The Civil Rights Act of 1964 has served as an influential legal framework for addressing intentio... more The Civil Rights Act of 1964 has served as an influential legal framework for addressing intentional (disparate treatment) and unintentional (disparate impact) discrimination. While philosophical and methodological discussions of Title VI and Title VII are well articulated in the legal scholarship, the disparate impact approach — a method for determining unintended racial differences in outcomes resulting from facially neutral policies or practices — remains an underutilized conceptual and methodological framework in the assessment literature. In this article, we argue that the burden-shifting heuristic used by entities such as the Office for Civil Rights to redress disparate impact is a valuable approach in determining fairness of writing assessment practices. In demonstrating an application of the burden-shifting approach at one university writing program, we discuss the value of the proposed integrative framework as well as point to remaining questions regarding sampling concerns...
We report on a college-level study of student reflection and instructor prompts using scoring and... more We report on a college-level study of student reflection and instructor prompts using scoring and corpus analysis methods. We collected 340 student reflections and 24 faculty prompts. Reflections were scored using trait and holistic scoring and then reflections and faculty prompts were analyzed using Natural Language Processing to identify linguistic features of high, middle, and low scoring reflections. The data sets were then connected to determine if there was a relationship between faculty prompts and scores. Additional analysis was completed to determine if there was a relationship between scores and students’ GPAs. The corpus linguistics analysis showed that higher-scoring reflections used words that referred to the self, the writing process, and specific rhetorical terms. Additional analysis showed student GPAs did not correlate with holistic scores but that higher scoring reflections were from faculty who included learning goals on reflective writing prompts. Results suggest...
We hope this special issue adds to the body of knowledge created by the writing studies community... more We hope this special issue adds to the body of knowledge created by the writing studies community with respect to the opportunities that can be created when assessment is seen in terms of the creation of opportunity structure. This hope is accompanied by a reminder of our strength as we annually encounter approximately 48.9 million students in public elementary and secondary schools 20.6 million students in postsecondary institutions (Snyder & Dillow, 2015). Our influence is remarkable as we touch the lives of many, one student at a time.
In their reflection, “An Admitted Student is a Qualified Student: A Roadmap for Writing Placement... more In their reflection, “An Admitted Student is a Qualified Student: A Roadmap for Writing Placement in the Two-Year College,” Mya Poe, Jessica Nastal, and Norbert Elliot take up the challenges that face faculty at two-year colleges: institutional structures, working conditions, and the multiple roles faculty play at two-year colleges. Consideration of these issues are essential to advancing our theoretical aspirations for fairness through our collective lived experience.
Writing Across Difference: Theory and Intervention, 2022
Subjects: LCSH: English language-Rhetoric-Study and teaching (Higher)-Social aspects-United State... more Subjects: LCSH: English language-Rhetoric-Study and teaching (Higher)-Social aspects-United States. | English language-Composition and exercises-Study and teaching (Higher)-Social aspects-United States. | Individual differences. | Interdisciplinary approach in education-United States. | Discrimination in higher education-United States.
In many communication-intensive (CI) classes in the sciences, students are learning the essential... more In many communication-intensive (CI) classes in the sciences, students are learning the essential practices for knowledge production in tandem with professional communication practices. In short, they are learning to communicate as a biologist or chemist or physicist. To explore this process more closely, we conducted a three-year qualitative study of 17 undergraduate and graduate students in science and engineering CI classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology via initial and end-of-year surveys, one-to-one interviews, classroom observation, and collection and analysis of student writing. In this chapter, we present the findings about three students who were sophomores at the beginning of the study and graduating seniors at its conclusion to understand if these students evidenced changes in their understanding of the roles and purposes of communicating science. Based on coded interview data and analysis of student writing, the case studies we report in this chapter offer ...
This chapter contains sections titled: Learning to Write in Introduction to Experimental Biology ... more This chapter contains sections titled: Learning to Write in Introduction to Experimental Biology and Communication, Summary of Introduction to Experimental Biology and Communication
A novel method to perform the Niementowski reaction leading to 4(3H)-quinazolines is reported. Th... more A novel method to perform the Niementowski reaction leading to 4(3H)-quinazolines is reported. The 4(3H)quinazolines were obtained in good to excellent yields by microwave irradiation or ultrasound-assisted synthesis from 2-aminobenzonitrile and acyl chlorides in solvent-free conditions and in the presence of Yb(OTf) 3 (10 mol%). Ultrasound-based methodology performed better than the microwave-assisted process in terms of yields for all examples. The procedure reported herein represents also the first reported example of an ultrasound-promoted Niementowski-like reaction.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 has served as an influential legal framework for addressing intentio... more The Civil Rights Act of 1964 has served as an influential legal framework for addressing intentional (disparate treatment) and unintentional (disparate impact) discrimination. While philosophical and methodological discussions of Title VI and Title VII are well articulated in the legal scholarship, the disparate impact approach — a method for determining unintended racial differences in outcomes resulting from facially neutral policies or practices — remains an underutilized conceptual and methodological framework in the assessment literature. In this article, we argue that the burden-shifting heuristic used by entities such as the Office for Civil Rights to redress disparate impact is a valuable approach in determining fairness of writing assessment practices. In demonstrating an application of the burden-shifting approach at one university writing program, we discuss the value of the proposed integrative framework as well as point to remaining questions regarding sampling concerns...
We report on a college-level study of student reflection and instructor prompts using scoring and... more We report on a college-level study of student reflection and instructor prompts using scoring and corpus analysis methods. We collected 340 student reflections and 24 faculty prompts. Reflections were scored using trait and holistic scoring and then reflections and faculty prompts were analyzed using Natural Language Processing to identify linguistic features of high, middle, and low scoring reflections. The data sets were then connected to determine if there was a relationship between faculty prompts and scores. Additional analysis was completed to determine if there was a relationship between scores and students’ GPAs. The corpus linguistics analysis showed that higher-scoring reflections used words that referred to the self, the writing process, and specific rhetorical terms. Additional analysis showed student GPAs did not correlate with holistic scores but that higher scoring reflections were from faculty who included learning goals on reflective writing prompts. Results suggest...
We hope this special issue adds to the body of knowledge created by the writing studies community... more We hope this special issue adds to the body of knowledge created by the writing studies community with respect to the opportunities that can be created when assessment is seen in terms of the creation of opportunity structure. This hope is accompanied by a reminder of our strength as we annually encounter approximately 48.9 million students in public elementary and secondary schools 20.6 million students in postsecondary institutions (Snyder & Dillow, 2015). Our influence is remarkable as we touch the lives of many, one student at a time.
In their reflection, “An Admitted Student is a Qualified Student: A Roadmap for Writing Placement... more In their reflection, “An Admitted Student is a Qualified Student: A Roadmap for Writing Placement in the Two-Year College,” Mya Poe, Jessica Nastal, and Norbert Elliot take up the challenges that face faculty at two-year colleges: institutional structures, working conditions, and the multiple roles faculty play at two-year colleges. Consideration of these issues are essential to advancing our theoretical aspirations for fairness through our collective lived experience.
Writing Across Difference: Theory and Intervention, 2022
Subjects: LCSH: English language-Rhetoric-Study and teaching (Higher)-Social aspects-United State... more Subjects: LCSH: English language-Rhetoric-Study and teaching (Higher)-Social aspects-United States. | English language-Composition and exercises-Study and teaching (Higher)-Social aspects-United States. | Individual differences. | Interdisciplinary approach in education-United States. | Discrimination in higher education-United States.
In many communication-intensive (CI) classes in the sciences, students are learning the essential... more In many communication-intensive (CI) classes in the sciences, students are learning the essential practices for knowledge production in tandem with professional communication practices. In short, they are learning to communicate as a biologist or chemist or physicist. To explore this process more closely, we conducted a three-year qualitative study of 17 undergraduate and graduate students in science and engineering CI classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology via initial and end-of-year surveys, one-to-one interviews, classroom observation, and collection and analysis of student writing. In this chapter, we present the findings about three students who were sophomores at the beginning of the study and graduating seniors at its conclusion to understand if these students evidenced changes in their understanding of the roles and purposes of communicating science. Based on coded interview data and analysis of student writing, the case studies we report in this chapter offer ...
This chapter contains sections titled: Learning to Write in Introduction to Experimental Biology ... more This chapter contains sections titled: Learning to Write in Introduction to Experimental Biology and Communication, Summary of Introduction to Experimental Biology and Communication
A novel method to perform the Niementowski reaction leading to 4(3H)-quinazolines is reported. Th... more A novel method to perform the Niementowski reaction leading to 4(3H)-quinazolines is reported. The 4(3H)quinazolines were obtained in good to excellent yields by microwave irradiation or ultrasound-assisted synthesis from 2-aminobenzonitrile and acyl chlorides in solvent-free conditions and in the presence of Yb(OTf) 3 (10 mol%). Ultrasound-based methodology performed better than the microwave-assisted process in terms of yields for all examples. The procedure reported herein represents also the first reported example of an ultrasound-promoted Niementowski-like reaction.
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