John M Ackerman, Director Assoc. Professor of Communication Ineva Baldwin Chair of Arts and Sciences Program for Writing and Rhetoric University of Colorado ~ Boulder Program for Writing and Rhetoric University of Colorado ~ Boulder 55 faculty, 15 GPTIs, 10 Lecturers per AY ~ 8000 students > 24,000 SCH University-wide purview: 80% entering students, 80% continuing PWR - 95% per course completion rate UCB - 80% retention rate, 60% graduation rate (we contribute) UCB - 33% in state, 67% out of state (and climbing) Prediction - soon to be at 0% state funding Four corners of assessment: WPA, CCHE, NSSE, Flagship 2030 Writing Inquiry Project

Goals & Assessments: WPA Goals & Assessments: WPA

Goals & Assessments: WPA Goals & Assessments: WPA Rhetorical Knowledge:purpose, audience, situation conventions, formality, genres field specificity Critical Thinking, Reading, Writing Processes Conventions Electronic Environments By the end of the first year students should know …

Goals & Assessments: CCHE Goals & Assessments: CCHE

Goals & Assessments: CCHE Goals & Assessments: CCHE The “content” of state guaranteed communication courses Rhetorical Knowledge:rhetorical situation voice, tone, format, structure multiple genres Writing Processes Writing Conventions Content Knowledge: audience & purpose academic audiences adaptation, translation

Goals & Assessments: NSSE/WPA Goals & Assessments: NSSE/WPA

Goals & Assessments: NSSE/WPA Goals & Assessments: NSSE/WPA 1.During the current school year, for how many of your writing assignments have you done each of the following: [All, Most, Some, Few, None] 1.Brainstormed to develop your ideas 2.Talk with your instructor to develop ideas 3.Talked with classmates 4.Received feedback from your instructor 5.Received feedback from your classmates 6.Visited a campus writing center 7.Used an on-line tutoring service 8.Proofread your draft 2.During the current school year, in how many of your writing assignments did you: 1.Narrate or describe one of your experiences 2.Summarize something you read 3.Analyze or evaluate something your read 4.Describe your methods or findings related to your data you collected 5.Argue a position 6.Explain numerical or statistical data 7.Write in the style of a specific field (e.g., engineering) 8.Include drawings, tables, photos, screen shots or other visual content…[25 more questions]

Goals & Assessments: Flagship

Flagship Initiatives Residential colleges Customized, experiential learning Research Diamond Transcending traditional boundaries Global crossroads University villages Alternative degree tracks Year-round learning Making enterprise work

Goals & Assessments: Flagship What does all of this have to do with learning to write? 30% of our courses will soon be in RAPs Our instruction will soon “internationalize” Writing is a vehicle for inclusion and diversity PWR is part of the Sustainability Initiative We partner with Continuing Education (year round) We are pursuing “multi-literacy” (visual, new media) We are a “model project” for service learning

How might students be prepared in Colorado? Practical writing within and across digital environments Evidential reasoning: from diverse sources Argumentation Writing for specialized groups for actual problems Close readings: texts, talk, graphics, web data Working with audiences, clients in the world Consuming dense works: books, corpuses, data sets Writing, talking, reading, doing