Cynthia Wiseman - City University of New York.

This study compared the performance of a holistic and an analytic scoring rubric to assess ESL writing for placement and diagnostic purposes in a community college basic skills program. The study used Rasch many-faceted measurement to investigate the performance of both rubrics in scoring second language (L۲) writing samples from a departmental final examination. Rasch analyses were used to determine whether the rubrics successfully separated examinees along a continuum of L۲ writing proficiency.  The study also investigated whether each category in the two six-point rubrics were useful.  Both scales appeared to be measuring a single latent trait of writing ability.  Raters hardly used the lower category of the holistic rubric, suggesting that it might be collapsed to create a five-point scale. The six-point scale of the analytic rubric, on the other hand, separated examinees across a wide range of strata of L۲ writing ability and might therefore be the better instrument in assessment for diagnostic and placement purposes.

L۲ writing assessment, Analytic scoring, Holistic scoring, Rubrics, Rasch, MFRM