Assessment
There are several approaches to writing assessment, but I will discuss only two of the
most commonly used and researched: portfolio assessment and curriculum-based measurement.
Portfolios are purposeful collections of authentic student writing and associated products
accumulated over time to represent a body of work that can help inform teachers’ instruction and
permit students to set meaningful goals for their writing (Au & Valencia, 1997; Valencia & Au,
1997). As such, portfolio assessment is viewed as more valid method for evaluating writing
performance than standardized tests or on-demand direct writing assessments, because it
represents the complexity of the types of writing tasks students perform in the curriculum (e.g.,
Wolf, 1989). Portfolio assessment is a response to the inherent limitations of these other methods
of writing assessment, which have been criticized for evaluating students’ writing capabilities in
a narrow set of genres, requiring students to respond to dry and irrelevant topic prompts, if they