Rubric Alignment

There has been concern at PCCC in the Testing Department about the adoption of the Writeplacer test at all nineteen NJ community colleges this year. There has been discussion about the possibility of using it as our College Writing Exam (CWE).

Elizabeth Nesius and Ken Ronkowitz from the Initiative had aligned the CWE rubric with the WI writing rubric two years ago so that the course-based assessments hat we use can be better correlated to CWE baseline scores for the college at large.

This past summer, they also aligned both rubrics with the College Board's Writeplacer rubric that PCCC uses for initial college placement. We presented that alignment to the College Writing Committee and Dr. Stassis.

Although we can show an alignment of scores and in criteria, the Initiative team feels that it would be inappropriate to use an entry/placement exam as the exit exam as the CWE is now designated.

The Initiative will also continue to use our own modified criteria language for the WI rubric since the user audience is students and not professional essay readers.