The Braid of Writing Assessment, Social Justice, and the Advancement of Opportunity: Eighteen Assertions on Writing Assessment with Commentary

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2-10-2018

Publisher

University Press of Colorado

Abstract

The present volume celebrates an important milestone in the history of Writing Studies: a unified call to action. In the field of writing assessment, the time has come to end the disciplinary isolation of writing assessment. In ending the isolation of writing assessment as mere technique and bureaucratic action, we end the isolation that has denied student agency over their educative processes in written language development.

In what has become a nightmare of unequal power relations, standing with our students is restorative. To secure this restoration and place students at the center of teaching and assessing writing, we turn to a new conception of writing assessment—a conceptualization that advances opportunity for every student.

As we noted in the introduction, authors for Writing Assessment, Social Justice, and the Advancement of Opportunity were invited to deliberate on a single question regarding the relationship of writing assessment to opportunity: How can we ensure that writing assessment leads to the advancement of opportunity?

In their answers, our colleagues addressed this question in terms of theorization, research methods, policy implications, and future directions for research.

Chapter of

Writing Assessment, Social Justice, and the Advancement of Opportunity

Editor

Mya Poe
Asao B. Inoue
Norbert Elliot

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