ABOUT THIS BOOK

Reclaiming Accountability brings together a series of critical case studies of writing programs that have planned, implemented, and/or assessed the impact of large-scale accreditation-supported initiatives. The book reimagines accreditation as a way to leverage institutional or programmatic change.

Contributions to the volume are divided into three parts. Part 1 considers how specialists in composition and rhetoric can work most productively with accrediting bodies to design assessments and initiatives that meet requirements while also helping those agencies to better understand how writing develops and how it can most effectively be assessed. Parts 2 and 3 present case studies of how institutions have used ongoing accreditation and assessment imperatives to meet student learning needs through programmatic changes and faculty development. They provide concrete examples of productive curricular (part 2) and instructional (part 3) changes that can follow from accreditation mandates while providing guidance for navigating challenges and pitfalls that WPAs may encounter within shifting and often volatile local, regional, and national contexts.

In addition to providing examples of how others in the profession might approach such work, Reclaiming Accountability addresses assessment requirements beyond those in the writing program itself. It will be of interest to department heads, administrators, writing program directors, and those involved with writing teacher education, among others.

Contributors: Linda Adler-Kassner, William P. Banks, Remica Bingham-Risher, Melanie Burdick, Polina Chemishanova, Malkiel Choseed, Kyle Christiansen, Angela Crow, Maggie Debelius, Michelle F. Eble, Jonathan Elmore, Lorna Gonzalez, Angela Green, Jim Henry, Ryan Hoover, Rebecca Ingalls, Cynthia Miecznikowski, Susan Miller-Cochran, Cindy Moore, Tracy Ann Morse, Joyce Magnotto Neff, Karen Nulton, Peggy O’Neill, Jessica Parker, Mary Rist, Rochelle Rodrigo, Tulora Roeckers, Shirley K. Rose, Iris M. Saltiel, Wendy Sharer, Terri Van Sickle, Jane Chapman Vigil, David M. Weed

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Wendy Sharer, Tracy Ann Morse, Michelle F. Eble, and William P. Banks are writing faculty at East Carolina University. When their program faced reaccreditation in 2013, they chose to address the process as an opportunity to garner institutional support for revisions to their composition and writing across the curriculum programs.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Introduction: Accreditation and Assessment as Opportunity - Wendy Sharer, Tracy Ann Morse, Michelle F. Eble, and William P. Banks

Part One: Laying the Foundations—Educating and Learning from Accrediting Bodies

1. Assessing for Learning in an Age of Comparability: Remembering the Importance of Context - Cindy Moore, Peggy O’Neill, and Angela Crow

2. QEP Evaluation as Opportunity: Teaching and Learning through the Accreditation Process - Susan Miller-Cochran and Rochelle Rodrigo

3. Understanding Accreditation’s History and Role in Higher Education: How It Matters to College Writing Programs - Shirley K. Rose

Part Two: Curriculum and Program Development through Assessment and Accreditation

4. Going All In: Creating a Community College Writing Program through the QEP and Reaccreditation Process - Jonathan Elmore and Teressa Van Sickle

5. Moving Forward: What General Studies Assessment Taught Us about Writing, Instruction, and Student Learning - Jessica Parker and Jane Chapman Vigil

6. Making Peace with a “Regrettable Necessity”: Composition Instructors Negotiate Curricular Standardization - David Weed, Tulora Roeckers, and Melanie Burdick

7. A Tool for Program Building: Programmatic Assessment and the English Department at Onondaga Community College - Malkiel Choseed

8. Centering and De-Centering Assessment: Accountability, Accreditation, and Expertise - Karen Nulton and Rebecca Ingalls

9. Using Accountability to Garner Writing Program Resources, Support Emerging Writing Researchers, and Enhance Program Visibility: Implementing the UH Writing Mentors during WASC Reaccreditation - Jim Henry

10. SEUFolios: A Tool for Using ePortfolios as Both Departmental Assessment and Multimodal Pedagogy - Ryan S. Hoover and Mary Rist

Part Three : Faculty Development through Assessment and Accreditation

11. Write to the Top: How One Regional University Made Writing Everybody’s Business - Polina Chemishanova and Cynthia Miecznikowski

12. “Everybody Writes”: Accreditation-Based Assessment as Professional Development at a Research Intensive University - Linda Adler-Kassner and Lorna Gonzalez

13. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Assessment: Lessons from a Thresholds-Based Approach - Maggie Debelius

14. Faculty Learning Outcomes: The Impact of QEP Workshops on Faculty Beliefs and Practices - Joyce Neff and Remica Bingham-Risher

15. From the Outside In: Creating a Culture of Writing through a QEP - Angela Green, Iris Saltiel, and Kyle Christiansen

About the Authors

Index

REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE

If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you with an electronic file for alternative access.

Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.

It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.