Pedagogy 8 (3): 2008

Using Assessment to Introduce Incremental Change, Lynne Rhodes, USCA

During the early 1990’s I spent a great deal of time developing a rubric, an evaluation tool, based on my admiration for Edward White’s work. I also found myself becoming an advocate for better writing assignments, based on the work of John Bean. With the support of an academic vice-chancellor, I led a number of small workshops and forums in which I planted the seeds for a campus-wide writing assessment. I also developed a survey of faculty to determine the kinds and amounts of writing assignments being given across the campus. Fully aware that public perceptions become political realities, I was a visible and regular advocate for writing assessments, asserting my mantra that we must be proactive and determine our own assessment methodologies before we were mandated to use something prescriptive that would be handed down without our ability to control the measures used.

Indeed, we were ordered in 1996 to eliminate our developmental writing courses by 1998; however, we were also mandated due to performance based funding formulas, to demonstrate that students were proficient writers. Fortunately, we were positioned at that time to make our case that a Junior Writing Portfolio was a logical assessment instrument, especially given that a significant number of students who matriculated in our degree programs had entered as transfer students from a range of community colleges and other institutions. I began by convincing my own department members that we could manage the task of evaluating student writing from across our campus, especially since we would phase in this assessment as we phased out our developmental programs. In Fall of 1996, we evaluated nine Junior Writing Portfolios (JWP), and in the following spring and summer, we evaluated twenty-five, and then nine-one portfolios, gradually building up to the annual evaluation of approximately 700-800 during three evaluation periods throughout the academic year.

I vividly remember coming into the Faculty Assembly meeting in the spring of 1995, when our proposed changes in our writing assessment practices was to be voted upon by our faculty (since faculty governance at my institution is faculty driven). We had managed to satisfy everyone, apparently, since the proposal passed without any faculty dissent. After that assembly, a colleague the School of Education approached me as we left the building, curious to know if the portfolio review would be also be required of “our students” who were on other campuses. I was astonished to discover that our professional schools had distant education programs around the state, in business management, elementary and early education, and nursing. Not only did the changes required by our adoption of a Junior Writing Portfolio necessitate building the program into the curriculum on our campus, it also involved traveling around the state to four additional campuses to coordinate the portfolio assessment at these other system and regional campuses. I had intended to foster writing across the curriculum in a comprehensive way on my campus, but I never could have anticipated the far-reaching impact that our adoption of this assessment tool would have across the entire system of campuses. I had to create liaisons with colleagues in all departments, majors, and schools at four campuses. These liaisons have often been rewarding, and they have always been challenging, especially when we realized that students who failed to demonstrate proficiency in writing had to be given opportunities for additional instruction.