NeWP Advisory Board Position Statement
on
Standards and Assessment
The Nebraska Writing Project Advisory Board believes that teachers should have responsibility for the design of curriculum to provide appropriate attention to state standards at their grade level, while also allocating class time for the full range of writing experiences supported by the professional literature. Teachers, as professionals in writing education, should be involved in determining the design, implementation, and use of local assessments. Teachers also have the responsibility to go beyond mandated state assessments to provide students with a varied, authentic and fulfilling experience with writing in many genres, media, and purposes. Classroom assessment should help students and teachers understand where the learner is as a writer and enable the teacher and student to set goals for the future. Classroom assessment should therefore be ongoing and linked directly to learner progress. Key elements of a professional standards and assessment policy include:
- Teachers should be involved in the development, implementation, and use of assessment.
- Teachers should be provided with adequate time and support for the professional work of designing curriculum and assessments for their classrooms.
- The primary purpose for assessment should center upon the improvement of teaching and learning across curriculum/disciplines and using a variety of technologies.
- Students in a writing rich classroom will be encouraged to write for a wide variety of purposes, genres, audiences, media, and contexts, of which timed writing assessments are but one.
- Teachers have a responsibility to demonstrate how their curricular projects meet and exceed state standards for their grades.
- Writing should be primarily presented as a means of communication, discovery, and learning; assessment is a tool for understanding the progress of learners toward these goals, rather than a primary goal in itself.
As stated in the core principles of the National Writing Project, the Nebraska Writing Project professional writing model encourages teachers to meet these goals by encouraging teachers to become writers themselves, to explore professional research in order to improve their classroom practices and to support writing through all ages and content areas.
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The Nebraska Writing Project supports the following policies and statements on standards and assessment:
National Writing Project Core Principles:
http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/doc/about.csp
NCTE 21st Century Framework on Curriculum and Assessment:
http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentframework
NCTE/IRA Standards for the Assessment of Reading and Writing:
http://www.ncte.org/standards/assessmentstandards
CCCC Writing Assessment: A Position Statement:
http://www.ncte.org/cccc/resources/positions/writingassessment
ISTE National Educational Technology Standards for Students:
http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students.aspx
ISTE National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers:
http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.aspx
Adopted Summer 2012