April 10, 2008
CONTACT: Beverly Makhani, Undergraduate
Education Communications Director, 509-335-6679,
makhani@wsu.edu
Diane Kelly-Riley, Writing Assessment Director, WSU
Writing Program Office, 509-335-1323,
dokelly@wsu.edu
WSU Writing Program Administrator Lands National Research Grant
PULLMAN, Wash. –Are students actually learning what they say they are? Diane Kelly-Riley, director of writing assessment at Washington State University, will examine the correlations between perceptions and reality by looking at WSU students’ writing, thanks to a grant from the national Council of Writing Program Administrators.
“The grant makes it possible for us to explore whether students’ performance actually aligns with how well they think they are learning, which is also linked to their engagement with the learning environment,” says Kelly-Riley.
“This is a unique study and we may find that our data supports or challenges some long-held national perceptions.”
Generally, she says, it is held that if students are engaged with their education, they will have a better college experience and learn more. It is also presumed that better writers are more engaged students.
So national organizations use and report on engagement levels at universities by asking students about their writing as it is tied to learning, for example. Students are polled by organizations such as the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), and results appear in online and printed rankings publications such as U.S. News & World Report’s annual “America’s Best Colleges.”
The data Kelly-Riley will use for the research project this summer will come from three years of WSU students’ scores on their Junior Writing Portfolios. About 4,500 students university wide annually submit portfolios that must contain samples of their best writing from their courses across many disciplines, plus a timed essay exam. The portfolios are scored by trained evaluators. Students must earn a “Pass” or “Pass with Distinction” to enroll in upper division courses in their major; those earning “Needs Work” are offered assistance to improve their writing.
“We are going to compare individual’s scores on their Writing Portfolio to their answers on NSSE questions to see how their classroom learning outcomes related to writing compare to their answers about perceptions of engagement,” explains Kelly-Riley. Students’ identities are anonymous in the process.
Kelly-Riley will present her findings at a July workshop of the Council of Writing Program Administrators. She plans also to share the results with NSSE.