Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies: 

Teaching and Assessing Writing for a Socially Just Future

2015

winner of  2017 Conference on College Composition and Communication Outstanding Book Award. Council of Writing Program Administrators 2017 Best Book Award.

"We should theorize and practice writing assessment simultaneously" (3)

two strands woven into book:

holistic writing assessment

theorizing writing assessment to "cultivate antiracist agendas" (3)

Writing assessment as a ecology, "a complex system made up of several interconnected elements" (9)

"how can a conscientious writing teacher understand and engage in her classroom writing assessments as an antiracist project with her locally diverse students?" (9)

"Classroom writing assessment is more important than pedagogy because it always trumps what you say or what you attempt to do with your students. And students know this. They feel it." (9)

four types of writing assessment via Tchudi (1997)

response

assessment

evaluation

grading

(see page 15)

Great analogy of Olympic sprinters page 17-18.

Thus...

"We define 'good' writing  in standard ways that have historically been informed by a white discourse, even though we are working from a premise that attempts fairness." (18)

"White students uniformly and historically do better on most if not all writing assessments, large-scale or classroom" (22)

The Function of Race in Writing Assessments

The why  before the what, the how

why an antiracist project is important

tackles race, racial formation, and racism

via

racial habitus

Overriding question driving this chapter:

"how might we define race and understand its function in classroom writing assessments so that we can articulate antiracist writing assessments?" (25)

More theorizing

Nice overview in second full paragraph on page 10

'What exactly is an ecology and how might we define an ecology in order to use it as a frame for antiracist classroom writing assessments?' (p. 77)

Freire + Buddha + Marx + Gramsci

Concept taken from biology and applied by Comp/Rhet to writing studies. Common move.

Writing as ecology, research as ecology...

5 parts

(parses OED definition)

'any languaging that we do is connected not only to our audience but to the world we experience around us in the act of writing or talking' (p. 100-101)

The Sangha as community

all systems are political and historical by nature

power relations inherent in judging, in assessment

teachers, parents, admins consenting to things in school that benefit primarily a dominant group (p. 109)

football stadiums

bio labs

Standard English writing textbooks

'Enacting classroom writing assessment ecologies as a way to create a humane and inhabitable place for everyone is an antiracist project in intention, process, and outcome' (p. 117)

Bulleted list p. 117

Bulleted list p. 118

Appendix A & B

Seven elements of classroom writing assessment ecologies

power

parts

purposes

people

processes

products

places

Burkean ratios

'race' entered  Western languages in mid 16th century

1508 Scottish poem

Shakespeare's Merchent (1600)

both use 'race' as a categorizing of negative things--but not biologically or appearance driven

Blumenbach's (1752-1840) five races

Malay

Ethiopian

American

Mongolian

Caucasian (Caucasus Mountains; the best)

distinguished by physical characteristics & place

Check out figure 1, p. 176