Teaching writing teachers about assessment

The assessment of student writing is an essential task for writing teachers, and yet many graduate programs do not require students to take a course in assessment or evaluation, and courses on teaching writing often devote only a limited amount of time to the discussion of assessment. Furthermore, teachers frequently need to prepare their students for externally mandated large-scale writing assessments, and thus they need to have an understanding of the uses and misuses of such tests. This article outlines some of the essential considerations in classroom and large-scale assessments and provides suggestions for how to incorporate considerations about assessment into a course on teaching writing or as a stand-alone course.