Writing center assessment

Writing center assessment refers to a set of practices used to evaluate writing center spaces. Writing center assessment builds on the larger theories of writing assessment methods and applications by focusing on how those processes can be applied to writing center contexts. In many cases, writing center assessment and any assessment of academic support structures in university settings builds on programmatic assessment principles as well. As a result, writing center assessment can be considered a branch of programmatic assessment, and the methods and approaches used here can be applied to a range of academic support structures, such as digital studio spaces.

While writing centers have been prominent features in university settings dating back to the 1970s in American higher education, questions remain about the role of the writing center in improving student writing ability. In discussing the lack of discussion about writing center assessment, Casey Jones compares writing centers to the group Alcoholics Anonymous, claiming that "both AA and writing labs have similar features" yet "the structure of AA complicates empirical research, the desired outcome, sobriety, can be clearly defined and measured. The clear-cut assessment of writing performance is a far more elusive task". Between 1985 and 1989 the Writing Lab Newsletter, a popular publication among writing center directors, lacked discussion of hard evaluation of writing centers, illustrating the early lack of discussion about assessment in the context of writing centers, instead focusing primarily on advice and how-to guides. In many cases, writing center directors or writing program administrators (WPAs) are responsible for assessing writing centers, and must communicate these results to academic administration and various stakeholders. Assessment is seen as beneficial for writing centers because it leads us to assume the professional and ethical behaviors important not just for writing centers but for all higher education.

One of the major sources of methods and approaches to writing center assessment comes from writing assessment at large, and programmatic assessment. James Bell argues that directors of writing centers should "turn to educational program evaluation and select general types of evaluations most appropriate for writing centers". Writing center assessment methods can largely be divided into two major forms of methods: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative methods are predicated on the desire to understand teaching and learning from the actions and perspectives of teachers and learners, and has largely dominated knowledge making in composition studies, particularly in the last twenty years.Quantitative methods, meanwhile, stem from the belief that the world works in predictable patterns, ones that might be isolated in terms of their causes and effects or the strengths of their relationships (i.e., correlation). The use of quantitative methods in writing center contexts leaves room for issues to arise, however, such as data being interpreted incorrectly to support the work of the writing center, or not choosing appropriate data to measure student success like ACT writing test scores or course grades in first-year composition courses. Some writing scholars endorse quantitative methods more thoroughly than others, and see them as most helpful when reframed in a postmodern epistemology since most writing center directors subscribe to a theory of epistemology that sees knowledge as constructed, tenuous, and relative. Writing center scholars such as Stephen North group these methodologies into three larger approaches: Reflections on Experience, or looking back of writing center events to help others out in similar situations; Speculation, or a theory of how writing centers should work; and Surveys, or what he champions as enumeration. Fitting into and blending these methods, several writing studies scholars have published articles on methods used in assessing different elements of writing centers which can be seen in the sections below.

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