Raters vary in their interpretation of rubrics despite training and tasks and prompts vary in the demands (e.g., Gebril, 2009 Schoonen, 2005 Swartz et al., 1999 see below for details). However, for a complex skill like writing, in addition to students’ writing proficiency itself, multiple factors such as raters, tasks, and prompts influence students’ writing scores (see Schoonen, 2012 for a discussion on writing assessment with regard to validity and generalizability). The ultimate goal of writing assessment is accurately evaluating students’ writing proficiency. Despite increased attention on improving writing and on high stakes writing assessment, there is relatively limited research on writing evaluation for children in elementary school as the vast majority of previous studies about writing evaluation have been conducted with older or college-age students (e.g., Bouwer, Beguin, Sanders, & van den Bergh, 2015 Brennan, Gao, & Colton, 1995 Carson, 2001 Hale et al., 1996 Gebril, 2009 Hamp-Lyons, 1991 Moore & Morton, 1999 Schoonen, 2005 Swartz et al., 1999 van den Bergh, De Maeyer, van Weijen, & Tillema, 2012 Weigle, 1998). In many states, fourth grade is the first occasion in which students participate in these tests, and writing typically receives greater instructional attention in Grades 3 and 4 ( Beck & Jeffery, 2007 Graham et al., 2011). Writing is included in the high stakes state accountability systems in the majority of states in the United States. It is therefore not surprising that the rigor of writing standards has received much attention at the elementary level in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS, National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010) and other similar state standards in the United States.
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Thus, it is troubling that the majority of children (72%) in Grade 4 in the United States write at basic or below basic level and only 28% of students write at a proficient level in the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) writing assessment including fourth graders ( National Center for Education Statistics, 2003).
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Writing is a critical skill for success in academic achievement and in most careers ( Graham, Harris, & Hebert, 2011).
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These findings offer important implications about reliably evaluating children’s writing skills, given that writing is typically evaluated by a single task and a single rater in classrooms and even in state accountability systems. 80, a single rater and multiple tasks were needed. 90, multiple tasks and raters were needed, and for the reliability of. Students’ scores varied largely by tasks (30.44% and 28.61% of variance), but not by raters.
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Results showed that 54% and 52% of variance in narrative and expository compositions were attributable to true individual differences in writing. A total of 211 children (102 boys) were administered three tasks in narrative and expository genres, respectively, and their written compositions were evaluated in widely used evaluation methods for developing writers: holistic scoring, productivity, and curriculum-based writing scores. 80 reliabilities for children in Grades 3 and 4. We examined how raters and tasks influence measurement error in writing evaluation and how many raters and tasks are needed to reach a desirable level of.