ABSTRACT
This chapter details the design, development, and implementation of a program-wide writing assessment tool and protocol for a college-level Arabic program, as part of a growing bouquet of program assessments developed for the assessment arm of said program. It examines the literature on Arabic assessment to date, and reviews some of the most pertinent literature on foreign language writing assessment available today. The chapter presents the process undertaken in the design of a program-wide writing assessment tool. University and college administrations have tasked academic programs to develop and implement program-wide assessments to measure how and if such programs are producing students with the knowledge, skills, and competencies that program design aims to foster. It was just such a mandate that stimulated the development of the writing assessment, the pilot of which is described in this chapter. The writing assessment certainly fulfilled the assessment mandate established by the administration and department for academic year ending 2015.
