title: Writing performance assessments: how important is extended time?
abstract: Students in Grades 5 and 8 completed a 30-minute writing performance assessment and a writing performance assessment completed over 3 days. Assessments were evaluated on four traits (ideas, organization, conventions, and sentence fluency). A significant interaction was found at Grade 5 between length of time allotted for the assessment and students' educational classification (general or special education). Grade 5 students performed significantly better on the 3-day writing assessment, with students in special education benefiting the most. At Grade 8, there were no differences between scores on the 30-minute and the 3-day assessments. No significant differences were found in students' writing performance across various types of discourse (narrative, imaginative, persuasive, and expository); significant differences were reported across certain writing traits. We shared three hypotheses for reported differences: (a) students' proficiency with the writing process, (b) scoring scale bias, and (c) differences in the revision behaviors of developing and mature writers. Educational implications related to statewide test programs are discussed.
authors.affiliation: College of Education COH6, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, CO 80933-7150, USA. mcrawfor@uccs.edu
authors.forename: Lindy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Crawford
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Helwig
authors.forename: Gerald
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tindal
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000145:classification*; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D014956:Writing