The National Study of Writing Instruction - University at Albany

Year 1: Analysis of Existing National Assessment Data
Methods
As background to the studies to follow in years 2 through 4, the first year of NSWI focused
on data available from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Background items
from questionnaires administered to teachers, students, and school administrators for
NAEP cross-sectional and longitudinal assessments in reading and writing were
inventoried for items related to the teaching of writing in particular and literacy in general,
at Grade 8/ age 13 and Grade 12/ age 17.
For all relevant items, the NAEP Data Explorer
(http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/) was used to generate the percent of
students at each response category, using the national public school sample. Changes in
percents over time and across subgroups were calculated and tested for significance using
the significance tests built into the NAEP Data Explorer. Related results from assessment
cycles not included in the Data Explorer were gathered from previously published reports
on NAEP assessments of reading and writing.
Dependent variables of interest related to amount and types of writing, in English and the
content areas; writing instruction; writing processes; school-wide literacy initiatives; and
uses of technology to support writing instruction.
Independent variables used to define subgroups included assessment (reading, writing;
long-term trend, cross sectional), race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and community
type.
Preliminary results based on data through 2002 were reported in:
Arthur N. Applebee & Judith A. Langer, The state of writing instruction in America’s schools:
What existing data tell us. Albany, NY: Center on English Learning & Achievement,
University at Albany, 2006.
http://www.albany.edu/aire/news/State%20of%20Writing%20Instruction.pdf
This report was updated with data from the 2007 assessment and published as:
Arthur N. Applebee and Judith A. Langer, What is happening in the teaching of
writing? English Journal 98:5 (May 2009). Pp. 18-28.
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