ITEM
107-109-R0500����������� Report
from Joint K-16 Composition Standards Committee on
Writing Proficiency Standards
for Admission and Graduation from MUS
�Montana
K-16 Joint Committee on Composition Standards
Final
Report - April 28, 2000
The Montana K-16
Joint Committee on Composition Standards was appointed by Nancy Keenan, Montana
Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Richard Crofts, Commissioner of
Higher Education, in Fall 1998.� The
Committee was charged to address standards for student learning and proficiency
in writing.� The Committee met from
December 1998 through October� 1999 and
in sub-committees several times since.�
The Committee and sub-committees have responded to the items of the
charge and report their recommendations below.�
1. �To review the draft K-12 writing standards for what students
should know and be able to do in writing, suggest revisions that would enhance
students� transition from high school to college, and make recommendations for
the standards� modification prior to public hearings.
The Committee
reviewed the standards and in February 1999 formulated its
recommendations.� These were sent to Dr.
Linda Peterson at OPI in March 1999, and��
Dr. Peterson reported back on how the Committee's input was used in
October.
2. To assist OPI and OCHE staff to
complete collecting information about current practices in placement� for college composition, including use of
Advanced Placement examinations.
����������� The
Committee assembled this information.�
Dr. Jan Clinard of OPI prepared a brochure that was printed and
disseminated to high school students, parents and guidance counselors as well
as to campus officials across the state in Fall 1999 [Appendix A].
The Committee also
advised the Montana University System (MUS) about a Web site to post
information about credit by examination in the MUS.�
����������� The Writing
Standards Subcommittee� began a project
to delineate the writing content and student proficiencies incorporated in
three levels of college composition�remedial/basic/developmental, regular and
advanced.� This data will be used with
other information in formulating responses to items 5 and 6 below.
Recommendation:
��The Committee recommends that OPI and OCHE
continue cooperation in this area and regularly update and republish the informational
brochure for high schools, their students and the students and faculty of the
colleges and universities.
3.�
To advise OPI and OCHE about strategies for disseminating to high
schools and their students
information about tests used to place
college freshmen in composition courses and about policies regarding Advanced
Placement at each of the units of the University System.
The brochure cited in
2 above fulfills this purpose, as do the materials organized for posting as Credit
by Exam Opportunities on the MUS Web site.
Recommendation:� The Committee
encourages ongoing collaboration between the K-12 and post-secondary sectors
and bridge-building to continue the conversation and provide for regular
revision and distribution of the information via brochures and Web sites.�
Recommendation:� The Committee recommends establishing a
small, joint standing committee of K-12 teachers of English and university
faculty in English composition to:
�
Oversee the implementation and
integration of K-12 standards and assessment into the K-U system of teaching
writing in public education.
�
Facilitate and monitor the necessary
communication and serve as a resource to all participants in the process.
�
Guide statewide training of teachers
and faculty in use of ACT Writing Samples.
�
Oversee integration of ACT Writing
Sample into teaching of writing in Montana.
4. To
examine criteria used for judging writing at high school and college levels and
to consider the feasibility of holding a norming session between the two
sectors.
����������� The
Committee examined the criteria and conducted experimental norming/scoring
sessions at Billings and Great Falls.�
Based on this work, the Committee recommended a Pilot Project for
Proficiency-Based Admissions [Appendix B] which the sponsors did not support at
this time.� The Committee and others in
the profession continue to discuss collaboration in writing assessment and may
proceed separately to conduct experiments together. This activity is valuable
and could eventually lead to a statewide assessment of writing and, ultimately,
to a school-based system of writing proficiency standards for admissions to the
MUS.�
Recommendation:� The Committee recommends that local school
districts partner with
MUS campuses to use
the ACT Writing Sample as an assessment mechanism for high school students at
the end of the junior year.� These
partnerships would
�
immerse college and high school
teachers of writing in developing and applying criteria for proficiency for the
ACT Writing Sample;
�
facilitate communication between the
two sectors about the qualities of proficient composition and how they are
measured;
�
provide an ongoing assessment of the
ACT Writing Sample by practitioners; and
�
provide local school districts with
meaningful assessment data on students� composition skills.
�
provide composition faculty with
relevant professional development.
Such partnerships would be especially valuable for
field-testing of the ACT Writing Sample.
5. To
discuss the utility of current high school transcripts for correctly placing
students in composition� courses at the
college level.
The Committee
discussed this item and concluded that the high school transcripts are not now
useful for placing students in college-level composition because they do not
measure consistently proficiency or skills.�
Transcripts may be made more useful over time with the advent of the
K-12/post-secondary articulation via Tech Prep.
����������� In
addition, the Committee thought that it would gain more useful information
about high school writing through its proposed assessment project.� This analysis would be tied to the writing
standards and link K-12 standards with useful information on college
composition courses, thereby helping students make better decisions on writing.
����������� Sponsors
rejected this reasoning, and� Dori
Neilson from the Office of Public Instruction chose a sub-committee to complete
the course coding project that she had committed to do with funding from the
National Center on Education Statistics (NCES).� The Committee will advise sponsors when this work is completed.
6. To
develop proficiency-based admissions standards and graduation requirements for
the Montana University System.
����������� Without Writing Assessment Pilot Project data or another
similar exercise, the Committee cannot set writing proficiency admissions standards
derived from implementing the state's writing standards in the secondary
schools.�
Recommendation:� The
Committee agreed on principles to guide the state in the selection of
commercial, standardized tests for assessing writing proficiency:
�
A proficiency-based
admissions standard in writing should allow multiple measures to accommodate a
diverse student body which includes non-traditional learners, non-resident
students and transfer students in addition to full-time, first-time freshmen.
�
Any instrument used
for this purpose should include an authentic writing assessment of sufficient
length and substance to give a reliable sample of a student's ability.
�
Such
instruments should clearly relate to the Montana Writing Standards.
Admissions
After extensive
review of commercial products available, the K-16 Composition Proficiency
Admissions/Graduation Subcommittee has concluded that three instruments are
acceptable for use in college and university admissions decisions.�
Recommendation:� The Committee recommends that the Montana
University System now adopt three instruments for utilization in determining a
student's proficiency in writing for the purpose of admission to the four-year
campuses.
As to score, the Committee
believes that that one essential by-product of field-testing the ACT Writing
Sample in Montana will be the identification of a cut score for proficiency.
recommended for this
purpose: the Advanced Placement (AP) examinations in English language and the
College Level Examination Program (CLEP) in composition.�
It is the Committee's
view that a student who writes well enough on these tests to earn six college
credits for first and second semester college composition is proficient in
writing and admissible to the Montana University System.� To meet the writing proficiency standard for
admission, the Sub-committee recommends:
�
A score of 3 on the Advanced Placement
(AP) examination in English Language & Composition or English
Language & Literature.
�
A score of 44 on the College Level
Examination Program (CLEP) examination in Freshman College Composition
that includes the optional essay section.
The scores
recommended above are derived from the American Council on Education's Guide
to Educational Credit by Examination, 4th Edition.� �ACE recommended scores for awarding credit are the mean test score
of students who participated in a national norming study and earned a grade of
C in the respective course.
As the writing
standards are implemented and writing proficiency and assessment of same gain
currency in Montana, there may be other assessment tools that the campuses will
wish to adopt for admissions purposes.�
The campuses should be encouraged to consider additional options for
their students and to draw upon the expertise resident on the MUS campuses and
in the secondary schools for advice about the appropriateness of these measures
and the scores that could represent "proficiency."
Recommendation:� The Committee recommends that the Montana
University System create and maintain online a remedial composition course for
students who cannot meet the proficiency admissions standards and are not
admitted to the MUS.�
Students could enroll
in this non-credit course to improve their writing and meet proficiency
requirements.� The course would be
self-sustaining financially and probably more expensive than regular tuition
charges for a three-credit course.� Such
a course would offer a real service to students and institutions and would be
especially useful to students who do not have easy access to a two-year
institution or an adult basic education program.
Recommendation: ��With respect to implementation of these
admissions standards, the Committee recommends that the campuses be allowed the
next four years to put them in place so that they become effective with the
entering freshman class of Fall 2004.
Phased implementation
is necessary for two reasons.� First,
Montana Writing Standards were only approved by the Board of Public Education
in 1999 and are just now being integrated into high school curricula.� It is unfair to students to impose
proficiency standards for admission when they have not yet been a curricular
emphasis in the secondary schools.�
Second, the Committee
anticipates that most applicants for admission will demonstrate writing
proficiency through the ACT Writing Sample.�
Adaptation of that sample to align with Montana Writing Standards,
establishing cut scores for proficiency, field-testing the adapted assessment
with traditional and nontraditional samples of students, analyzing field-test
results and further revising the assessment and the assessment process, as
needed, will take time.� That time is
well-spent if it ensures that students� proficiency in writing is validly and
reliably assessed and that unanticipated consequences of proficiency-based
admissions are identified and addressed prior to their affecting students�
higher education pursuits.
Graduation
The Sub-Committee is
aware of efforts around the Montana University System to develop exit standards
for college and university graduates--notably, the work on 'gating exams' at
the University of Montana.� We believe that
this approach is preferable to mandating a single approach for the Montana
University System--hence, our final recommendation.
Recommendation:� Given the differences in the campuses, their
programs and missions,� the
Sub-committee believes that a single approach to assessing writing proficiency
for graduation would not be appropriate.�
Instead, the Sub-committee recommends that the design and implementation
of writing proficiency graduation standards be left to each MUS campus, with
implementation to be established within the next two years.�
This means that campuses would form appropriate faculty
committees to:
The Committee
recommends that each campus complete these studies in the next 24 months.� Written reports on each campuses' policies
and activities for graduation proficiency could be submitted to the Office of
the Commissioner of Higher Education in time for inclusion in the report to the
Board of Regents in May 2002, permitting Board review and campus adoption
effective with the rising junior class in Fall 2002.
Beverly Ann Chin, Chair, K-16 Joint Committee on Composition
Standards
Professor of English
University of Montana
Enclosures
pc:
Members
of the Committee
Jan Clinard
Gail Gray
Linda Peterson
Joyce A. Scott