This handbook guides teachers through nine workshops designed to share strategies for success on writing tests. The workshops in the handbook give practical ideas that can be implemented in the elementary classroom to set the stage for test success without compromising children's growth as writers. Following a foreword by Michael R. Sampson and…

This document contains the technical information for the 1998 Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), Grade 4 Assessment for Reading, Mathematics, Listening, and Writing. It documents the technical quality of the assessment, including the evidence for the reliability and validity of test scores. The manual's chapters are: (1)…

The personal statement as an indicator of writing skill was evaluated by comparing personal statements with standardized essay measures of writing ability for 475 graduate students. Correlations of the essay and the personal statement with nontest indicators of writing skill indicate that the traditional essay was more highly related to nearly all…

Studied how performance on a standardized writing assessment might influence graduate admissions decisions if, along with test scores, test takers' essays were made available to admissions committees. Results for 27 test takers(2 essays each) suggest that the availability of examinee essays would have little, if any, influence on admissions…

Explores plausible differences in composing processes when English as a Second Language (ESL) students write timed-essays on paper and on the computer. Examines the way in which the quality of the written products differs across paper and computer modes. Reveals that individual participants are engaged in different ways and to differing degrees by…

Effects of using different combinations of internal and external matching variables were examined using a generalized Mantel-Haenszel statistic, a technique based on meta-analysis, and logistic discriminant function analysis with data from a writing assessment for over 4,200 8th graders. Results did not support use of an external matching…

Using S. J. Messick's theoretical work concerning construct validity as a guide, underlying hypotheses for investigation when validating placement test decisions are assessed. Guidelines on validating placement decisions are offered, and the hypotheses and guidelines are applied in a validation study of the Written English Expression Placement…

Rater errors (rater severity, halo effect, central tendency, and restriction of range) are described, and criteria are presented for evaluating rating quality based on a many-faceted Rasch (FACETS) model. Ratings of 264 compositions from the Eighth Grade Writing Test in Georgia by 15 raters illustrate the discussion. (SLD)

Summarizes recent developments in the use of technology in schools and state-level testing programs. Presents results of two studies, one with 114 students and one with about 200 students, that indicate that written tests administered on paper underestimate the achievement of students accustomed to working with computers. (SLD)

Describes the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 writing assessment, Includes average scores and achievement-level results for the United States and the states, for demographic subgroups, and for students in a variety of contexts. Also examines the framework and content of the assessment. (Author/SLD)

How do scores from writing samples generated by computerized essay scorers compare to those generated by ''untrained'' human scorers and what combination of scores, if any, is more accurate at placing students in composition courses? This study endeavored to answer this two-part question by evaluating the correspondence between writing sample…

Two experiments were performed regarding the effect of conscious control on handwriting fluency in healthy adults and ADHD children. First, 26 healthy students were asked to write a sentence under different conditions. The results indicate that automated handwriting movements are independent from visual feedback. Second, the writing performance of…

This study evaluated a "substantively driven" method for scoring NAEP writing assessments automatically. The study used variations of an existing commercial program, e-rater[R], to compare the performance of three approaches to automated essay scoring: a "brute-empirical" approach in which variables are selected and weighted solely according to…

A study was conducted at California's College of the Canyons to determine whether evidence existed of disproportionate impact by age, gender, ethnicity, or disability in placement recommendations made based on the college's writing sample assessment test. The sample consisted of 617 students who took the writing test and writing sample test for…

The use of the Work Keys Listening and Writing Assessment, part of an assessment system of the generic employability skills of individuals, needs to be accompanied by systematic evaluation of its technical qualities. This study examined sampling variability and generalizability of Listening and Writing scores when multiple forms, raters, and…