Writing assessment! Oh my!

When reading Smagorinsky’s Research on Composition, I was disappointed, but not entirely surprised to read about the ongoing struggle teachers, researchers and states grapple with when trying to assess student writing. I mentioned that for many teachers using a rubric to grade writing can be challenging in my philosophy, so I was not surprised when the topic of rubrics and assessment came up in Chapter 3.
While reading through Chapter 3, I was surprised to read about three different types of writing rubrics because throughout my teaching career the word rubric has been thrown around so much that any grading worksheet stapled on top of an essay constitutes a rubric in my mind. The idea of holistic rubrics, primary trait rubrics and analytical rubrics made sense to me and I have to admit that when I think about a rubric, most likely, I’m thinking of an analytical rubric. I’m curious to see if anyone has used a holistic or primary trait rubric because in my experience rubrics have point values assigned to different writing traits and usually tally up to equal 100 points.
As I continued to read about the assessment of Secondary writing, the fact that most rubrics are vague and unclear frustrated me. On page 52, Smagorinsky reports that, “even though American students need not meet high standards for support, elaboration, or precise language, only about a quarter of them score at the level of proficient. The vast majority are not proficient according to the expert definition, even though the standards are vague and not very stringent.”
Honestly, it’s that type of unhelpful confusing state feedback that makes teaching writing utterly perplexing. Later in the chapter, the author reflects on the fact that the high stakes testing environment is impacting the way teachers prepare and present writing instruction (maybe because we’re being graded by the test results) and that some teachers use state sample materials as a model for classroom writing. I hate to admit that I am one of those teachers. Couple this fact with the data on test score gaps and it’s a miracle any of my students can communicate in writing.
Based on the data in this chapter and the bind teachers of high needs schools get into with mandated state tests, I struggle to find advice for my teachers. We need high scores on the test to keep our school open, but the materials provided by the state are weak and bias… so should I even prepare my students for the state format of a single writing snapshot? Maybe I should just teach my students the writing process (rather than a 30 minute response) and hope that they gain the knowledge to support them on this vaguely graded unhelpful state assessment? I don’t know. Maybe I should teach in Kentucky where the state at least values the student’s writing portfolio?