Tom Beery beery.t@rhodesstate.eduand John Fallon fallon.j@rhodesstate.edu 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.

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• Are not representative of the writing “process”: brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading

• Are not supported by the Conference on College Composition and Communication

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“Any individual's writing ability is a sum of a variety of skills employed in a diversity of contexts….”

“One piece of writing—even if it is generated under the most desirable conditions—can never serve as an indicator of overall writing ability, particularly for high-stakes decisions.”

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Adds time to the test

Fosters changes in classroom pedagogy

Doesn’t equate to writing ability (CCCC)

Leads to inaccurate evaluations (e.g.,

test procedures)

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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)

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Is paper length correlated to paper score?

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•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

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•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 Rubric SAT Rubric ACT Rubric

Critical thinking Critical thinking Express judgments by taking a position on the issue in the writing prompt

Organization Organization Organize ideas in a logical way Maintain a focus on the topic throughout the essay

Development 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 EnglishMechanics

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

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All 10 teams scored all 42 papers.

Did longer papers receive higher scores?

Yes, longer papers received higher scores.

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51-159 Words Average score 15

160-267 Words Average score 21

268-375 Words Average score 24

376-477 Words Average score 26

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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

________

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1. If a paper even looks longer, it will receive a higher grade.

2. Trained readers (6 teams) scored this paper 17.3

3. Untrained readers (4 teams) scored this paper 23.25

4. Rubric-trained teams and rubric untrained teams scored very differently.

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Mean Team26.4048 High School Untrained 24.0238 High School Untrained19.9881 College Untrained 19.3690 College Untrained   18.7143 High School Trained17.4881 College Trained16.3452 College Trained16.0000 High School Trained15.2381 High School Trained15.2262 College Trained

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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 can’t spell; therefore, they can’t 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.

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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?