{"pk":236,"title":"Construct Validity and the Demise of the Analytical Writing Placement Examination (AWPE) at the University of California: A Tale of Social Mobility","subtitle":null,"abstract":"<p>In 2021, the University of California System ended its decades-old timed writing assessment for course placement, due in part to challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond practical crisis, however, the event marks a sea change in educational philosophy away from a universalizing model of cognitive development, which dominated in the 1970s and 1980s, towards a concern for social mobility and student self-assessment. The article explores the historical factors that led to this change, including the emergence of the social mobility index as a new method for evaluating student success. It also unpacks UC's discourse on preparatory education and levels of proficiency, emphasizing instead fairness in writing assessment.</p>","language":"eng","license":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs  4.0","short_name":"CC BY-NC-ND 4.0","text":"Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\r\n\r\nNonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.\r\n\r\nNoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.\r\n\r\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0"},"keywords":[{"word":"University of California"},{"word":"social mobility"},{"word":"preparatory education"},{"word":" standardized testing"},{"word":" construct validity"},{"word":" social mobility"},{"word":" fairness"},{"word":"standardized testing"},{"word":"construct validity"},{"word":"fairness"}],"section":"Article","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3gm126sq","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Daniel","middle_name":"M.","last_name":"Gross","name_suffix":"","institution":"UC Irvine","department":"English"}],"date_submitted":"2023-01-18T17:01:38.264000Z","date_accepted":"2024-05-21T17:38:36.790000Z","date_published":"2024-12-19T13:00:00Z","render_galley":{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/jwa/article/236/galley/31064/download/"},"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/jwa/article/236/galley/31064/download/"}]}