ABSTRACT
Writing teachers arguably devote more time to evaluating students than anyone else in education. On this account, it seems reasonable to expect teachers to be well prepared for the task. All available evidence indicates, however, that they are not. Edward White (1986), the foremost figure in writing assessment, argued that teachers generally know little or nothing about assessment because they do not receive sufficient training. Moore, O’Neill, and Hout (2009) stated that those who teach writing are unfamiliar with “the key concepts, documented history, and recorded beliefs associated with various [assessment] approaches” (p. W109). And in an earlier publication, Hout (1996) noted that many composition teachers are “uninterested in the subject of writing assessment” owing to its “highly technical aspects” (p. 549). Indeed, the lack of interest is evident in the literature on writing assessment, nearly all of which was conducted in the 1980s and 1990s. We cannot be surprised, therefore, that much classroom writing assessment in the United States is chaotic and unprincipled.
