Reclaiming Accountability Improving Writing Programs through Accreditation and Large-Scale Assessments

Reclaiming Accountability

Improving Writing Programs through Accreditation and
Large-Scale Assessments

edited by Wendy Sharer,
Tracy Ann Morse,
Michelle F. Eble,
and William P. Banks


Reclaiming Accountability brings together a series of critical case studies of writing programs that have planned, implemented, and/or assessed the impact of large-scale accreditation-supported initiatives. The book reimagines accreditation as a way to leverage institutional or programmatic change.

Contributions to the volume are divided into three parts. Part 1 considers how specialists in composition and rhetoric can work most productively with accrediting bodies to design assessments and initiatives that meet requirements while also helping those agencies to better understand how writing develops and how it can most effectively be assessed. Parts 2 and 3 present case studies of how institutions have used ongoing accreditation and assessment imperatives to meet student learning needs through programmatic changes and faculty development. They provide concrete examples of productive curricular (Part 2) and instructional (Part 3) changes that can follow from accreditation mandates while providing guidance for navigating challenges and pitfalls that WPAs may encounter within shifting and often volatile local, regional, and national contexts.

In addition to providing examples of how others in the profession might approach such work, Reclaiming Accountability addresses assessment requirements beyond those in the writing program itself. It will be of interest to department heads, administrators, writing program directors, and those involved with writing teacher education, among others.

Paper: $29.95
Adobe Digital Edition Ebook*: $23.95
ISBN: 978-1-60732-434-8
Pages: 344