Kennedy-King College’s Assessment Academy Project Report October 2013

A Brief History of Writing Across the Curriculum WAC has been an ongoing initiative at KKC for nearly ten years Two years ago, WAC was added as a project to KKC’s Assessment Academy Project with the Higher Learning Commission Last year, WAC worked in partnership with the Dean’s office to assess our students’ writing across the general education curriculum

What We’ve Done… Re-tooled scoring rubric to provide a better snapshot of student writing (based on Academy mentor recommendation) During committee collected 230 writing samples from 10 departments During committee collected 377 writing samples from 23 different courses

What We’ve Done… Held workshops to train committee members on paper scoring Scored writing samples analytically using revised WAC rubric Compiled data for distribution to faculty Provided concrete recommendations for improving writing on campus

WAC Analytic Scoring Rubric (Old version)

WAC Scores (Raw Numbers) ScoreCompositionOrganizationStyle Sentence Structure UsageMechanics

WAC Scores (Percentages) ScoreCompositionOrganizationStyle Sentence Structure UsageMechanics 427%24%20%18%17% 341% 38%36%38% 227%30%37%38%36% 15% 9%

Some Quick Takeaways… Composition is the strongest aspect of our students’ writing with 68% scoring a 4 or 3. Sentence Structure is the weakest aspect of our students’ writing with 47% achieving only a 1 or 2. Usage and Mechanics also proved difficult for our students with only 55% achieving a 4 or 3 in both areas.

How We Compare To Last Year… Composition Scores: Net Change 4 –37%27% – 44%41% -3 2 – 17%27% – 2%5% +3

Organization Scores: Net Change 4 –n/a24% n/a 3 – n/a41% n/a 2 – n/a30% n/a 1 – n/a5% n/a How We Compare To Last Year…

Style Scores: Net Change 4 –29%20% -9 3 – 39%38% -1 2 – 31%37% +6 1 – 1%5% +4 How We Compare To Last Year…

Sentence Structure Scores: Net Change 4 –32%18% – 41%36% -5 2 – 25%38% – 2%9% +7 How We Compare To Last Year…

Usage Scores: Net Change 4 –22%17% -5 3 – 43%38% -5 2 – 32%36% +4 1 – 2%9% +7 How We Compare To Last Year…

Mechanics Scores: Net Change 4 –25%17% -7 3 – 43%38% -5 2 – 32%36% +4 1 – 2%9% +7 How We Compare To Last Year…

Why The Change? Bigger sample size Rubric changes Submissions focused only on general education classes Submissions process

Concrete Things We’ve Done: Recommend all faculty provide writing rubrics to students for all writing assignments Encourage use of the Writing Center tutoring services through adoption of GradesFirst technology WAC Committee regularly meets with Communications Department to discuss strategies

Concrete Things We’ve Done: WAC Committee makes annual presentation of findings to all faculty and staff during Faculty Development Week WAC Committee members have been participants on college search committee for new institutional researcher

Where We’re Heading… WAC is scheduled to officially report out of the Assessment Academy this fall WAC will meet separately and with Department Chairs to formulate specific more recommendations to improve writing WAC will continue to explore ways to expand awareness of the project and to increase submissions.

Where We’re Heading… Recommendations will be shared and refined with the English Department Final recommendations will be distributed to entire KKC faculty through Department Chairs

Questions? Thank you