The strength of the Nevada Writing Assessment Program is that it has been developed, implemented and facilitated by Nevada classroom teachers. They have adapted, designed and continually revised the scoring criteria; they design the assessment writing prompts; they evaluate and choose anchor papers; they lead the scoring sessions and read and score all the student papers; and they make the classroom connections from assessment to instruction to improve student writing.

Scorers have noted that participating in scoring sessions allows them a broader viewpoint of student writing beyond their own classrooms, schools and even districts. It also allows teachers the opportunity to focus solely on the merits of an individual piece of writing, without the extraneous information of individual student progress and the unique situations of individual classroom settings.

Large-scale assessments in education are designed to note trends and patterns in the student performance of large groups. While large-scale, standardized writing assessment is not new, it has undergone tremendous changes in the last 25 years. It has progressed from multiple choice formatted questions that measured how well students are able to find errors in others' writing, to performance-based testing of individual student writing, to portfolio assessment with collections of student writing that are both self-assessed and teacher evaluated. In Nevada, these assessments are based, in part, on the need to provide accountability data so that assistance may be given to those schools and students who are in greatest need of additional resources. However, for most writing teachers the importance of this type of assessment is its potential for directing students in thinking and talking about their writing. The assessment criteria gives them the language to define and discuss the essence of good writing, their own as well as others, so that they are able to self-assess, evaluate and improve.

Writing, like reading, is a meaning making activity that requires a variety of related thinking skills, processes, and strategies depending on the mode and purpose of the writing. Additionally, writing processes are employed in different ways by writers and even by the same writer for varying purposes. Types of writing measured and their real world uses are:

• Narrative writing tells a story by sharing the details of an experience. Examples include: writing stories, accident/incident reports, sporting event reports, meeting minutes, performance review,

• Expository writing instructs, gives information or explains something about a topic. Examples include: writing messages, invitations, directions, explanations, reports, evaluations,

• Persuasive writing gives a writer's opinion on a topic and tries to get the reader to agree with it. Examples include: campaign literature, business correspondence, petitions, editorials, proposals, solutions, marketing/sales materials

• Descriptive writing describes a person, place, thing or idea. It is often used in conjunction with the other modes to provide details that strengthen the purpose of the writing. In Nevada, the 4th and the 8th grade writing prompts are each selected to assess narrative/descriptive writing. The 11th/12th grade writing assessment uses two prompts; one is narrative/descriptive and the other is expository/persuasive.

Types of Writing Assessment Used in Nevada

The Nevada Writing Assessment Program uses two types of direct writing assessment: holistic and analytical trait scoring.

Holistic

This type of scoring is used for high school writing proficiency examinations as a requirement for receiving a diploma from a Nevada high school. The score reflects an overall impression of the writing with a balance of the strengths and weaknesses. It focuses on the entire piece of writing, maintaining that the whole can be greater or worse than its individual parts. That is, adding up the sum of a piece of writing's individual features does not necessarily reflect an accurate evaluation of the writing.

Readers, trained in scoring procedures and techniques, assign a score from one to six, with six being the highest possible score. The value reflects an overall impression of the writing based on established criteria in the holistic scoring rubric and on sample range-finder papers. (Go to holistic rubric.) One of the benefits of the holistic scoring in Nevada has been helping students to develop their own evaluation abilities to assist in writing and revision practices.

Analytical

Analytic trait scoring considers the interrelated components of good writing and describes their features with a score from one to five, with five being the highest. It is more useful in diagnosing writing skills and giving specific instructional feedback, and is therefore more comprehensive and more closely tied to instruction than holistic scoring. The Nevada State Standards define the teaching of six writing traits: ideas, organization, voice, conventions, word choice and sentence fluency. However, only four: ideas, organization, voice and conventions are tested at the state level. (Go to analytic rubrics.)

Writing Prompt Selection Importance and Process

Writing prompts for large-scale writing tests are different from classroom topics in that students must be able to understand and respond to the prompt quickly and have something to say. Therefore it must be stated clearly and have a broad base of interest and understanding to meet the varied backgrounds and experiences of students. And while a prompt should engage students and allow for some individual development, it must not force students to become so involved with the task that they lose control of their writing. It is also important that the prompt not be so difficult nor so bland that it prevents writers from finding a topic that evokes the kind of personal engagement that elicits the best writing.

Writing prompts used in Nevada testing have been submitted by teachers and are reviewed by a bias review panel consisting of educators, community representatives and members of special populations designed to address the perspectives and needs of all of Nevada's students. They are further reviewed and revised by the teachers who are head readers for the state.