Composition: History & Theory: 1920 - 1929
Placement Tests
Description
In Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1900-1985 (1987), James Berlin describes the onset of programs using placement testing in order to group students by writing ability, exemplified by a description of Syracuse University’s first year writing program which divided its students up into three tiers, the lowest focusing strictly on grammar and usage concerns, the middle on expository writing, and the highest tier centered on writing about literature. Grading was also “set up as the model…[of] 25% A’s and B’s, 50% C’s, and 25% D’s, E’s, and F’s (D was a passing grade)” (67).
Date of Upload
3/13/09