[From the Archives] Ep 88: Dr. Asao B. Inoue on Writing Assessment as Anti-racist Practice

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On this episode, Katie is joined by Asao B. Inoue, Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, Director of University Writing and the Writing Center at the University of Washington Tacoma, a member of the Executive Board of Council of Writing Program Administrators, and the Program Chair of the 2018 Conference on College Composition and Communication. Among his many articles and chapters on writing assessment and race and racism, his article, “Theorizing Failure in U.S. Writing Assessments” in RTE, won the 2014 CWPA Outstanding Scholarship Award. His co-edited collection, Race and Writing Assessment (2012), won the 2014 NCTE/CCCC Outstanding Book Award for an edited collection. His book, Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies: Teaching and Assessing for a Socially Just Future (2015) won the 2017 NCTE/CCCC Outstanding Book Award for a monograph and the 2015 CWPA Outstanding Book Award. In November of 2016, he guested co-edited a special issue of College English on writing assessment as social justice, and is currently finishing a co-edited collection on the same topic, as well as a book on labor-based grading contracts as socially just writing assessment.

Segment 1: Alternative Modes of Writing Assessment [00:00-14:17]

In this first segment, Asao shares about his research and experience with grade-less writing and grading contracts.

In this segment, the following resources are mentioned:

• Inoue, A. B. (2014). Theorizing failure in U.S. writing assessments. Research in the Teaching of English, 48(3), 330-352.
• Inoue, A. B., & Poe, M. (Eds.). (2012). Race and writing assessment. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
• Inoue, A. B. (2015). Antiracist writing assessment ecologies: Teaching and assessing for a socially just future. Anderson, SC: Parlor Press.
• College English
• Kohn, A. (1993). Punished by rewards: The trouble with gold stars, incentive plans, A’s, praise, and other bribes. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
• Selected works of Peter Elbow

Segment 2: Writing Assessment as Anti-racist Practice [14:18-32:31]

In segment two, Asao discusses his research on writing assessment as anti-racist practice.

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