Coming To Terms: A Theory of Writing Assessment
Patricia Lynne
Language: English
Pages: 200
ISBN: 0874215854
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
In a provocative book-length essay, Patricia Lynne argues that most programmatic assessment of student writing in U.S. public and higher education is conceived in the terms of mid-20th century positivism. Since composition as a field had found its most compatible home in constructivism, she asks, why do compositionists import a conceptual frame for assessment that is incompatible with composition theory?
By casting this as a clash of paradigms, Lynne is able to highlight the ways in which each theory can and cannot influence the shape of assessment within composition. She laments, as do many in composition, that the objectively oriented paradigm of educational assessment theory subjugates and discounts the very social constructionist principles that empower composition pedagogy. Further, Lynne criticizes recent practice for accommodating the big business of educational testing—especially for capitulating to the discourse of positivism embedded in terms like "validity" and "reliability." These terms and concepts, she argues, have little theoretical significance within composition studies, and their technical and philosophical import are downplayed by composition assessment scholars.
There is a need, Lynne says, for terms of assessment that are native to composition. To open this needed discussion within the field, she analyzes cutting-edge assessment efforts, including the work of Broad and Haswell, and she advances a set of alternate terms for evaluating assessment practices, a set of terms grounded in constructivism and composition.
Coming to Terms is ambitious and principled, and it takes a controversial stand on important issues. This strong new volume in assessment theory will be of serious interest to assessment specialists and their students, to composition theorists, and to those now mounting assessments in their own programs.
illiteracy” (1896, 10). Of the 316 examinees, only 14 passed “with credit” (1896, 9–11). Hill’s primary complaint was that Harvard had to fix these errors. He argues that Harvard, “the university which professes to set up the highest standard in America,” should be given better material from which to make “educated men” (1896, 11). All three authors in this pamphlet blame the secondary schools. In response, the secondary schools tried to prepare students for college entrance examinations, whether
that tests can reflect some measure of ability. This premise relies on a historically positivist paradigm which accepts both the possibility of measurement and the value of it. Of course, some scholars, such as James A Berlin (1994) and Peter Elbow (1993), challenge the notion that such measurement is even possible, but since testing remains a significant part of the landscape, these challenges are largely ineffectual and the premise remains. Still, like these scholars, contemporary literacy
assessment. Social constructionist thought provides a bridge between the concepts of “meaningfulness” and “ethics” on the one hand and the discipline of composition studies on the other. While neither term in and of itself bears a distinctive mark that would tie it to composition studies, both suggest a relational or collective value structure indicative of the same social constructionist impetus that gave rise to the contextual paradigm of literacy. “Meaningfulness” and “ethics,” that is,
mention of principles or practices such as the social construction of knowledge (is the use of source material taught and assessed in terms of how the student is making knowledge with the sources?), or collaborative writing (are students encouraged to do/submit collaborative projects in any of their portfolios?). The absence, however, is hardly damning and is more likely a result of the focus of the text on the development of the program and its processes, rather than on the content of any given
Testing Testing: Social Consequences of the Examined Life. Berkeley: University of California Press. Haswell, Richard H. 1998. Rubrics, Prototypes, and Exemplars: Categorization Theory and Systems of Writing Placement. Assessing Writing 5.2: 231–68. ———. 2001a. The Obvious Placement: The Addition of Theory. In Haswell 2001c. ———. 2001b. The Two-Tier Rating System: The Need for Ongoing Change. In Haswell 2001c. ———, ed. 2001c. Beyond Outcomes: Assessment and Instruction Within a University Writing