Tom Beery and John Fallon English Faculty Rhodes State College, Lima, OH USA Hello from Ohio!

Read the prompt and take two minutes to grade the paper Holistic scoring: Give the paper one score on a scale 1 (very low) – 8 (very high); no half scores. When scoring, you may generally consider such traits as: Organization Development Critical thinking Style Mechanics 3

In 2005, SAT and ACT add a writing sample to their tests. Writing experts say this is no way to test writing ability. 4

Are not representative of the writing process: brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading Are not supported by the Conference on College Composition and Communication 5

Any individual's writing ability is a sum of a variety of skills employed in a diversity of contexts…. One piece of writingeven if it is generated under the most desirable conditionscan never serve as an indicator of overall writing ability, particularly for high-stakes decisions. 6

Adds time to the test Fosters changes in classroom pedagogy Doesnt equate to writing ability (CCCC) Leads to inaccurate evaluations (e.g., test procedures) 7

Dr. Les Perelman found a 90% correlation between paper length and score: I have never found a quantifiable predictor in 25 years of grading that was anywhere as near as strong as this one is. Write long, badly, and prosper! 8

1. High stakes testing is too important to leave to private testing agencies 2. Have students write two essays over the course of a day 3. Gather graders together for a weekend to grade (e.g., calibrate graders on the rubric) 9

10 Is paper length correlated to paper score?

11 We needed someone to take the test Regular and CP high school juniors from Ohio Hi Point Career Center in Bellefontaine, OH We needed someone to grade the test 20 teachers: 8 college and 12 high school

12 Give 12 teachers two hours of rubric training Divide into 6 teams – 3 high school and 3 college Assign each team one rubric trait Discuss proposed revisions Rewrite rubric to reflect consensus changes

Our RubricSAT RubricACT Rubric Critical thinking Express judgments by taking a position on the issue in the writing prompt Organization Organize ideas in a logical way Maintain a focus on the topic throughout the essay Development Develop a position by using logical reasoning and by supporting their ideas Style Use of language and vocabulary Use language clearly and effectively according to the rules of standard written English Mechanics Sentence structure Grammar and usage Scored 1-8; two readers; trait scores are averaged and totaled Scored holistically 1-6; two readers; scores are averaged Scored holistically 1-6; two readers; scores are combined 13

14 All 10 teams scored all 42 papers. Did longer papers receive higher scores? Yes, longer papers received higher scores.

WordsAverage score WordsAverage score WordsAverage score WordsAverage score 26

16 The more the points cluster tightly about the line, the higher the magnitude of the correlation (between word count and score). We have a tight cluster!

Room side A ________ Room side B ________ 17

1.If a paper even looks longer, it will receive a higher grade. 2.Trained readers (6 teams) scored this paper Untrained readers (4 teams) scored this paper Rubric-trained teams and rubric untrained teams scored very differently. 18

19 MeanTeam High School Untrained High School Untrained College Untrained College Untrained High School Trained College Trained College Trained High School Trained High School Trained College Trained

20 This chart looks at the strength of the relationship between word count and paper score. A correlation of + 1 is a perfect positive correlation. Levels of Magnitude.1 small.3 medium.5 large

Rubrics may be used for two entirely separate activities: evaluation and assessment. 1.Evaluation: Use of a trait-scoring rubric would help eliminate biases in teacher evaluation (risking one trait being too prominent in how a reader scores the whole paper, e.g., the students cant spell; therefore, they cant write). 2.Assessment: Using a trait rubric for assessment in the classroom would promote discussion for what specifically makes good writing before the students actually write. 21

22 1.Grading with a rubric does not ensure standards. 2.Even just a couple hours of rubric training is enough to norm evaluators to a standard. 3.Moreover, rubrics can be used for two separate purposes: evaluation and assessment. 4.Perelman was right. Word count does influence paper score; however, so does rubric training.

Questions?