On a related note, I've heard, but don't have access to data, that tests
such as ASset place students as well as writing samples. The one study I
have is in a journal in my office and I'm at home now. I'll send the
title out later--but it says that writing samples evaluated in a group
setting is the most accurate placer of students. At our school,
an open enrollment CC, there is much resistance to any placement testing
because some feel it violates our open enrollment policy. Right now
students are placed with writing samples evaluated holistically.
Wishing *I* were in Ashland, even with one set of in-laws in Medford.
Bradley Bleck
CC of Southern Nevada
bleckb@nevada.edu
http://www.ccsn.nevada.edu/english/bleck.html
On Thu, 29 Aug 1996, Steve Krause wrote:
> On Thu, 29 Aug 1996, Michael J. Salvo wrote:
>
> I agree that we ought to resist these assessment tools, especially when
> it comes to assessing writing and reading skills, and especially if we're
> trying assess the skills of entering students (ie, figuring out what
> version of fy comp students should take). But dollars and cents are
> still a key issue here. And it also seems to me that the powers that be
> (the ones who get to decide on the testing method) must also be convinced
> in some fashion that alternative methods are somehow more "accurate" than
> the traditional methods. Portfolios might have more "face validity" in
> some sense and I think they're a much more useful tool than the numbers
> that computer that reads the little pencil-marked bubbles, but convincing
> those who make the decisions that portfolios are more accurrate. If I
> recall, Ed White makes a pretty good argument about this in his book on
> assment methods, though I can't remember the title of that book now...
>
> ==============================================================================
> Steve Krause * Department of English * Southern Oregon State College
> Ashland, OR
> (Despite the fact that I still have several BGSU computer accounts...)
> ==============================================================================
>