This document discusses research that will be conducted to analyze high school students' perceptions of their readiness for standardized writing assessments. A survey containing Likert-scale and open-ended questions will be administered to 100 eleventh-grade students to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The data will be analyzed using descriptive analysis for the quantitative data and grounded theory for the qualitative data to determine students' self-perceptions of their writing skills and how instruction could be improved.

1. *High School
Students’
Perceptions on
Readiness for
Standardized Test
Writing
Assessments

2. *Because writing is assessed on standardized
exams, students should feel prepared to approach
writing tasks.
*Some students vocalize that they are ill prepared
for standardized writing assessments after testing.
*Analyzing students’ perceptions on writing
readiness will help teachers improve writing
instruction.

3. *To what degree do high school students feel
prepared to perform well on standardized writing
assessments?
*Analysis of responses might help:
oIncrease students’ self-efficacy
oImprove instruction
oDrive curriculum changes

4. 1. Barnes and Slate- Defines college readiness and
explores differences between college readiness and
academic preparedness.
2. Barnes-Examines political implications of college
readiness and provides critical analysis of readiness
expectations that drive secondary school curriculum.
3. Kless, Soland, and Santiago-Research exploring
college readiness resulted in development of tri-level
college readiness indicator system

5. 4. Applebee and Langer, 2009-Teachers’ and
students’ perceptions of curriculum and
instruction led to determination that English
teachers need to address gaps between high
school and college writing.
5. Chapman, 2006-Students’ perceptions of
literacy learning concluded that more
university/high school partnerships are needed to
increase college-readiness.

6. 6. Jones, 2007-Study of three successful high
school teachers from an urban, culturally diverse
school are studied to identify trends in their
instruction.
7. Radcliffe and Bos, 2013-Experimental study
identifies college and career readiness goals and
strategies that result in improvement of academic
perception and development of stronger
perseverance in high school.

7. *Research will be conducted in the convergent
mixed-methods approach via a survey.
*Quantitative data will be collected non-
experimentally with 7 Likert-type survey questions.
*Qualitative data will be gathered through 3
open-ended written interview questions, which
follows grounded theory design.

8. *Theoretical sampling will be used to select
participants who represent typical and atypical
eleventh grade students in a metropolitan public
school setting.
*The sample size will be 100 students.

9. *A survey will be the measurement
instrument for this research.
*To insure validity and validity of the
measurement instrument, we will
conduct pilot tests on colleagues.

10. I am able to communicate effectively in writing.
1 2 3 4 5
In general, I have a clear idea of what my teachers require for a
writing assignment.
1 2 3 4 5
I can make an outline for an essay, which includes a thesis, key
ideas, and supporting statements.
1 2 3 4 5
I am comfortable with my command of English grammar,
punctuation, and spelling.
1 2 3 4 5
My teachers provide me with detailed feedback on how to
improve my writing skills.
1 2 3 4 5
My teachers provide 3-4 opportunities per week to practice my
writing skills.
1 2 3 4 5
My teachers allow peer review for writing assignments.
1 2 3 4 5

11. * On a grading scale of A-F, A being excellent and F being unsatisfactory, how would
you grade your overall writing skills?
Circle one: A B C D E
* Why did you select the grade you circled above?
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* What do you believe are the characteristics of effective writing?
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* If you were given a writing prompt and 60 minutes to draft an essay, would you be
able to draft a response you would consider effective? Why or why not?
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12. *Quantitative data will be analyzed according to
descriptive design to determine percentage of
student agreement or disagreement with each
survey item.
*Qualitative data will be analyzed to develop a
theory about how instruction could better address
students’ writing development needs.
*This approach will create triangulation of the data.

13. *External validity of the research could be an issue
as students from other schools could have
differing perceptions about their writing abilities.
*Because students will be selected randomly,
students could be enrolled in regular, honors, or
AP English classes and this phenomenon could
influence responses.

14. *Results from the research could help an English
department implement writing interventions to
help improve students writing skills.
*Students’ reflections could help teachers focus
their instruction of writing in areas students
identified as needing improvement.