Genre Demands in State Writing Assessments

Through syntactic analysis of 78 state prompts and content analysis of 35 rubrics and 27 state standards, the study explores genre demands in state writing assessments. It found that 23% of prompts possessed one of two problematic features: 14% of prompts were ambiguous, and 9% of prompts had implicit genre expectations. Almost one third of those prompts that possessed problematic features were used with genre-mastery rubrics. The study also found that 22% of state standards do not cover all the genres assessed in their corresponding writing assessments. The ambiguity and implicit genre expectations in writing prompts and the limited congruence of state writing assessments with learning expectations pose potential threats to the valid interpretation and use of these writing assessments.