Thursday, July 23, 2015
Faculty have approved the following two resolutions by a vote of 12 (yes) – 0 (no) – 0 (abstentions).
(1)
Whereas the current guideline for equating Level VI final essay scores of 6.5 to 78% satisfies matriculation requirements for all undergraduate CAP RW courses but does not satisfy matriculation requirements for GRAD CAP RW courses because the qualifying grade threshold for graduate CAP courses is B+ (88%) and not B (83%), as it is for undergraduate CAP RW courses, be it therefore resolved that :
the guidelines for equating final essay scores of 6.5 in graduate CAP RW classes be henceforth changed to 83%.
(2)
Whereas the current prompt-based final essay used in Graduate CAP RW courses does not reflect tasks asked of students in the vast majority of graduate courses at UD and other institutions; whereas an assessment asking students to read and summarize a text, in addition to writing an essay in response to a question about the same text (henceforth referred to as “response essay”) is considered by current research in second language writing and by national assessment centers, such as College Board, to have more face and construct validity than traditional prompt based essays in assessing students preparing to enter graduate programs, be it therefore
resolved that:
all GRAD CAP RW courses adopt response essay formats as their final essays and that a rating rubric and norm-reference protocol be developed as part of the administration of the GRADVI assessment.