Writing assessment for communities of writers: rubric validation to support formative assessment of writing in Pre-K to grade 2

ABSTRACT

Formative assessment is an important driver in supporting children’s writing development. This paper describes a writing rubric designed for use by teachers to formatively assess the writing of children in Pre-K to Grade 2, how the rubric was received by teachers, and its implementation in classrooms. Writing samples from 337 children in 33 classrooms in 7 schools in the Write to Read literacy improvement project were scored on conventions, organisation, ideas, word choice and voice. Agreement among raters was good as overall weighted Kappa values at each grade level ranged from .62 to .80. Confirmatory factor analysis supported three- and five-factor models. Coaches endorsed use of the rubric for providing formative feedback to students, identifying learning needs, and differentiating instruction. They highlighted how the rubric provides a framework through which teachers and students engage with the language of writing assessment and raise expectations about writing quality.

KEYWORDS:

• Early writing development
• writing rubrics
• formative assessment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Educational Trust Dublin City University.

Notes on contributors

Eithne Kennedy

Eithne Kennedy is a literacy teacher educator in the School of Language Literacy and Early Childhood Education at the Institute of Education, Dublin City University, Ireland. As the director of the Write to Read research initiative, she also works collaboratively with schools in high-poverty communities investigate context-specific solutions to addressing underachievement and to create powerful literacy environments that motivate and engage children as readers, writers and thinkers.

Gerry Shiel

Gerry Shiel is a research fellow at the Educational Research Centre in Dublin. He has worked on national and international assessments, and on test development. He has a longstanding interest in the teaching and assessment of writing, and has contributed to the Write to Read Project, an initiative involving severely disadvantaged schools in Ireland, where a combined focus on oral language, reading and writing is implemented in order to reduce the literacy achievement gap.