Reframing Writing Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning

Linda Adler-Kassner is professor of writing and director of the writing program at University of California, Santa Barbara, where she teachers undergraduate and graduate writing courses. Through 2011, she is also the President of the Council of Writing Program Administrators and served an additional five years on the Executive Board of that organization, including working as founding coordinator of the WPA Network for Media Action. Most recently, her research has focused both on analyzing the implications of public policy for writing instruction, and on developing strategies for writing instructors and program directors to affect policy. She is also author of The Activist WPA: Changing Stories about Writers and Writing (Utah State University Press, 2008), and co-author or co-editor of five additional books. She also has published many articles and book chapters in journals such as College Composition and Communication, WPA Journal, and Journal of Basic Writing.

Peggy O'Neill, associate professor, directs the composition program and teaches writing and rhetoric courses in the department of writing at Loyola University Maryland. Her scholarship focuses primarily on writing assessment and pedagogy. Her work appears in academic journals, such as the Journal of Writing Assessment and College Composition and Communication, as well as in several edited scholarly collections. Her most recent book is A Guide to College Writing Assessment (Utah State University Press, 2009), which she co-authored with Cindy Moore and Brian Huot. O'Neill has also edited or co-edited four books: Assessing Writing: A Critical Sourcebook (Bedford St.Martin's / NCTE 2009); Blurring Boundaries: Developing Writers, Researchers and Teachers (Hampton Press 2007); A Field of Dreams: Independent Writing Programs and the Future of Composition Studies (Utah State University Press, 2002);and Practice in Context: Situating the Work of Writing Teachers (NCTE, 2002).