For Teachers: 2000 Assessment

SPRING 2016

  • Dates and information about the Spring 2014 2000 assessment are forthcoming.

In Spring 2011, we successfully launched a new assessment model, designed in consultation with several focus groups of instructors and GTAs, numerous meetings with the Steering Committee, Assessment Committee, 2000 Implementation Committee and Professional Development Committee. These committees were made up of almost half of our instructors and a number of GTAs.   

This model allows us to assess the effectiveness of ENGL 2000 overall based on a sampling from each section, rather than scoring every student's final essay. This new model means that you will spend less time scoring and have more freedom in assigning final essay topics. 

Essay guidelines

In order to allow us to compare essays across sections, the last assigned essay in your class must be a researched argument paper. The 2000 Committee has written guidelines for that assignment; please refer to the section on the right for more information. As you design your syllabus, please keep the deadline for that assessment in mind, which will be announced at the beginning of each semester via email.

Instructions for submitting assessment essays

For each essay, please… 

  1. Save it as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx) 
    • Make sure that the works cited page is part of the same document.
    • Title it “Yourname.Section#.Roster#” for example: Jones.013.2
  1. Make sure that the last 5 digits of the student’s LSU ID (89 number) is included in the heading.
  1. Send us one email for each section you teach (with essays attached)
    • Please do not ask students to email their work directly to us.
  1. For students who did not submit essays, please make a brief note in the email to which the other essays are attached.

Please submit essays from the selected students on your roster(s) by noon on April 27, to uwprogram@lsu.edu. Roster numbers of selected students will be announced via email by April 15.

FAQs

What if the randomly selected students aren’t the strongest writers in my class?
In past semesters, many teachers have worried that their randomly selected student essays did not represent the best writing from their class (sometimes quite the opposite). That is to be expected, and it’s okay. Please remember that this assessment is in no way used to assess teacher or student performance; we do not disaggregate scores by section or instructor. 

How are the results used?
We analyze the aggregate numbers for information that helps us determine how well we’re achieving our goals as a program and how we could do better. This information is used internally by UWP staff to guide program design and is also shared with university administrators and accreditation organizations like SACS.

You can see a breakdown of last semester’s results here.

Can I see how my students did?
Yes! But not right away. For one thing, we don’t  want assessment results to make you second-guess your grades. And, like you, we’re swamped at the end of the semester. If you send a request for scores over the summer, however, we’ll gladly let you know the results. Be sure to send the request to uwprogram@lsu.edu rather than any of our individual emails so that it doesn't fall through the cracks of our summer schedules.
Please note that essays for assessment are due to uwprogram@lsu.edu by noon on December 3rd, 2014.

 

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