Journal of Writing Assessment

As a new Writing Program Director at a large R1 institution, my research focuses on ways to understand the challenges for disabled and neurodivergent students in our institutional writing placement. Since placement policies are often impacted by both internal and external factors over time, it may be hard for well-established institutional leaders to see the consequences of some of the administrative policies in our program. To that end, I hope this research is the beginning of enacting best practice disability policies at my institution in order to facilitate access, belonging, and equity in high stakes writing placement. Since all writing programs must align their curricular, pedagogical, and administrative purposes with institutional directives, I will also consider what can and cannot be easily changed and provide concrete and varied suggestions that may transfer across different institutions. My long-term goal is to move our program and our institution towards Margaret Price’s (2024) “collective accountability” (p.169). We need accountability that arises from a fundamental concern about the varying needs of the diverse students who come to our campus. I seek to explore a new framework for differently-abled students to navigate placement and that may help us adapt our institutional practices for assessment in ethical and sustainable ways.