Writing Instruction System: A Formative Approach Council of Chief State School Officers National Conference on Student Assessment The Peabody Orlando June 22, 2011 Jim Kroening, North Carolina Department of Public Instruction

Writing Assessments in North Carolina Writing Assessments began in 1983-1984 Writing Assessment Task Force, 2000-2001 Grades 4, 7, and 10 assessed beginning in 2002-2003 Grades 4 and 7 eliminated in 2008 Grade 10 will be eliminated after the 2012 administration Writing Instruction System implemented in 2008-2009 as the first component of the Accountability and Curriculum Reform Effort (ACRE)

Writing Instruction System Goal: promote the teaching of and student achievement in writing Online writing entry/ submissions and data entry, including teacher feedback at grades 4 and 7 Two on-demand and two content-specific assignments per year Professional development courses for credit Using the system can be used as evidence of meeting specific standards of the Teacher Evaluation Process Piloting of auto-score feature

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Student View

Student Text Submission

Teacher Assignment View Student Name Student Name Student Name

Auto-Score Report StudentName

Auto-Score Batch process run on text submission assignments that have been newly submitted or revised during the previous day. 3 sentence minimum text required for calculations. Analysis and assignment of scores for Grammar: 100 points maximum Spelling: 100 points maximum Readability: 20 points maximum Fluency: 100 points maximum Coherence: 100 points maximum Vocabulary: 20 points maximum Total Score = (Conventions Score * 0.4) + (Features Score * 0.6) Conventions Score = Grammar Score + Spelling Score + Readability Score Features Score = Fluency Score + Cohesion Score + Vocabulary Score Auto-Score does not score for content

Individual Student Report Student Name School Name

Program Evaluation/Next Steps Assessment “Hangover” Revision of System Components for 2011-2012 - align to the ELA Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Literacy Standards for History/Social Studies and Technical Subjects (grades 6-12) - eliminate traditional on-demand assignments - focus on content-specific writing - eliminate features of writing and conventions rubrics - revise content writing rubrics - eliminate numeric display for auto-score feature and replace with graphic display

Questions? Contact Information: Jim Kroening, Lead Consultant, Test Development North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (919) 807.3774 jim.kroening@dpi.nc.gov