The Writing Assessment Badge Series: Guidance Criteria

What does it mean to be micro-credentialed as a trained scorer of student writing at the National Writing Project (NWP)? Many educators who participate in a National Writing Project scoring event remark that the experience ranks as one of the most powerful professional development events of their career. Writing Project teachers gain access and ability to work with a sophisticated and well-tested rubric instrument. They deepen their knowledge of students and student writing. Educators walk away with new insights about student writing and with new language to describe the writing more productively. They return to their classrooms and educational contexts with a deeper understanding of the relationship between instruction and student writing. They are inspired to inquire more deeply into their teaching pedagogy and work with their colleagues to improve writing instruction to better support student writers.

There are different roles that a Writing Project teacher might take on as they participate in a scoring event. For each role, outlined below are the duties and skills exemplified by a participant at any NWP scoring event. In the Writing Assessment series, participants will earn badges consecutively as they gain more experience and progress through the roles across multiple scoring conferences.

NWP Micro-credential: Scorer

A Writing Project educator who earns the Scorer micro-credential. . .

• Embraces the standards of the NWP scoring system by using the language of the NWP scoring continuum in conjunction with anchor papers to describe and analyze student writing.
• Assigns scores based upon the continuum to student writing.
• Articulates scores and engages in dialogue using the language of the continuum.
• Demonstrates clear communication and analytical skills.
• Achieves an overall level of scoring reliability affirming the technical quality and rigor of the scoring.
• Utilizes NWP’s online scoring system to submit scores and communicate with the Table Leader, Room Leader, and Event Leader when necessary.
• Provides reflective feedback to NWP for future conferences.
• Reflects on the implications of the experience for their professional learning.
• Participates in national online training events as available.

NWP Micro-credential: Table Leader

A Writing Project educator who earns the Table Leader micro-credential. . .

• Completes all of the above.
• Leads a table of Scorers through the training and calibration process.
• Models the language of the continuum to describe student writing.
• Facilitates conversations that clarify how the anchor papers exemplify the score points in the scoring system.
• Facilitates learning and table discussion throughout the scoring conference as Scorers calibrate to the scoring system.
• Reviews Scorers’ work, providing constructive feedback that helps Scorers embrace the standards of the scoring system.
• Conferences with Scorers as necessary throughout the conference.
• Scores papers as a Scorer whenever possible.
• Alerts Room Leaders to issues that are then addressed in ongoing trainings for Scorers throughout the conference.
• Participates in intensive advance preparation for the Table Leader role.
• Provides reflective feedback to NWP for future conferences.
• Reflects on the implications of the Table Leader experience for their professional learning.

NWP Micro-credential: Room Leader

A Writing Project educator who earns the Room Leader micro-credential. . .

• Completes all of the above.
• Designs the training process for Table Leaders and Scorers.
• Leads the training process and scoring event.
• Creates and facilitates mini-lessons and other support materials to help Scorers and Table Leaders embrace the scoring system.
• Designs and delivers intensive training for Table Leaders to lead Scorers through the anchor papers and calibration papers, and models how to use the continuum language to describe student writing.
• Works with the scoring support staff to monitor the progress of the conference and make in-conference adjustments to trainings based on data trends.
• Creates and implements in-conference solutions to address any changing circumstances during scoring conferences.
• Serves as the room Adjudicator who makes a final ruling on a paper’s score when two Scorers assign different scores to a single paper.
• Participates in intensive advance preparation for the Room Leader role.
• Provides reflective feedback to NWP for future conferences.
• Reflects on the implications of the Room Leader experience for their professional learning.

NWP Micro-credential: Rangefinder

A Writing Project educator who earns the Rangefinder micro-credential. . .

• Completes all of the above.
• Is immersed in a collection of student papers written to prompts to be used in a subsequent scoring. Through that immersion, identifies patterns in student writing, categories writing for paper selection, and participates in generative discussions that reveal the qualities contained in the student writing.
• Identifies a robust set of exemplar papers that demonstrate the standards of the scoring system, choosing papers that will serve as strong instructional tools for a scoring conference.
• Composes in depth written justifications that detail how each exemplar paper demonstrates the standards of the scoring system.
• Creates mini lessons that define key terms referencing examples from identified writing samples.
• Participates in intensive advance preparation for the Rangefinding role.
• Designs the training materials for Table Leaders and Scorers.
• Provides reflective feedback to NWP on the existing scoring system.
• Reflects on the implications of the Rangefinding experience for their professional learning.