THE CEA FORUM - Summer/Fall 2010 - A CEA Forum Roundtable - Moving Forward in Writing Program Assessment Design

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by SANS

A roundtable presentation arguing that postmodern qualitative assessment offers a coherent and practical foundation for writing program assessment design. It examines the relationship between assessment and research through definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary, contrasting evaluation’s search for definite answers with research’s broader investigation toward discovery. The discussion shows how qualitative assessment merges evaluation and inquiry, enabling analysis of complex educational questions, hidden forces, and participant-constructed meanings to clarify strengths and weaknesses.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Assessment as Research?

Postmodern qualitative assessment and interpretation

Distinguishing evaluation from research

Qualitative assessment methods and stakeholder questions

THE CEA FORUM Summer/Fall 2010 A CEA Forum Roundtable Moving Forward in Writing Program Assessment Design: Why Postmodern Qualitative Assessment Makes Sense KRYSTIA NORA California University of Pennsylvania An examination of postmodern grounded theory and narrative research methodology philosophies should make us rethink foundational issues in writing assessment design. Postmodern approaches emphasize interpretation and meaning-making, arguing that truths are made rather than found. In fact, many postmodern researchers emphasize the impossibility of objective, reliable results, especially in human research. In a communicative field such as teaching writing, this makes particular sense—the myriad of factors involved in a student writer's progress and in a teacher's ability to facilitate writing development cannot be isolated from eachother. As Jeff notes, the Art Institute of Pittsburgh was working in the direction of qualitative assessment even before I had been hired. I helped word our reasons for qualitative assessment based on my experiences with qualitative research, but my predecessor April Sikorski was my inspiration, as was Jeff in his explanations of his previous departmental professional THE CEA FORUM Summer/Fall 2010 development experiences, which I noted could be reworked a tad to create a qualitative research format. This led me to ask: is assessment research? What is changed by looking at assessment as research? I must answer these questions here briefly before I continue discussing our postmodern turn. Assessment as Research? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the fifth definition of assessment is “estimation, evaluation” with a sub-definition of “the process or means of evaluating academic work; an examination or test”(OED online). Definitions one through four, which are preoccupied with numbers, perhaps influence definition 5b, which describes educational assessment, as educational assessment has a long history of being preoccupied with numeric representations of evaluation. There is a whole field of writing assessment that is rich with history and methodological developments put forward by passionate and brilliant compositionists as outlined by Kathleen Blake Yancey and by Brian Huot and Peggy O’Neill. As I read about assessment, I saw correlations between assessment work,“the process or means of evaluating” academic progress, and the reading I had done on research methodologies; for example, both fields included discussions about criteria of evaluation, validity, and what questions were important to ask. However, that does not make research and assessment the same thing. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a definition of research is “a search or investigation directed to the discovery of some fact by careful consideration or study of a THE CEA FORUM Summer/Fall 2010 subject”(OED online) . The first definition of research, then, involves searching carefully for a person or thing. So while assessment deals with evaluation, research has us investigating toward a discovery. Those are two very different goals. Evaluation seeks definite answers, like whether certain goals are being met. Investigation more broadly tries to see what is happening in a situation. Still, adding the word qualitative to assessment changes the game because it adds to the mix the questions of why and how. As Shaun R. Harper, editor of the New Directions in Institutional Research special issue on qualitative assessment, elaborates: qualitative techniques can uncover the hidden forces that drive behaviors, shape experiences, and influence outcomes on college campuses. Finally, qualitative assessment methods can illuminate the voices of various groups and individuals throughout institutions of higher education. One of the key advantages of qualitative research is its ability to allow participants to construct meanings and insightful interpretations of their own experiences. (3) Note how

FAQs

Why does the speaker argue that postmodern qualitative assessment makes sense for writing program assessment design?

Postmodern approaches stress interpretation and meaning-making, and the speaker argues that writing education involves many interdependent factors that cannot be isolated from how outcomes are understood and facilitated.

How does the presentation distinguish assessment from research?

Using OED definitions, assessment is framed as estimation or evaluation with an aim toward definite judgments, while research is described as a careful search directed toward discovery, with broader investigative goals.

What is the role of qualitative methods in merging assessment and research?

Qualitative assessment is presented as combining evaluation with investigation—addressing why and how rather than only what happens—so assessment can incorporate research methodology to examine complex course and program questions.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by SANS