Re: exams for freshman composition

[anne mullin <mullanne@isu.edu>]

Denise M. Rogers wrote:
> 
> 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
Denise -- this should generate all kinds of interest!  I hope lots of
folks respond -- my own bias is against exit exams, yet I foresee the
day when they could very well be mandated here as a measure of
accountability.  When I was working on my M.A. at the University of
Maine, all faculty and TA's participated in the holistic scoring of
mandatory exit essays -- it certainly was a great bonding experience for
the TA's, but it was rather a drag otherwise. The students who took the
writing test at the end of their semester of freshman comp were in
better shape, as I recall, to pass or do their one re-take, or repeat
the course.  The real problems came with upper classmen, graduating
seniors, for ex., who had somehow deferred taking the test -- and then
were in horrendous difficulties if they failed at the last minute.  If
UMaine still has this, maybe someone will chime in here and give a more
accurate and up-to-date picture of how it works.