A test of student writing ability has been administered in Grades 2 and 5 since the 1994-1995 school year in the spring semester. A writing assessment committee recommended in 1997 that the test be moved to Grade 3 (from Grade 2), continued in Grade 5, and administration at both grades be moved to the fall semester (from spring). These changes and the process changes described below, were implemented beginning in the 1998-1999 school year. A seventh grade writing assessment was added beginning in the 2001-2002 school year.
Between 1994-95 and 1997-98 students were provided one writing prompt and were asked to give their response "on demand," i.e. during a single writing period. In 1998-99 the assessment process changed based on committee recommendation. Instead of a single day assessment, the students are asked to plan their writing response on the first day, construct a draft the second day, and compose their final writing sample on the third day. These changes were made to ensure the writing assessment better matched the practices most students experience in their normal classroom instruction. All responses are scored by a group of trained judges using a standard scoring scale (2-12) on each of the six writing traits: Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, and Conventions.
- With 2003-2004 School Year information - With 2003-2004 School Year information - With 2003-2004 School Year informationUpdated: September 12, 2005
Author: Joshua Roy jroy@madison.k12.wi.us
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