Assess Locally, Validate Globally: Heuristics for Validating Local Writing Assessments

Drawing on recent assessment scholarship in rhetoric and composition, this article describes an assessment quality review heuristic that allows writing program administrators to develop validation arguments framed within the principles and terms that the field and individual programs value. Such heuristics may be used to evaluate local assessments and to make a case for them beyond programs. Because they are grounded in our disciplinary knowledge, values, and commitments, these heuristics can serve as a vehicle for exerting leadership for writing assessment at a time when standardized tests are gaining traction in higher education.