Avoiding the audit

Why I don't use rubrics when assessing student writing








J. Michael Rifenburg
English Department

my focus



assessing individual writing development

vs

assessing writing programs


quick overview


3 developments in writing assessment:

1961 ETS research bulletin

1994 Assessing Writing article

2003 book What We Really Value: Beyond Rubrics in Teaching and Assessing Writing

1961 ets research bulletin

Diederich, Paul B., John W. French, and Sydell T. Carlton. 1961. Factors in the Judgment of Writing Ability. (ETS Research Bulletin 61-15). Princeton, Educational Testing Service.


Birth of modern writing assessment.




 

ETS, cont'd

"disturbing" that "94% of the 300 [papers] received either seven, eight, or nine of the nine possible grades; that no paper received less than five different grades" (Abstract)

But

Ideas
Form
Flavor
Mechanics
Wording




ets, cont'd

Thus the five-point rubric was born

"Simplified, ordered, well-controlled representation"

v

"dissent, diversity, context-sensitivity, and ambiguity"

(Broad 6)

ets, cont'd


The authors "traded in the rhetorical truth confronting them (that readers value texts differently) in exchange for the grail of high inter-rater agreement" (Broad 8)

The authors gave writing assessment 

legitimacy
affordability
accountability

wiggins

Wiggins, Grant. 1994. The Constant Danger of Sacrificing Validity to Reliability: Making Writing Assessment Serve Writers. Assessing Writing 1(1): 129-39.


First issue of Assessing Writing

wiggings, cont'd



"In performance tests of writing we are too often sacrificing validity for reliability; we sacrifice insight for efficiency; we sacrifice authenticity for ease of scoring. Assessments should improve performance . . . not just audit it" (129)

broad

Broad, Bob. 2003. What We Really Value: Beyond Rubrics in Teaching and Assessing Writing. Logan: Utah State UP.


equates use of rubrics born in the 1960s as using a Viking map from 985 CE to navigate the oceans today .

broad

introduces Dynamic Criteria Mapping

getting after what "we really value" in our writing programs and in student writing.

do our rubrics represent the work of our department?


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