Position Paper

High Stakes Competency Testing

RE 5040, Teacher as Researcher

 

This paper should be a five to seven pages (word processed, double spaced) that addresses issues related to current trends related to high stakes competency testing and the No Child Left Behind legislation. It is worth 20% of your final grade. You should explore the issue, citing relevant literature. More important, you should explain how testing mandates have effected your teaching, take a position on their long term impact and worth for education in America, and make suggestions for changing or fine-tuning the process.

 

 

 

 

Rubric

 

 

 

 Beginning

Developing

Accomplished

Score

Total

20

Content

  • Cites relevant literature
  • Discusses personal impact
  • States position
  • Makes Recommendations

 
Provides basic treatment of required elements

Provides a comprehensive treatment of at least two required elements and basic treatment of the other two
Provides a detailed and insigtful explanation of all elements. Provides detailed personal examples of the impact
 
Scoring Continuum
0  
10
  

Writer's Craft

Creativity, Flow, Organization, Transitions

Loose organization: tangential information; lacks introduction and/or conclusion; unfocused
Hard to follow in some places; some reorganization would enhance readability of the paper; lacks transitions.
Smooth flow of ideas, paper is cohesive: includes introduction, conclusion, transitions, headings and subheadings.
 
Scoring Continuum
0  
5
  

Mechanics

Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling, APA
Faulty punctuation; misspellings; sentence fragments and other mechanical errors, which detract from the content.
Some grammatical, puncutation and APA errors.
Appropriate punctuation, sentence and paragraph formation; appropriate use of APA style for references.
 
Scoring Continuum
0  
5