The IEA Study of Written Composition 1: The International Writing Tasks and Scoring Scales

This volume is the first of three in the International Studies in Educational Achievement series dealing with the topic of written composition. This study was initiated by the International Association for Educational Achievement (IEA) and this volume sets forth the rationale behind the study of written composition; it represents the efforts of the many people involved to clarify the domain and to show that it is amenable to international assessment. Part I explores the theoretical background and history of the project and Part II discusses the international writing tasks and illustrations of the international scales.

1989 In my opinion, this book is a landmark report: to date, it is the most comprehensive and clear analysis of the domain of writing and of the creation and validation of appropriate writing tasks to measure that domain ... Not only will it increase our profession's awareness about cross-cultural literacy skills, but it will also provide long-needed procedures and tools for improving writing instruction, assessment, and research. -- College Composition and Communication

1991 ...a clear and often disarmingly honest account of an extremely thorough and systematic attempt to address the perennial problems of validity and reliability... makes illuminating reading for a far wider audience. For anyone, teacher or researcher, interested in the process and teaching of writing on a central element in the curriculum, the chapters which seek to define the domain of school writing make absorbing reading. The development of the scoring scheme...is also meticulously traced and an object lesson in how to develop performance criteria to match a task, the principles of which could usefully be applied to assessment practice in any area of the curriculum. -- Journal of Research in Reading