RE: FERPA & Writing consultants

["Jeanne H. Simpson" <csjhs@ux1.cts.eiu.edu>]

Scott
The good news is that we have gotten rid of our writing competency exam,
effective next year. The bad news is that it took us 18 years to do it.
We are replacing it with a portfolio system, something actually connected to
the curriculum (how's that for an innovation?).   I and the two directors
who succeeded me struggled for years to convince the curriculum council and
the advisory committee for this exam that the exam offered no useful
information.  The weak writers already knew they were weak and the good ones
blazed right on through, as their freshman comp grades predicted, so as an
assessment tool, it was not useful.  The test offered no pedagogical value,
for all students learned from it was how to pass this meaningless test.  It
did channel some students to the writing center, but usually only after they
were either angry or discouraged, creating further obstacles to learning.
And administering it, training scorers, paying them, recording and
distributing scores, all that cost resources-time, people, space, and money.
For no good result except for us to be able to claim that we had tough
writing standards (which was at best a distortion of the truth).  We've gone
to a portfolio process because it gives us a far more effective assessment
tool.

WE have handled the matter of failures pretty much as you describe.  I
reviewed the failed exams myself and prepared a list of elements needing
work for the tutors to see.    The exams were held in the office of testing
services, so I could not take the texts to the writing center.  While that
was inconvenient, it avoided the FERPA issues you mention.

You are correct in your view that the existence of such a test will channel
tutoring into a direction that is not desirable.  It makes sense to teach
students how to pass the test: write a low-risk essay.  Don't take any
chances, don't play with an idea, just crank out a canned response and be
done with it.  If you can't remember how to punctuate a compound sentence,
don't write one.  It becomes a game of error-avoidance, not writing.

If I were you, I would pose the dilemmas to your provost and ask what your
priorities should be: teaching to the test or working with the faculty to
devise a better way to do teaching and assessing of writing?

Jeanne Simpson
csjhs@eiu.edu
-----Original Message-----
From:	owner-wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu [mailto:owner-wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu] On
Behalf Of Scott Hendrix
Sent:	Tuesday, October 05, 1999 7:54 AM
To:	wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu
Subject:	FERPA & Writing consultants

Hi all,

how do you handle student privacy issues with regard to peer writing
consultants and tutoring work with other students?

I ask because here at Albion College we have a college-wide "competency
exam," a timed writing that must be passed in order for a student to
graduate. In the past, students who failed the exam twice had to enroll in a
one-on-one tutorial with the faculty director of the exam. Now that the
college has a writing center, I have been planning to have students who fail
the exam work with writing consultants on assessing their exams, discussing
strategies for prepping, writing under time pressure, proofreading and
revision in crunch time, etc. The sad reality is that the exam asks for and
almost requires a pat 5 paragraph theme. This format may be changed in the
future, but the short-term need is how to deal with it as is. (I'd also be
interested to hear from folks who have worked to successfully revise or
eliminate such writing "hoops"--though as a new faculty member, I'm only
learning the long history and nuances of this writing event...)

Do you think the plan for utilizing writing consultants is a good idea?
And/or does this kind of sharing of information--having WC folks read
"failed" essays, and working with students who have failed the exam,
etc.--violate the Buckley Amendment/FERPA guidelines? This kind of
information would likely come out during discussion and work in the writing
center--but then it is volunteered by students.

Advice please--suggestions for who else I should ask? (I'm also contacting
the Dean of Students here, as well as the Provost, my boss.)

Thanks in advance!

Scott

Scott Hendrix
Director of Writing
Albion College