Journal of Writing Assessment

This archival study analyzed the impact of a writing skills placement test at a minority-serving community college. With special emphasis on 1,029 students in the lowest level of developmental writing class, attention was given to both performance (grades and grade point average) and to student placement (in terms of sex and race/ethnicity) from 2012-2016. With findings indicating undue burden on Black students as the result of the placement test, the case study is used to raise questions of success, its formulation, and the instrumental value of the case for next-generation fairness measures for two-year colleges.

Keywords: college composition, fairness, two-year colleges, writing assessment, writing placement