This paper describes the process by which a rubric development team affiliated with the National Writing Project negotiated difficulties and dilemmas concerning an analytic scoring category initially termed Voice and later renamed Stance. Although these labels reference an aspect of student writing that many teachers value, the challenge of…

The third (1978-79) of three writing assessments conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is reported. The writing achievement of American 9-, 13-, and 17-year-olds was surveyed using a deeply stratified, multistage probability sample design. The specific procedures used in the assessment to develop objectives and…

As an initial review of National Assessment of Educational Progress data designed to determine whether the achievement of American youth is improving, a limited examination of changes in levels of achievement during the 1970s is presented. Benchmark assessments established in 1974-75 indicates a large degree of consistency from one learning area…

Ten papers, four general overviews,, and three commentaries delivered at the General Assembly of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) in 1983 are presented. The papers include: (1) "Why Join IEA?" (J. P. Keeves); (2) "Research and Policymaking in Education: An International…

Accuracy in the scoring of writing is critical if standardized tasks are to be used in a national assessment scheme. Three approaches to establishing accuracy (i.e., consensus, consistency, and measurement) exist and commonly large-scale assessment programs of primary school writing demonstrate adjacent agreement consensus rates of between 80% and…

Writing encompasses a wide range of skills, from the mechanics of punctuation and spelling to the systematic or even creative development of ideas. The higher order skills of communication necessarily involve critical thinking and problem solving, and an assessment of the writing of advanced students will be able to encompass these other higher…