A report by the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Research on Higher Education offers a critique of the current state of the California Master Plan for higher education, From Master Plan to Mediocrity: Higher Education Performance & Policy in California. The report includes a discussion of the CSU Early Assessment initiative for college readiness in reading and writing. The report can be found at:

http://www.gse.upenn.edu/pdf/irhe/California_Report.pdf

The report claims that the Early Assessment Program (EAP) is problematic because it offers early testing for college readiness without improving high school infrastructure to prepare students for college reading and writing. However, the report fails to mention the expository reading and writing curriculum and the faculty development activities that are central components of the EAP.

In addition, the report assumes that the EAP’s one-shot timed-writing test (the English Placement Test) is an accurate assessment of college readiness and the report conflates a tool that was meant for placement into CSU composition courses (the English Placement Test) with a tool that can assess college readiness. For position statements by NCTE and CCCC on assessment and the use of timed-writing tests, see the following links:

https://secure.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Positions/WPAwritingassessment.pdf

https://cccc.ncte.org/cccc/resources/positions/writingassessment