Rubric-Based Performance Assessment
The University assessed artifacts from participating FWR course sections using a program rubric to determine the how well students developed the FWR outcomes.
In Spring 2025, the University invited instructors who taught ENWR 1506, 1510, 1520, 1530, and 2510 in Fall 2024 or Spring 2025 to participate in the assessment. Instructors selected existing assignments that best represented FWR outcomes. The University Assessment team received assignment selections and student artifacts from 39 of the 73 invited course sections, representing 53 percent participation. The team collected 727 eligible artifacts, selected a systematic random sample of 300 artifacts, and anonymized them before scoring.
Calibration
In August 2025, eight raters with experience teaching in the Writing and Rhetoric Program participated in a multi-day assessment summit. Raters completed a structured calibration and training session, practiced applying the rubric to sample artifacts, and discussed the criteria to refine shared interpretations. The calibration session helped raters reach a common understanding of the rubric and its performance scale. This process established a consistent framework for applying the rubric. Once raters demonstrated consistent use of the rubric, with ratings on practice artifacts differing by no more than one point, the summit proceeded to operational scoring of the 300 sampled artifacts.
Scoring
Two trained raters independently scored each artifact using the FWR rubric (see Appendix A). Writing and Rhetoric faculty developed the rubric, which includes five criteria: Critical Inquiry, Rhetorical Awareness, Sources & Evidence, Organization & Structure, and Sentence-Level Style & Readability. For each criterion, raters used a four-level scale: highly proficient, proficient, competent, and developing. The rubric describes progressively more advanced levels of learning for each criterion. Raters also indicated if a criterion was absent from a student's work product.