*High School Students’ Perceptions on Readiness for Standardized Test Writing Assessments

*Because writing is assessed on standardized exams, students should feel prepared to approach writing tasks.*Some students vocalize that they are ill

prepared for standardized writing assessments after testing. *Analyzing students’ perceptions on writing

readiness will help teachers improve writing instruction.

*To what degree do high school students feel prepared to perform well on standardized writing assessments? *Analysis of responses might help:oIncrease students’ self-efficacyoImprove instructionoDrive curriculum changes

1. Barnes and Slate- Defines college readiness and explores differences between college readiness and academic preparedness.

2. Barnes-Examines political implications of college readiness and provides critical analysis of readiness expectations that drive secondary school curriculum.

3. Kless, Soland, and Santiago-Research exploring college readiness resulted in development of tri-level college readiness indicator system

4. Applebee and Langer, 2009-Teachers’ and students’ perceptions of curriculum and instruction led to determination that English teachers need to address gaps between high school and college writing.5. Chapman, 2006-Students’ perceptions of literacy learning concluded that more university/high school partnerships are needed to increase college-readiness.

6. Jones, 2007-Study of three successful high school teachers from an urban, culturally diverse school are studied to identify trends in their instruction.

7. Radcliffe and Bos, 2013-Experimental study identifies college and career readiness goals and strategies that result in improvement of academic perception and development of stronger perseverance in high school.

*Research will be conducted in the convergent mixed-methods approach via a survey.*Quantitative data will be collected non-

experimentally with 7 Likert-type survey questions.*Qualitative data will be gathered through

3 open-ended written interview questions, which follows grounded theory design.

*Theoretical sampling will be used to select participants who represent typical and atypical eleventh grade students in a metropolitan public school setting.*The sample size will be 100 students.

*A survey will be the measurement instrument for this research.

*To insure validity and validity of the measurement instrument, we will conduct pilot tests on colleagues.

I am able to communicate effectively in writing.   1 2 3 4 5

 

In general, I have a clear idea of what my teachers require for a writing assignment.

 1 2 3 4 5

 

I can make an outline for an essay, which includes a thesis, key ideas, and supporting statements.

 1 2 3 4 5 

I am comfortable with my command of English grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

 1 2 3 4 5 

My teachers provide me with detailed feedback on how to improve my writing skills.

 1 2 3 4 5 

My teachers provide 3-4 opportunities per week to practice my writing skills.

 1 2 3 4 5 

My teachers allow peer review for writing assignments.  1 2 3 4 5 

* On a grading scale of A-F, A being excellent and F being unsatisfactory, how would you grade your overall writing skills?

 Circle one: A B C D E

* Why did you select the grade you circled above?_________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

* What do you believe are the characteristics of effective writing?_________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

* If you were given a writing prompt and 60 minutes to draft an essay, would you be able to draft a response you would consider effective? Why or why not?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

*Quantitative data will be analyzed according to descriptive design to determine percentage of student agreement or disagreement with each survey item.*Qualitative data will be analyzed to develop

a theory about how instruction could better address students’ writing development needs.*This approach will create triangulation of the

data.

*External validity of the research could be an issue as students from other schools could have differing perceptions about their writing abilities.*Because students will be selected

randomly, students could be enrolled in regular, honors, or AP English classes and this phenomenon could influence responses.

*Results from the research could help an English department implement writing interventions to help improve students writing skills.*Students’ reflections could help teachers

focus their instruction of writing in areas students identified as needing improvement.