methodology in the Online Challenge developed at Louisiana State University, all first-year writing instructors of Intro Writing and College Writing were asked to begin a discussion of a topic on the first day of class that would be followed up with a reading and an essay assignment, due the next class period. The assignment was defined as one that asked students to take a position or make an argument; teachers were left to choose readings and design assignments, ...
... though in fact many teachers collaborated, via a listserv, and as most teachers use one of three common texts, most students wrote on one of three assignments. The goal was to be both minimally disruptive to teaching and learning, and also to find a valid system for placement: "the closer the structure of the assessment instrument to the structure of what is being assessed, the more valid the assessment".

After reading papers that were written by students for homework, instructors were asked to send to the central office the papers of students whom they believed to be misplaced. Following Huot's approach described in ReArticulating Writing Assessment for Teaching and Learning, and saving time and money, GSU did not train readers in the traditional rubric approach, but instead chose readers based on their expertise. In this case, a small group of veteran first-year writing teachers who were consistent graders and had attended workshops on assessment read Jewelry On Sale the essays of referred students, excusing themselves from evaluating students who were in their own classes. Like Huot, the GSU WPA devised a system that asked the readers a simple question Intro Writing or College Writing that spoke to their expertise. These teachers knew well the expectations of College Writing, and the students' placement essays were, in fact, exactly the type of work that College Writing students were regularly asked to do.

Final placement was determined by the WPA, who could ask for additional reads when the instructor and the reader disagreed; who could read and evaluate the students' work herself; and who could also access additional data: the SAT scores and the actual SAT-W essays (which enabled a double check against plagiarism), as well as any grades already received at GSU. Finally, when a student was called by the intrepid department office manager, who conveniently has her MA in counseling, the student received an opportunity for appeal: more precisely, an opportunity for self-determined advance, as DSP leaders Royer and Gilles recommend. Students who appealed their placement were asked to provide additional data ideally a portfolio of previously written papers or, when this was not feasible, the option to complete another on-site essay. Ultimately, students who resisted re-placement were to become partners in the decision presenting additional evidence and receiving expert, individual counsel on their writing relative to the expectations of the first-year writing program. In this final step, the new assessment is much closer to the hermeneutic approach described and advocated by Moss as an assessment that "seeks to understand the whole in light of its parts, that privileges readers who are most knowledgeable about the context in which the assessment occurs, and that ground those interpretations, not only in the textual and contextual evidence available, but also in a rational debate among the community of interpreters".