Assessing writing ability: a study on reliability and validity, Hiske Feenstra

The assessment of writing ability is notoriously complex. In the past decades, various ways of measuring writing skills have been developed. A typical writing assessment consists of a writing task, the result of which is to be judged by one or more raters. The scores given by different raters usually diverge, as do the scores given by the same rater when asked to re-evaluate the essay. To improve reliability, a second way of assessing writing is to use objectively scored writing tests, which in their turn give rise to questions about validity. Lastly, the quality of a text can be determined by linguistically analysing specific features of the text.

In the course of this research project the reliability and validity of three current methods used to assess writing ability will be investigated and mutually compared:

By evaluating these assessment methods, this research project aims to answer the following question: How can writing ability be assessed reliably and validly in mid and end of primary school?

The research project is conducted within PPON (Periodieke Peiling Onderwijsniveau; Periodical Survey of Educational Level), a national assessment of primary education executed by Cito.