2. General Information Iowa Writing Assessment The Riverside Publishing Company, 1994 $39.00: 25 test booklets, 25 response sheets 40 minutes to plan, write and edit 4 tests in the battery

3. Purpose z“The purpose of this test is to see how well you organize and express your ideas in writing.”

4. Nature of Test

5. SCORING Holistic score or Analytical score )Done locally according to guidelines )2 raters - average of the 2 )Raw score = criterion referenced information (can be converted)

6. Standardization Sample Samples of student work collected during a 2 week period in October 1992 Approximately 20,000 papers from 323 buildings in 32 states Separate norms developed for each grade and each writing prompt Percentile bands and ranks provided with the test literature Standard setting procedures: manuals, scoring protocols, anchor papers, training papers, & teacher training.

7. Reliability - quantitative assessment of consistency for ….. Reader reliability From one scorer to another Spearman-Brown formula Average across-score scale combined with average across- grade score = 0.73-0.76 Score reliability Derived from a portion of the national standardization sample Responded in same mode of writing Average across-score scale combined with average across- grade score = 0.43-0.52….LOW Qualitative scores lower due to subject matter, writing modes, and small number of tasks

8. Validity Technical manual mentions content - related evidence No mention of criterion-related evidence No mention of construct related evidence

9. Mental Measurement Yearbook After careful research, no mention of the Iowa Writing Assessment was found.

10. Strengths of the Assessment Performance based Product based Meets the target Clearly defines: –Grade levels –Traits of writing Well written prompts Illustrations for primary levels Relevant to classroom instruction

11. Weaknesses of Assessment Time for completion Reliability of reader-raters Criterion & construct related evidence not provided

12. Recommendation Use scores with caution –Subjectivity of reader/raters –Weakness of reliability of test Do Not interpret scores as a summative score of student achievement Do use as a broad reflection of student achievement