Highland Park becomes Texas’ only public district to use writing assessment
Highland Park ISD has introduced a new tool to help students sharpen their writing skills — the WrAP, short for Writing Assessment Program, by ERB.
HPISD fourth, seventh, and 11th graders became the only public school students in Texas to take the test when they put pencil to paper this fall. The WrAP is already used by area private schools, such as The Episcopal School of Dallas and Providence Christian School of Texas.
Members of HPISD’s board of trustees said they were eager to see how the district’s students matched up against their private school peers. Students at private schools don’t have to complete all the exams required of public school students, such as the state-mandated STAAR test.
“Families are choosing between going to Highland Park or going to private schools,” board member Blythe Koch said during a May meeting. “I think it’s really exciting that we will be able to get a better sense of how we are comparing on this to some of those private schools.”
Students had two class periods to finish the test. On the first day, they read and analyzed informational passages and prepared a rough draft on a topic. Past years’ topics have included the meaning of friendship, the pros and cons of organic farming, and sleep’s role in society. On the second day, students edited and turned in their final draft.
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Unlike the STAAR exam, which is generally taken online, the WrAP was handwritten by all students except for those with special accommodations, such as 504 plans.
Parents received their students’ scores and a copy of their essays the week of Dec. 1.
Students were given grades that ranged from a low of 1 to a high of 6 in six different areas: overall development, organization, support, sentence structure, word choice, and mechanics. They also received a total score.
A score of 4 is closely aligned to mastery on the STAAR exam, deputy superintendent Shorr Heathcote explained at the board’s Nov. 18 meeting.
She said that the WrAP assessment gives the district’s high performing students more room for improvement than the STAAR. Seventy-four percent of HPISD fourth graders and 63% of seventh graders attained mastery on this year’s English language arts STAAR exam.
It’s not possible to receive a higher score on that test. But HPISD students do have room for improvement on the WrAP. Districtwide, average scores ranged from a high of 4.4 for 11th graders on word choice to a low of 3.3 for fourth graders on support.
“We do look to set some goals that are higher than a 4,” Heathcote told the board. “But it gives us a range to continue to grow, whereas STAAR doesn’t really show much opportunity for growth for our students.”
HPISD’s mean total raw scores were slightly lower than those from independent schools around the country in fourth and seventh grade, and slightly higher in 11th grade.
“I’m excited,” board president Maryjane Bonfield said of the new metric during the November meeting. “I know we’ve done good work, and we’ve got more good work to keep doing.”
