Published articles by Jill V Jeffery
Prospects: Comparative Journal of Curriculum, Learning, and Assessment, 2018
Writing and Pedagogy, 2018
The importance of writing ability for academic and career advancement is increasingly a focus of ... more The importance of writing ability for academic and career advancement is increasingly a focus of education research and policy globally. In response to concerns regarding students' writing competence, policymakers and curriculum designers have begun placing more emphasis on writing in nationwide academic standards. However, given the complexity of writing as a cognitively dynamic and sociocultur-ally situated activity, representing the development of writing competence in standards that vary by grade level is challenging, and little is known regarding how educational systems vary in approaching this challenge. In response to calls for more worldwide writing research, we undertake a cross-national examination of writing standards with the aim of informing policymakers, those involved in the research and development of writing standards, and researchers interested in writing development , by comparing how three educational systems (in Denmark, Norway, and the US) have represented writing development in curricular standards. To that end, we ask: (1) How do the three educational systems variously frame writing development in grade-level distinctions for writing standards? (2) How do the developmental pathways implicated in these grade-level distinctions relate to theory and research on writing competence and its development?
The High School Journal, 2017
With adoption of the Common Core (CCSS) in a majority of U.S. states came development of new high... more With adoption of the Common Core (CCSS) in a majority of U.S. states came development of new high-stakes exams. Though researchers have investigated CCSS and related policies, less attention has been directed toward understanding how standards are translated into testing. Due to the influence that high-stakes tests exert on classroom teaching, research is needed to investigate what kinds of changes in test content are associated with CCSS, as well as the potential impact of these changes on students and teachers. Accordingly, this case study examines changes made to one high-stakes exam by comparing pre- and post-CCSS literacy tests administered to high school students in New York. The study responds to the following: (1) How did the adoption of CCSS alter the design of high school literacy exams in New York? (2) To what extent do exams represent measures of college readiness as opposed to early college equivalence? (3) What are the implications of CCSS exam adaptations for the goal of preparing students to be college and career ready? Findings suggest that the rush to implement more rigorous CCSS exams resulted in an exceedingly long and difficult exam that is more representative of early college equivalence rather than of college readiness.
Writing and Pedagogy, 2016
To investigate a diverse sample of adolescent writers' experiences with disciplinary writing, thi... more To investigate a diverse sample of adolescent writers' experiences with disciplinary writing, this study compared 66 adolescents' perceptions of writing through an analysis of interviews as part of a national study. Grounded in a social constructivist framework that stresses the role of agency in the development of writing competence, the study aims to examine factors – including language background and prior writing experiences – that are associated with adolescents' perceptions of their writing development. The study asked: How do L1 and L2 adolescents' perceptions of writing development compare? To what extent, if at all, is agency implicated in patterns of variation? Results of the comparative analysis suggest that varying affordances and constraints, and combinations of these, relate to adolescents' expressed agency toward writing. Affordances include opportunities to select personally relevant subjects and to develop writing through feedback and revision processes; constraints include the use of highly structured writing scaffolds, formulas, and tightly constrained topics. Implications for differentiated scaffolding of writing instruction that might affectively and cognitively engage diverse adolescent learners are discussed.
Research in the Teaching of English
While many adolescents in U.S. school settings do not meet basic levels of writing proficiency, n... more While many adolescents in U.S. school settings do not meet basic levels of writing proficiency, new standards and assessments hold all students regardless of academic performance history and language background to higher standards for disciplinary writing. In response to calls for research that can characterize a range of adolescents’ writing experiences, this study investigated the amount and kinds of writing adolescents with different academic performance histories and language backgrounds produced in math, science, social studies and English language arts classes in schools with local reputations of excellence. By applying categories of type and length, the writing of 66 students (26 English learners (L2); 19 native English speakers (L1) identified by school norms as lower-performing and 21 identified as higher-performing) from California, Kentucky, New York, and Texas was analyzed. We found the majority of writing adolescents produced did not require composing of more than a paragraph. Exceptions were essays in English language arts and persuasive essays and reports in social studies- almost half of which were source-based tasks. In addition, considerable differences were noted in the range of genres and amount of extended writing produced among L1 writers with histories of higher performance in contrast with L1 writers with histories of lower performance and L2 writers. These findings are discussed in light of Common Core State Standards shifts and the implications they hold for content area teachers who teach adolescents with different achievement histories and language backgrounds.
This multiple case study investigated how the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for writing and ... more This multiple case study investigated how the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for writing and teacher evaluation system based in part on CCSS assessments might be influencing writing instruction in elementary schools. The sample included nine schools: Six achieved above-predicted performance on English Language Arts (ELA) as well as prior ELA assessments (called “odds-beating”), and three demographically similar schools that achieved predicted outcomes on the same assessments (called “typically performing”). Interview and focus group transcripts (N = 30), classroom observations (N = 24), and documentary data were collected and analyzed. Findings from this study revealed that teachers in the majority of schools were using evidence based practices such as peer collaboration, prewriting/planning/drafting, using rubrics, and writing to learn. They focused on comparison/contrast and writing based on research tasks. Teachers shared a generally positive view of the CCSS for writing. However, typically performing school teachers expressed a more negative view regarding the paucity of emphasis on creative writing in the CCSS. The study offers considerations regarding aligning CCSS instruction to evidence based practice highlighted in the research and providing teachers with guidance on scaffolding writing in an effort to develop engaged, motivated, and independent young writers.
Since adolescent English language learners (ELLs) are facing increasing demands to engage
in adv... more Since adolescent English language learners (ELLs) are facing increasing demands to engage
in advanced disciplinary writing and this type of writing is oftentimes one of the most
challenging academic tasks they encounter, this study investigated their experiences with
writing in English language arts, social studies, science, and mathematics classrooms.
Rooted in a social-constructivist conception of writing, which foregrounds the relationship
between individual agency, engagement, and disciplinary discourse, this study asked: 1)
What are adolescent ELLs’ stances toward content-area writing and how do they differ by
grade level? 2) To what factors do adolescent ELLs attribute their stances toward writing?
3) How do adolescent ELLs’ stances vary across content areas and by type of writing? A
micro-level discourse analysis approach was used to analyze interviews with 26 ELLs in
different school contexts with varying emphases on writing in the core disciplines. The
analyses revealed generally positive stances toward source-based writing tasks, even when
students viewed these as challenging, yet negative stances toward writing in which literary
texts provided the source material. This study is timely in light of the increased
emphasis on the development of advanced disciplinary writing competencies among
adolescent ELLs. Implications for pedagogy are discussed.
Research in the Teaching of English, 2014
While many adolescents in US school settings do not achieve basic levels of writing proficiency, ... more While many adolescents in US school settings do not achieve basic levels of writing proficiency, new standards and assessments hold all students, regardless of academic performance history and language background, to higher standards for disciplinary writing. In response to calls for research that can characterize a range of adolescents’ writing experiences, this study investigated the amount and kinds of writing adolescents with different academic performance histories and language backgrounds produced in math, science, social studies, and English language arts classes in schools with local reputations of excellence. By applying categories of type and length, we analyzed the writing of 66 students from California, Kentucky, New York, and Texas: 26 English learners (L2) and 40 native English speakers (L1), of whom 19 were identified by school norms as lower performing and 21 were identified as higher performing. We found the majority of writing tasks adolescents completed did not require composing more than a paragraph. Exceptions were essays in English language arts and persuasive essays and reports in social studies—almost half of which were source-based tasks. In addition, considerable differences were noted in the range of genres and amount of extended writing produced among L1 writers with histories of higher performance in contrast with L1 writers with histories of lower performance and L2 writers. These findings are discussed in light of Common Core State Standards shifts and the implications they hold for content area teachers who teach adolescents with different achievement histories and language backgrounds.
Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2014
This research embedded in the National Study of Writing Instruction examines higher- and lower-ac... more This research embedded in the National Study of Writing Instruction examines higher- and lower-achieving adolescents’ stances toward content-area writing through a qualitative discourse analysis of interviews with 40 students in California, Kentucky, New York, and Texas secondary schools. The study asked: 1) How do students’ stances toward writing compare in general and across disciplines? 2) How do stances compare among middle and high school students and among students with different achievement histories? Results indicate that adolescents generally hold positive attitudes toward the writing they do in school and particularly toward writing that allows for the expression of subjective stances, which students report is more commonly assigned in English language arts (ELA) classrooms. Implications for the adoption of new U.S. standards for disciplinary writing are discussed.
Keywords: stance, adolescent literacy, discourse analysis, social constructivism, writing pedagogy, disciplinary literacy
Peabody Journal of Education, 2013
"This article explores the theory of action underlying New York University’s (NYU’s) Partnership ... more "This article explores the theory of action underlying New York University’s (NYU’s) Partnership Schools Program—explaining in the process what a theory of action is, and how it can be constructed for other innovations in other contexts. NYU’s Partnership Program involves 23 schools, K-12, spanning several of New York City’s most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. It operates on the basis of what the authors call “mutual self-interest” and exploits what they call “complementarity.” The authors illuminate the program’s original as well as its evolving intentions, and the environmental conditions necessary to enact them and to sustain the program over a decade. They also describe the program’s core design elements, with a view to how these may be replicated elsewhere. Finally, they look closely at the Partnership’s theory of action in action, employing action research data to portray a meeting where professors and teachers discuss the teacher education residency experiment they have collaboratively launched."
Learning and Individual Differences, 2013
We present a review of literature drawn from two prominent journals in the fields of Teaching Eng... more We present a review of literature drawn from two prominent journals in the fields of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL Quarterly) and English Education (Research in the Teaching of English) that publish writing research regarding secondary and lower-division postsecondary learners. The purpose of the review is to compare how the two journals represent conceptions of writing — conceptions that shape research designs, data analyses, and the interpretations of findings. Results suggest that, while the two journals share common theoretical concerns with the uses of language, they differ with respect to how they represent the goals and functions of extended written composition in educational settings. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for future research that more deliberately integrates knowledge across the respective fields of English Education and TESOL. Such an integrated approach, we argue, can ultimately help teachers make more informed decisions about how best to differentiate writing instruction in linguistically heterogeneous classrooms.
Research in the Teaching of English, 2011
Composition theorists concerned with students’ academic writing ability have long questioned the ... more Composition theorists concerned with students’ academic writing ability have long questioned the application of voice as a standard for writing competence, and second language compositionists have suggested that English language learners may be disadvantaged by the practice of emphasizing voice in the evaluation of student writing. Despite these criticisms, however, voice continues to frequently appear as a goal in guidelines for teaching writing and on high-stakes writing assessment rubrics in the United States. Given the apparent lack of alignment between theory and practice regarding its use, more empirical research is needed to understand how teachers apply voice as a criterion in the evaluation of student writing. Researchers have used sociocultural and functionalist frameworks to analyze voice-related discursive patterns, yet we do not know how readers evaluate written texts for voice. To address this gap in research the present study asked: 1) What language features do secondary English teachers associate with voice in secondary students’ writing and how do they explain their associations? 2) How do such identified features vary across genres as well as among readers? Nineteen teachers were interviewed using a think-aloud protocol designed to illuminate their perceptions of voice in narrative and expository samples of secondary students’ writing. Results from an inductive analysis of interview transcripts suggest that participating teachers associated voice with appraisal features, such as amplified expressions of affect and judgment, that are characteristic of literary genres.
Teacher Education Quarterly, 2010
Educational reformers have argued that universities and the schools they serve must work as partn... more Educational reformers have argued that universities and the schools they serve must work as partners in teacher education so as to tighten linkages between theory and practice (e.g., Anagnostopoulos, Smith, & Basmadjian, 2007; Bullough & Draper, 2004; Darling-Hammond & Baratz-Snowden, 2007; Patterson, 1999). Such partnerships ultimately aim to achieve “simultaneous renewal” wherein each institution participates equitably in a “mutually beneficial relationship” (Goodlad, 1993, p. 29). However, because partnerships are commonly initiated and evaluated by universities rather than schools, research on the effectiveness of these efforts in meeting partnership goals has typically focused on benefits to university students rather than to the host schools (e.g., Adams, Bondy, & Kuhel, 2005; Buczynski & Sisserson, 2008; Darling-Hammond & Baratz Snowden, 2007). Partnership models assume that schools benefit, if indirectly, because partnershipbased programs will produce teachers whose preparation is more closely aligned with schools’ needs. But do school personnel perceive these and other benefits?
PhD Dissertation, Jan 1, 2010
“Voice” is widely considered to be a feature of effective writing. It’s no surprise, then, that v... more “Voice” is widely considered to be a feature of effective writing. It’s no surprise, then, that voice criteria frequently appear on rubrics used to score student essays in large-scale writing assessments. However, composition theorists hold widely divergent views regarding voice and how it should be applied in writing assessment, if at all. Further, given that clear voice definitions are notoriously elusive, research on the importance of voice in writing evaluation is inconclusive, and to date no study has examined how writing evaluators apply voice criteria. Because conceptualizations of voice in composition literature often vary according to genre, this study examines the extent to which voice criteria and genre features interact. I investigate voice within the context of large-scale secondary writing assessments because such assessments provide formal and influential articulations of how voice is instantiated as an assessment criterion. Three questions are addressed:
1) In what ways and to what extent are voice criteria associated with genre demands in large-scale writing assessment designs?
2) What language features do readers associate with voice, and how do such identified features vary across genres as well as among readers?
3) To what extent do voice-associated features map onto the lexical features that differentiate high from low scoring student writing samples across genres?
These questions are examined using three complimentary methods: 1) a content analysis of prompts and rubrics for U.S. exit-level direct writing assessments, 2) a grounded analysis of teacher interviews regarding the presence of voice in narrative and expository writing, and 3) a quantitative analysis of high and low scoring “benchmark” papers. The results of these integrated studies raise not just questions, but paradoxes about the consistency and transparency with which voice criteria can be applied to writing assessment in practice.
Assessing Writing, Jan 1, 2009
Persistent gaps between optimistic state and pessimistic national academic performance assessment... more Persistent gaps between optimistic state and pessimistic national academic performance assessment results are increasingly leading to calls for unified national standards in the US. Critics argue that these gaps reveal vast differences in how proficiency is conceptualized; however, little is known about how conceptualizations compare among large-scale US assessments. To explore this issue, the present study investigated constructs of writing proficiency implicated in 41 US state and national high school direct writing assessments by analyzing the relationships between prompt-genre demands and assessment scoring criteria. Results of this analysis suggest that national writing assessments differ as a group from state assessments in the extent to which they emphasize genre distinctions and present coherent conceptualizations of writing proficiency. The implications of these assessment variations for college preparedness are discussed.
Journal of Literacy Research, Jan 1, 2009
"Genre-based approaches to teaching writing have made important strides in heightening students’ ... more "Genre-based approaches to teaching writing have made important strides in heightening students’ awareness of audience and purpose but have paid less attention to the ways in which expectations for written performance in school context are embedded in expectations for certain kinds of discipline-based thinking. In this paper we present a study that explored how a group of high school students studying history and literature within an interdisciplinary framework experience the thinking demands associated with a particular kind of writing characteristic of both subjects: analytic exposition.We found that the task of articulating interpretive thematic statements is a significant challenge for these students, in some cases because the nature of interpretative understanding remains elusive to them and in others because they struggle with finding the language to express this understanding
in a concise form. A separate but related finding has to do with opportunities for interpretive insight that arose from writing in genres other than conventional analytic exposition, for example, narrative, descriptive, and imaginative writing. We conclude our discussion by recommending further investigation of ways in
which alternatives to analytic exposition may be used as bridges to mastery of this important academic genre."
Assessing Writing, 2007
High-stakes writing assessments currently exert a strong influence on the writing curriculum and ... more High-stakes writing assessments currently exert a strong influence on the writing curriculum and instruction in schools across the United States. Under these circumstances it is important to examine the construct of writing competence on which these assessments are based, as well as the extent to which this construct supports the goals of secondary education. In this paper we conduct an exploratory analysis of the genre demands of high-stakes writing assessments from three states -California, Texas, and New York -with the aim of discerning, comparing, and evaluating the role that genre knowledge plays in the construct of writing competence measured by these assessments. Our method of inquiry includes both task analysis of the prompts and genre analysis of high-scoring benchmark papers written in response to these prompts. For the analysis of benchmark papers we employed both structural analysis and quantitative counts of key linguistic features to characterize the genres represented in these assessment tasks. Our results suggest a lack of alignment between the genres of the benchmark papers designated as exemplary and the genre demands of the prompts to which they were written. Exceptions to this pattern were most common on the New York assessments, which contextualize writing tasks in tests of subject-matter knowledge. Findings from our exploratory analysis lead us to argue for greater consistency and clarity of expectations in the design of high-stakes writing exams, and for the design of writing tasks that adequately represent the demands of discipline-specific forms of written discourse.
Books by Jill V Jeffery
When teacher education is located on a university campus, set apart from urban schools and commun... more When teacher education is located on a university campus, set apart from urban schools and communities, it is easy to overlook the realities and challenges communities face as they struggle toward social, economic, cultural, and racial justice. This book describes how teacher education can become a meaningful part of this work, by re-positioning programs directly into urban schools and communities. Situating their work within the theoretical framework of prioritizing community strengths, each set of authors provides a detailed and nuanced description of a teacher education program re-positioned within an urban school or community. Authors describe the process of developing such a relationship, how the university, school, and community became integrated partners in the program, and the impact on participants. As university-based teacher education has come under increased scrutiny for lack of "real world" relevance, this book showcases programs that have successfully navigated the travails of shifting their base directly into urban schools and communities, with evidence of positive outcomes for all involved.
Voice in written language has been an intriguing subject, attracting attention from writing teach... more Voice in written language has been an intriguing subject, attracting attention from writing teachers and researchers for many years. Yet, its pedagogical application in the writing classroom has been rather limited because of the difficulty of defining various related concepts and of teaching those concepts. There are a number of reasons for those difficulties. First, although many standards and rubrics for student essays often specify voice, it tends to be informed by an outdated, feature-based conception that focuses on the rhetorical effects created by a combination of those features (Matsuda, 2001) rather than on more recent notions. Another reason has to do with the idea of audience, which tends to be absent—except in the most superficial ways—from writing classrooms. To address these issues, this chapter will first examine typical writing assessment rubrics to identify conceptions of voice in student essays and then consider writing prompts to show the limitations of representing rhetorical contexts in these environments, which makes voice construction particularly challenging for student writers. This chapter will conclude by pointing out the need for a greater alignment of assignment, instruction and assessment.
Papers by Jill V Jeffery
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Published articles by Jill V Jeffery
in advanced disciplinary writing and this type of writing is oftentimes one of the most
challenging academic tasks they encounter, this study investigated their experiences with
writing in English language arts, social studies, science, and mathematics classrooms.
Rooted in a social-constructivist conception of writing, which foregrounds the relationship
between individual agency, engagement, and disciplinary discourse, this study asked: 1)
What are adolescent ELLs’ stances toward content-area writing and how do they differ by
grade level? 2) To what factors do adolescent ELLs attribute their stances toward writing?
3) How do adolescent ELLs’ stances vary across content areas and by type of writing? A
micro-level discourse analysis approach was used to analyze interviews with 26 ELLs in
different school contexts with varying emphases on writing in the core disciplines. The
analyses revealed generally positive stances toward source-based writing tasks, even when
students viewed these as challenging, yet negative stances toward writing in which literary
texts provided the source material. This study is timely in light of the increased
emphasis on the development of advanced disciplinary writing competencies among
adolescent ELLs. Implications for pedagogy are discussed.
Keywords: stance, adolescent literacy, discourse analysis, social constructivism, writing pedagogy, disciplinary literacy
1) In what ways and to what extent are voice criteria associated with genre demands in large-scale writing assessment designs?
2) What language features do readers associate with voice, and how do such identified features vary across genres as well as among readers?
3) To what extent do voice-associated features map onto the lexical features that differentiate high from low scoring student writing samples across genres?
These questions are examined using three complimentary methods: 1) a content analysis of prompts and rubrics for U.S. exit-level direct writing assessments, 2) a grounded analysis of teacher interviews regarding the presence of voice in narrative and expository writing, and 3) a quantitative analysis of high and low scoring “benchmark” papers. The results of these integrated studies raise not just questions, but paradoxes about the consistency and transparency with which voice criteria can be applied to writing assessment in practice.
in a concise form. A separate but related finding has to do with opportunities for interpretive insight that arose from writing in genres other than conventional analytic exposition, for example, narrative, descriptive, and imaginative writing. We conclude our discussion by recommending further investigation of ways in
which alternatives to analytic exposition may be used as bridges to mastery of this important academic genre."
Books by Jill V Jeffery
Papers by Jill V Jeffery
in advanced disciplinary writing and this type of writing is oftentimes one of the most
challenging academic tasks they encounter, this study investigated their experiences with
writing in English language arts, social studies, science, and mathematics classrooms.
Rooted in a social-constructivist conception of writing, which foregrounds the relationship
between individual agency, engagement, and disciplinary discourse, this study asked: 1)
What are adolescent ELLs’ stances toward content-area writing and how do they differ by
grade level? 2) To what factors do adolescent ELLs attribute their stances toward writing?
3) How do adolescent ELLs’ stances vary across content areas and by type of writing? A
micro-level discourse analysis approach was used to analyze interviews with 26 ELLs in
different school contexts with varying emphases on writing in the core disciplines. The
analyses revealed generally positive stances toward source-based writing tasks, even when
students viewed these as challenging, yet negative stances toward writing in which literary
texts provided the source material. This study is timely in light of the increased
emphasis on the development of advanced disciplinary writing competencies among
adolescent ELLs. Implications for pedagogy are discussed.
Keywords: stance, adolescent literacy, discourse analysis, social constructivism, writing pedagogy, disciplinary literacy
1) In what ways and to what extent are voice criteria associated with genre demands in large-scale writing assessment designs?
2) What language features do readers associate with voice, and how do such identified features vary across genres as well as among readers?
3) To what extent do voice-associated features map onto the lexical features that differentiate high from low scoring student writing samples across genres?
These questions are examined using three complimentary methods: 1) a content analysis of prompts and rubrics for U.S. exit-level direct writing assessments, 2) a grounded analysis of teacher interviews regarding the presence of voice in narrative and expository writing, and 3) a quantitative analysis of high and low scoring “benchmark” papers. The results of these integrated studies raise not just questions, but paradoxes about the consistency and transparency with which voice criteria can be applied to writing assessment in practice.
in a concise form. A separate but related finding has to do with opportunities for interpretive insight that arose from writing in genres other than conventional analytic exposition, for example, narrative, descriptive, and imaginative writing. We conclude our discussion by recommending further investigation of ways in
which alternatives to analytic exposition may be used as bridges to mastery of this important academic genre."