Developing a Valid Assessment Plan Comp 4.0 Piloted Fall 2007

1. Developing a Valid Assessment PlanComp 4.0 Piloted Fall 2007 Stacey Stover and Patti Dungan Austin Community College March 18, 2008

2. Original Course • 3 LEH for DEVW 141348 hours of instruction • 3 LEH for ENGL 1301 • 1 LEH for Basic Study Skills -------------------------------- 7 LEH Total Two 16-week courses and one 8-week course. *LEH = lecture equivalent hours. Redesigned Course • 1 LEH for DEVW 141116 hours of instruction • 3 LEH for ENGL 1301 -------------------------------- 4 LEH Total One 8-week course and one 16-week course.

3. Our Challenge • To ensure that students enrolled our redesigned 1 LEH Writing Skills II (WSII) course are equally or better prepared as students enrolled in the traditional 3 LEH WSII course. • All WSII students are mandated to write a timed essay to exit the developmental writing program. Students are given three hours to write a persuasive essay.

4. Pass/Fail Scale • Introduction (2 points) • _______ Hook-lead (A few sentences that introduce the topic and lead to thesis) • _______ Thesis statement, with or without essay map, clearly addresses the prompt. •  Body Paragraphs (12 points) • Par1 Par 2 Par 3 • _____ _____ _____ Topic sentence states one main idea which clearly contributes to the thesis. (3 points) • _____ _____ _____ Main idea is supported with explanation & at least one relevant example and/or other relevant elaboration. (3 points) • _____ _____ _____ Sentences are logically connected. (3 points) • _____ _____ _____ Main idea is further supported with (an) additional relevant example(s) and or other relevant elaboration. (3 points) Conclusion (2 points) • _______ A developed paragraph that sums up the argument. • Language (9 points)) • _____Three or fewer major errors (4 pts); four major errors (3 pts); five major errors (2 pts); six to seven major errors (1 pt); more than seven major errors (0 pts) • _____Five or fewer minor errors (4 pts); six or seven minor errors (3 pts); eight minor errors (2 pts); nine to ten minor errors (1 pts); more than 10 minor errors (0 pts). • _____Writer effectively constructs a variety of sentence types (1 point). • Error Checklist • Major Errors (mark one hash per error)Minor Errors (mark one hash per type of error) • _____comma splices ____commonly confused words on list (30) • _____fused sentences (run ons) _____apostrophe usage: possessives/contractions (2) • _____fragments ____comma usage: items in a series, coordination, introductory • _____subject-verb agreement clause or phrase, coordinate adjectives, transitional expressions (5) • _____verb tense consistency _____misuse/abuse of commas (1) • _____ sentence sense—has all of _____pronoun case/agreement/reference (3) • the elements of a sentence ____capitalization (1) • but doesn’t make sense _____ missing words or word endings: -ed, -s, -ing, ly (4) • _____ parallelism _____ESL issues: articles/prepositions/awkward wording (3) • _____other • Instructor’s initials _____

5. Grading Session • Essays are graded by two faculty members, but faculty members do not grade their own students’ essays. • We calibrate about three times each semester to ensure accuracy. • Because this pilot started fall 2007, we do not have comparison data but preliminary numbers are promising.

6. Questions? Austin Community College • Stacey Stoverstaceyt@austincc.edu • Patti Dungan padungan@austincc.edu