Page 192 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment

REMEDIATING WRITING ASSESSMENT 159

Drawing on the history of writing assessment in Composition, we
can understand why software programmers selected a familiar eval-
uation model as the foundation for this type of software. Familiarity
presumably breeds trust, in this case. The holistic scoring model has
a long history in the teaching of writing. Composition specialists
know about holistic rubrics for scoring essays. Writing teachers see
and understand how the holistic scoring model can be used in
print-based evaluation, and many believe the rubric can be transpar-
ently used to accommodate e-portfolios. Administrators find that
the quantitative approach to normative scoring is comfortable and
easy to disseminate. Students who are educated in elementary and
secondary schools under the current push for standardized assess-
ments fluently connect an abstract number to pass-fail. Even after
the field's scholars presumed that normed scoring was a dying pro-
cess, it is apparent that the normative approach to writing assess-
ment will not fade quietly into Composition's history. Fast
capitalism in higher education argues too well that this assessment
model is quick, efficient, inexpensive, and seemingly objective.
The influence of fast capitalism in society, however, should also
have us see the razing of one technological form by another happen-
ing much more rapidly than it has in the past. Because higher educa-
tion is not immune to social forces, it is reasonable to think that
newer forms of technology can and will become equal to, if not level
with, older forms. This razing can be beneficial for writing assess-
ment. Writing assessment models can be improved through advanc-
ing computer technologies, as I outlined in chapter 4. It is possible for
writing teachers and their programs to escape normative writing as-
sessment models for e-texts. The question that begs to be asked is,
How soon can the field move from the imposition of these holistic
software packages on writing programs and toward more effective
electronic assessment models?
We know that technological change occurs swiftly in the Internet
Age, as the period between the introduction of a new technology and
the erasure of the old may be as short as just a few months.
Remediation of older technology forms can happen repeatedly in the
space of a year. Software assessment programs like E-rater and the
Intelligent Essay Assessor may be relics before they truly begin to
take hold because of the resistance many writing faculty have dem-
onstrated toward the introduction of these programs. Most
compositionists believe that it is important to note how students fare