In this book, authors Murphy and O'Neill propose a new way forward, moving away from high-stakes, test-based writing assessment and the curriculum it generates and toward an approach to assessment that centers on student learning and success. Reviewing the landscape of writing assessment and existing research-based theories on writing, the authors demonstrate how a test-based approach to accountability and current practices have undermined effective teaching and learning of writing. This book bridges the gap between real-world writing that takes place in schools, college, and careers and the writing that students are asked to do in standardized writing assessments to offer a new ecological approach to writing assessment. Murphy and O'Neill's new way forward turns accountability inside out to help teachers understand the role of formative assessments and assessment as inquiry. It also brings the outside in, by bridging the gap between authentic writing and writing assessment. Through these two strands, readers learn how assessment systems can be restructured to become better aligned with contemporary understandings of writing and with best practices in teaching. With examples of assessments from elementary school through college, chapters include guidance on designing assessments to address multiple kinds of writing, integrate reading with writing, and incorporate digital technology and multimodality. Emphasizing the central role that teachers play in systemic reform, the authors offer sample assessments developed with intensive teacher involvement that support learning and provide information for the evaluation of programs and schools. This book is an essential resource for graduate students, instructors, scholars and policymakers in writing assessment, composition, and English education.

In this book, authors Murphy and O'Neill propose a new way forward, moving away from high-stakes, test-based writing assessment and the curriculum it generates and toward an approach to assessment that centers on student learning and success. Reviewing the landscape of writing assessment and existing research-based theories on writing, the authors demonstrate how a test-based approach to accountability and current practices have undermined effective teaching and learning of writing. This book bridges the gap between real-world writing that takes place in schools, college, and careers and the writing that students are asked to do in standardized writing assessments to offer a new ecological approach to writing assessment. Murphy and O'Neill's new way forward turns accountability inside out to help teachers understand the role of formative assessments and assessment as inquiry. It also brings the outside in, by bridging the gap between authentic writing and writing assessment. Through these two strands, readers learn how assessment systems can be restructured to become better aligned with contemporary understandings of writing and with best practices in teaching. With examples of assessments from elementary school through college, chapters include guidance on designing assessments to address multiple kinds of writing, integrate reading with writing, and incorporate digital technology and multimodality. Emphasizing the central role that teachers play in systemic reform, the authors offer sample assessments developed with intensive teacher involvement that support learning and provide information for the evaluation of programs and schools. This book is an essential resource for graduate students, instructors, scholars and policymakers in writing assessment, composition, and English education.

The Association for the Study of Play (ASP) is the sponsor of the seventh volume in the Play and Culture Studies Series. The ASP is a professional group of researchers who study play. The purpose of this series is to advance knowledge about play and culture. Volume seven presents current theoretical and empirical research on play and culture from a variety of disciplines including psychology, education, and sociology. The book begins with an overview of the twentieth-century and moves from conceptualizing play to significant and timely topics, such as the relationship between play and literacy. Applications to practice and policy implications are presented and include play with action figures; playgrounds; play as an integral part of the human experience; and the value of play with books for toddlers. Research activity and interests of contemporary play scholars are highlighted and discussed in relation to projected problems and needs facing us as we enter the new millennium, such as childhood obesity; play as a venue for social interaction; and play as a method of developing skill for interaction at the local and national levels as adults.

Play: An Interdisciplinary Synthesis is co-published with the Association for the Study of Play (TASP), an interdisciplinary, international organization of play-research scholars. This volume, the sixth in the Play and Culture TASP series, synthesizes biological, anthropological, educational, and psychological approaches to play. It is a valuable book with chapters from premier researchers such as Robert Fagen and Carolyn Pope Edwards of the United States, Arne Trageton of Norway, Paola de Sanctis Ricciardone of Italy, and Jean Paul Rossie of Morocco. Also included is an interstitial book-within-the-book by Brian Sutton-Smith.

While most English professionals feel comfortable with language and literacy theories, assessment theories seem more alien. English professionals often don't have a clear understanding of the key concepts in educational measurement, such as validity and reliability, nor do they understand the statistical formulas associated with psychometrics. But understanding assessment theory--and applying it--by those who are not psychometricians is critical in developing useful, ethical assessments in college writing programs, and in interpreting and using assessment results.
"A Guide to College Writing Assessment" is designed as an introduction and source book for WPAs, department chairs, teachers, and administrators. Always cognizant of the critical components of particular teaching contexts, O'Neill, Moore, and Huot have written sophisticated but accessible chapters on the history, theory, application and background of writing assessment, and they offer a dozen appendices of practical samples and models for a range of common assessment needs.
Because there are numerous resources available to assist faculty in assessing the writing of individual students in particular classrooms, "A Guide to College Writing Assessment "focuses on approaches to the kinds of assessment that typically happen outside of individual classrooms: placement evaluation, exit examination, programmatic assessment, and faculty evaluation. Most of all, the argument of this book is that creating the conditions for meaningful college writing assessment hinges not only on understanding the history and theories informing assessment practice, but also on composition programs availing themselves of the full range of available assessment practices.