Re: exams for freshman composition

["Denise M. Rogers" <dmr2899@usl.edu>]

Centaurs,

This fall our freshman composition program will be giving a standard
exit essay exam to all of our developmental English students. Here at
USL, students must pass both the course and the exit exam in order to
move on to English 101. This exam will be graded by two faculty members:
1) the teacher who had the student for the course, and 2) another
teacher who is also a instructor for developmental English. In the case
where there is a disagreement between the instructors as to whether or
not the essay passes, the essay in question will be given to a third
reader.

I would like to know how many other institutions have exit exams of this
type for English. They seem fairly common in math and science courses.
We would like to institute this for the 101 courses, too; the experience
with the developmental course, we feel, will prepare us for implementing
this with the 101 students.

Denise Rogers
Director of Freshman Composition
University of Southwestern Louisiana