Leiden University Scholarly Publications

Jeffery, J.V. (2009)

Constructs of writing proficiency in U.S. state and national writing assessments: Exploring variability

Article / Letter to editor

Persistent gaps between optimistic state and pessimistic national academic performance assessment results

are increasingly leading to calls for unified national standards in the US. Critics argue that these gaps reveal

vast differences in how proficiency is conceptualized; however, little is known about how conceptualizations

compare among large-scale US assessments. To explore this issue, the present study investigated constructs

of writing proficiency implicated in 41 US state and national high school direct writing assessments by

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Persistent gaps between optimistic state and pessimistic national academic performance assessment results

are increasingly leading to calls for unified national standards in the US. Critics argue that these gaps reveal

vast differences in how proficiency is conceptualized; however, little is known about how conceptualizations

compare among large-scale US assessments. To explore this issue, the present study investigated constructs

of writing proficiency implicated in 41 US state and national high school direct writing assessments by

analyzing the relationships between prompt-genre demands and assessment scoring criteria. Results of this

analysis suggest that national writing assessments differ as a group from state assessments in the extent to

which they emphasize genre distinctions and present coherent conceptualizations of writing proficiency. The

implications of these assessment variations for college preparedness are discussed.

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All authors

Jeffery, J.V.

Date

2009

Journal

Assessing Writing

Volume

14

Issue

1

Pages

3 - 24

Advanced Publication

Yes

DOI

doi:10.1016/j.asw.2008.12.002