Writing Test Administration and Scoring

Three times a year, the school’s English Language Arts teachers administer and “on-demand” writing assessment built around an argumentative prompt. The assessment includes a set of texts that students are able to use to build background knowledge about the topic and to provide support for their writing. The teachers use a standard assessment administration protocol, including a time limit of 80 minutes for students to read text and write their papers.

After administration, all EPIC teachers meet to tune their scoring to the rubric and grade student writing. Teacher graders are randomly assigned to 9^th grade students and are randomly assigned to 10^th-12^th graders after organizing students by English EPAS scores. Teachers score the same students’ writing at each interim, minimizing consistency issues for individual student scores over the course of the year.

Guiding for Scoring

When using the rubric to score papers, you should select the level that best describes each student’s writing for each trait. More than likely, a student’s writing will match descriptors in more than one level. A student’s writing does not have to hit each descriptor in a box to be scored at that level.

Each paper must be scored for Ideas, Organization, Voice, Sentence Fluency, Word Choice, and Style (style is an average of V, SF, and WC).

If a paper appears to be incomplete, score the as best as possible using what writing exists. Obviously, incomplete writing eliminates the possibility of the student hitting all descriptors in most upper level categories. When it appears that the majority of the writing is not complete, use your best judgment to score the writing.

Once scoring is complete, the grader should write each student’s scores on the card attached to their writing, and then enter the scores into EPICWriting Scoring Data Entry Y16EPIC Writing Scoring Entry Y17. If there is an issue with the scoring, the grader should make a note of the issue in the “Note” column.

Here are some tips to keep your scoring efficient and accurate:

1. Do a first read of the paper to acquaint yourself to the main idea(s) (or lack thereof), how the ideas are organized, and the general style.

2. Go Level 7 for Ideas on the writing rubric. Generally assess if the writing is above, at, or below the criteria at that level.

3. Work up or down the rubric from that point, re-reading the paper for specific traits to discern if there is evidence of descriptors.

4. Do not labor on a single trait too long. If you are unable to decide a score within 3 minutes, commit to a score and move on.

5. Once you have finished scoring, enter the scores from your scoresheet for that student into the EPIC Writing Scoring Data Entry Y16 spreadsheet.

6. Repeat the same process (Steps 2-3) for each trait.

Writing Data Analysis

The purpose of analyzing writing data is to determine:

• generally, what writing skills students have/have not acquired.

• what groups of students are progressing and at what rates.

• where instruction should be targeted to move students’ skills forward.

Materials Needed

A copy of the writing data, EPIC’s Developmental Writing Rubric, Common Core Skills Breakdown.

Analysis Instructions

Open spreadsheet with the writing data. The first tab shows student progress by benchmarks and progress from test to test in each writing trait area. The data is broken down by grade level. The second tab shows student growth trends from Assessment #1 to Assessment #2. Because you downloaded the file, you can sort and filter students.

Use the following questions to guide your data analysis:

• • How are students [at your grade level] performing overall? How do the mean composite scores compare to the previous assessment?

  • How did students do making progress toward benchmark goals?

  • How are students doing on each trait of writing? Where were they strongest? Weakest? How does this compare to the previous assessment?

  • What growth trends do you see amongst groups of students? Are there certain groups (high, medium, low) growing more than others?

Analysis to Action

Use your analysis in conjunction with the “Developmental Writing Rubric” to determine where students need targeted instruction. Prioritize the lowest scoring trait areas and use the rubric to determine where students need the most work. Also, keep in mind the benchmark goals for your grade level.

Use the Writing Assessment - Analysis to Action Template to lay out your instructional steps from now until the end of the year.

Remember: Efficiency is the key! As much as possible, embed writing instruction and practice within the framework of what you are already doing. It should not be something “separate.”

Questions for translating your analysis into your long-term instructional plan

• What are the skills students need to have within the benchmark area for each focus trait?

• Where are students (or groups of students) in relation to these skills?

• How are you going to move students’ skills towards the benchmark over time? Do the skills need to be sequenced over time to build students toward proficiency?

• What scaffolds might you need to provide students? How will you remove those over time?

• Before students get into process writing for a project/product, how will you build and reinforce focus writing skills? What kind of opportunities will they get to practice these skills? How will you provide them feedback?

Writing Instruction keys to remember to move students forward

• Teach focus skills within writing traits (use the data and set the bar higher)

• Set clear criteria for targeted skills

• Provide students focused feedback and time for reflection

• Allow opportunities for focused peer critiques

• Give students time to revise their writing

• Have students synthesize reading experiences in writing around focus questions

• Provide on-demand opportunities for students to practice writing skills or experiment with writing techniques

• Sequence teaching of writing skills so that they build over time

• Hold students accountable to apply skills already taught – reinforce so there is no backwards steps