[Factc] Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecology: Update & Invitation

Mon Aug 24 08:23:21 PDT 2020

Dear FACTC members:

I write this e mail on behalf of the antiracist writing assessment ecology (AWAE) grant leadership team<https://bit.ly/3hyZLsV>. We are excited to announce that we are now accepting applications from English departments in the 34 WA CTCs to participate in the Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecology (AWAE) grant.

Over the past several months, we have grappled with the paradoxes and complexities to bring the AWAE grant from idea to reality during the complexities of COVID-19. Three questions in particular have remained at the forefront of our collective decision-making:

  1.  What is the difference between acting quickly in response to our collective sense of urgency ... and rushing?
  2.  How can we ensure that our grant, which will focus on antiracist writing assessment ecologies, is actively antiracist in its design and implementation?
  3.  How do we imagine what we haven't seen before? Or, how do we create antiracist structures and processes when we have been so deeply enculturated by racist systems?

I'd particularly like to draw your attention to our guiding principles<https://bit.ly/3hv7Y0s> and the labor-based application process<https://bit.ly/3l8QpWz> we have designed with Asao B. Inoue's leadership and guidance.

While there will be a webinar and "office hours" over fall quarter with more information, I hope you'll contact me, or one of the members of the leadership team, if you have pressing or immediate questions or concerns.

Peace,

Jen

Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecology (AWAE) Grant 20-21

With Tremendous Thanks to Generous Funding from College Spark Washington

Short URL to a Google Doc with this information: https://bit.ly/2CcZoo0

Highlights of the AWAE Grant

This project is made possible by College Spark Washington.

  *   Guiding Principles: The goal of our leadership team<https://bit.ly/3hyZLsV> is to design and implement a grant that is antiracist not just in name, but in design and practice. Conscious that we are working within a racist system, the members of the leadership team have created a living document to make explicit the guiding principles<https://bit.ly/3hv7Y0s> that undergird our decisions about this grant.

  *   Summary: The Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecology (AWAE) grant will engage 28 faculty members from 7 English departments in the Washington State CTC system in building the artifacts of an antiracist writing assessment ecology to assess the ENGL&101 outcomes<http://bit.ly/2m5XE7R> developed and approved as part of (de)Composing ENGL&101.

  *   The Work: Over the course of the grant, the 28 faculty participants will work in “Communities of Inquiry” (CoIs). Ideally, these groups of 4 will be composed of BIPOC and white-identified faculty from 4 different institutions who will work collaboratively to develop the artifacts of an Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecology (AWAE).

  *   College Spark Outcome Indicator: The purpose of building these artifacts  is to support English departments and practitioners across the Washington State CTC system to  “increase the percentage of students who earn their first college-level credits in English within one year of college enrollment.”

  *   Alignment with Guided Pathways & the SBCTC Vision Statement<http://bit.ly/SBCTCVISION>: This project aligns with guided pathways in Washington State: specifically, this work will address one of the Essential Practices of a guided pathways redesign, College-Level English within 1 year of enrollment<https://bit.ly/2EeazNP>, and do so in the spirit of the SBCTC vision<http://bit.ly/SBCTCVISION> to lead with racial equity.

Community of Inquiry Groups

These groups of 4 are composed of BIPOC and white-identified faculty from 4 different institutions working collaboratively to develop the artifacts of an Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecology.

Final Deliverable

Each CoI will be responsible for developing specific artifacts of the antiracist writing assessment ecology (AWAE).

Compensation

In the form of grants to the colleges, these amounts will be minus what the college must take out for taxes (IRS) and benefits (the college). We ask that the institution waive any overhead costs by its business office.

Community of Inquiry Group #1

Sample ENGL&101 syllabus, grading contract, rubrics, other tools.