Effect on performance of timely feedback on state writing assessments

The effect of timely feedback for a state writing assessment on subsequent writing performance was investigated. Also, agreement between teachers' scores on assessment and the state department's scores was compared. Eighth grade English teachers (N=8) were trained on an analytic scoring method which yielded scores on ideas, organization, voice, and conventions. September state writing assessments from the teachers' class were scored by the teachers who also scored assessments for a partner teacher's class. A second parallel writing assessment was administered in February to the trained teachers' classes and eight control classes. Analysis showed good agreement between the teachers' scores and those by the state department. There was 75% agreement on the designation of adequate or inadequate for the students' writing between the teachers and the state department. There was no difference between the writing performance for students of the trained teachers and students in the control classes on the follow-up assessment.