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Holistic Scoring

Holistic scoring provides an examinee with a single score regarding the quality of examinee work (i.e., performance) as a whole. Most commonly, holistic scoring is used to assess writing samples, though it may be employed to assess any performance task, for example, acting, debate, dance, or athletics. When scoring an essay holistically, the rater neither marks errors on the paper nor does the individual write constructive comments in the margins. Instead, the rater considers the quality of the entire paper and then assigns one holistic score. The SAT, ACT, and Advanced Placement tests all utilize a 6-point holistic scoring rubric to assess their respective writing sections. This entry discusses the use of holistic scoring guides and anchor essays and provides an example of a holistic scoring guide. It then discusses the differences between analytic scoring and holistic scoring.

Scoring Guides and Anchor Essays

In holistic scoring, well-organized essays with many grammatical errors and poorly organized essays with few mechanical errors may receive equivalent scores. This occurs because the rater must assess all strengths and weaknesses among various criteria before assigning a single holistic score. To prepare raters to score holistically, assessment practitioners will typically train raters using holistic scoring guides, also referred to as rubrics, and anchor essays. Anchor essays serve as examples of the performance levels at each score level of a rubric. For example, if the rubric uses a 6-point scale, raters will receive multiple examples (i.e., anchor essays) of a performance level of a six, multiple examples of a five, and so on. These anchor essays serve to assist raters in distinguishing the qualities of an essay worthy of a high rating or the qualities of an essay deserving of a low rating. Training raters to use the holistic scoring guide and anchor essays contributes to the reliability of their assessment.

Holistic Scoring Guide for a Narrative Writing Task

This section provides an example of a focused holistic scoring guide used to assess student writing fluency on a narrative task in the 1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress. The guide asked raters to focus on specific qualities of a paper—development, organization, sentence structure, mechanics, and overall ability—and then give one score across all criteria (U.S. Department of Education, 1999, pp. 45–46).

Scores

A six story demonstrates a high degree of competence in response to the prompt but may have a few minor errors. A story in this category generally has the following features:

  • is well developed with a clear narrative structure,
  • contains considerable detail that enriches the narrative,
  • clearly demonstrates facility in the use of language, and
  • is generally free from errors in mechanics, usage, and sentence structure.

A five story demonstrates clear competence in response to the prompt but may have minor errors. A story in this category generally has the following features:

  • is developed with a clear narrative structure,
  • contains details that contribute effectively to the narrative,
  • demonstrates facility in the use of language, and
  • contains few errors in mechanics, usage, and sentence structure.

A four story demonstrates competence in response to the prompt. A story in this category generally has the following

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