Equal Opportunity Programming and Optimistic Program Assessment - First-Year Writing Program Design and Assessment at John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by jay

The article argues that assessment can function as an optimistic, proactive force rather than mere validation. It explains how the “equal opportunity” first-year writing program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY uses a faculty-led assessment process to reshape curriculum and pedagogy. Program stakeholders link formative and summative inquiry-based assessments to classroom learning, ensuring consistent writing experiences and coherent learning trajectories across sections and semesters. The study shows how program structure enables progressive assessment while assessment continually improves pedagogical and curricular infrastructure.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Equal Opportunity Programming and Optimistic Program Assessment

Program assessment as proactive change

“Unlearning” and skeptical optimism

Writing program administrators as change agents

Responding to assessment demands

Current Issue From the Editors Weblog Editorial Board Editorial Policy Submissions Archives Accessibility Search Composition Forum 33, Spring 2016 Equal Opportunity Programming and Optimistic Program Assessment: First-Year Writing Program Design and Assessment at John Jay College of Criminal Justice Tim McCormack and Mark McBeth Abstract: As Brian Huot and Ellen E. Schendel assert, when assessment has more than validation in mind, it “can become a means for proactive change”(208) . In response to this idea of assessment as an optimistic and opportunistic enterprise, this article describes how the structural design of our “equal opportunity” writing program and our faculty-led assessment process work symbiotically to sustain, enhance and “revision” the curriculum and pedagogy of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, first-year writing program. Our writing program strives to offer all students at the college a consistent and equivalent writing experience, regardless of what semester or in what section they enroll, as well as a coherent trajectory, where students encounter similar learning processes and literacy tasks throughout the course sequence. To ensure this consistency and coherence, our programmatic stakeholders designed program assessment to have direct impact on classroom learning by following multiple formative and summative assessments in an inquiry-based practice driven by local curricular contexts. In profiling the quid pro quo between writing program design and its accompanying assessment efforts, we demonstrate how program structure enables useful, progressive assessment, and, conversely, how assessment continuously informs and improves the infrastructures of pedagogy and curriculum in the writing classroom. Not an optimism that relies on positive thinking as an explanatory engine for social order, nor one that insists upon the bright side at all costs; rather this is a little ray of sunshine that produces shade and light in equal measure and knows that the meaning of one always depends upon the meaning of the other —Judith Halberstam, The Queer Art of Failure , (5) . In Unlearning, Judith Halberstam addresses the current crisis in the humanities, namely,“recent trends in universities away from language, literature, and learning and toward business, consumer practices, and industry” (9) . After offering this familiar critique in detail, Halberstam advocates for an alternative type of optimism, one that does not present the most evident problems as a means to sustain a status quo, nor one that wears rose-tinted glasses to present a flawless portrait of successful change. Instead, she offers a view that judiciously scrutinizes difficulties with measured skepticism, without allowing it to extinguish a certain sense of optimism and possibility. In doing so, Halberstam does not stop at the familiar tact of expertly demonstrating an educational crisis but, instead, provides the gut check for the bumpy road to solutions. She offers the sound advice to learn to unlearn—“learning, in other words, how to break with some disciplinary legacies, learning to reform and reshape others, and unlearning the many constraints that sometimes get in the way of our best efforts to reinvent our fields, our purposes, and our mission”(10) . To support her idea of unlearning, Halberstam quotes Cathy Davidson who states,“Unlearning is required when… your circumstances in that world have changed so completely that your old habits now hold you back”(19) . Both scholars bring their skeptical views to bear upon contemporary educational life, but they also offer optimistically divergent propositions to potentially resolve them, emphasizing that change occurs by moving beyond critique and complaint, moving beyond reactionary and limited responses, and moving beyond our secure and typical habits of mind to envision useful and progressive solutions. We suggest that Halberstam’s skeptical optimism serves writing p

FAQs

How does the article define “assessment” as more than validation?

It presents assessment as a proactive enterprise that can drive curriculum and pedagogy changes, using both structure and faculty-led processes to improve classroom learning rather than simply validate outcomes.

What is the role of the equal opportunity writing program design?

The program design aims to provide all students a consistent and equivalent first-year writing experience across semesters and sections, supported by a coherent trajectory of learning tasks.

How do faculty-led assessment practices influence classroom learning?

The article explains that stakeholders designed program assessment to directly impact classroom learning through multiple formative and summative assessments grounded in local curricular contexts, continuously informing and improving teaching and curriculum.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by jay