Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Relentless Engagement With State Educational Policy Reform: Collaborating To Change The Writing Placement Conversation, Heidi Estrem, Dawn Shepherd, Lloyd Duman

Student Articles, Chapters, Presentations, Learning Objects

This article describes the educational reform efforts surrounding writing placement in one state context. We propose that placement offers a particularly useful engagement point because it is often controlled by state-level policies and it directly impacts the lived experience of first-year college students. To document how we worked across institutions in our state, we describe a series of events that occurred over several years and that fostered collaborative exchanges. Then, we explore the challenges and opportunities afforded by our long-term engagement with policymakers. Ultimately, we propose strategies that writing program administrators might consider as they become engaged with state-level higher …