2019
Plenary Speech
Sara Cushing
Assessment literacy for writing teachers
Assessment literacy refers to the knowledge and skills that teachers need to design, implement and evaluate valid and fair assessments in their classrooms. Assessment literacy is also necessary for understanding the role that policy-driven large-scale tests play in the lives of students and teachers. In this presentation, I outline recent scholarly conceptualizations of assessment literacy and discuss the fundamental concepts of reliability, validity and practicality as they relate to writing assessment. I then discuss the notion of “assessment for learning,” (Assessment Reform Group, 2002) in contrast to “assessment of learning,” and provide some strategies to help writing teachers use assessment effectively and efficiently to support language learning.
Sara Cushing (also known as Sara Cushing Weigle) is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Georgia State University and Senior Faculty Associate for the Assessment of Student Learning in the Office of Institutional Effectiveness. She received her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from UCLA. She has published research in the areas of assessment, second language writing, and teacher education, and is the author of Assessing Writing (2002, Cambridge University Press). She has been invited to speak and conduct workshops on second language writing assessment throughout the world, most recently in Vietnam, Colombia, Thailand, and Norway. Her current research focuses on assessing integrated skills and the use of automated scoring for second language writing.