Justice, fairness, ethics, and validity
I study how arguments for validity must account not only for technical quality, but also for social consequence, human dignity, and the fair distribution of educational opportunity.
David Slomp
Reimagining Literacy Assessment as a Matter of Justice, Validity, and Consequence
I study how assessment shapes what counts as knowledge, fairness, and opportunity. My work advances justice-oriented approaches to literacy and writing assessment, with particular attention to digital and AI-mediated contexts. Across research, policy, and practice, I develop frameworks that help institutions design assessments that are valid, equitable, and socially responsible.
I am Professor and Associate Dean (Graduate Studies and Research) in the Faculty of Education at the University of Lethbridge and co-Editor-in-Chief of Assessing Writing. My work brings together validity theory, sociocognitive models of writing, and socioculturally responsive design to address contemporary challenges in educational and workplace assessment systems.
Research themes
My work is organised around four connected questions: what literacy assessments represent, how they distribute opportunity, how they function in digital and AI-mediated environments, and how they can serve public life more responsibly.
Writing expertise in digital and AI-mediated contexts
I examine how writing expertise changes when communication happens across tools, media, languages, and socially complex settings—and how assessment can better represent that complexity.
Consequences of assessment design and use
My work on the Integrated Design and Appraisal Framework links construct representation, theory of action, and consequences of use in order to rethink the design of writing and literacy assessment programs.
Policy, teacher practice, and public accountability
I work with educators, governments, and professional organisations to move assessment beyond narrow test-based accountability and toward more humane, publicly accountable systems.
Current direction
My current program of research, Justice-Oriented Literacy Assessment for a Digital and AI-Mediated World, brings together design-based work on formative assessment, international collaborations on writing assessment, and new models of ethical and equitable validation. The work is concerned with a basic but consequential question: how do we design assessments that expand access to learning rather than constrain it?
Featured writing
These pieces offer a strong entry point into the questions that organise my research.
Prioritizing equitable social outcomes with and for diverse readers
Introduces a justice-based framework for reading assessment that reorients design toward equitable social outcomes.
Our validity looks like justice. Does yours?
Reframes validity as a justice-oriented construct, advancing a normative shift in how assessment quality is theorized.
The ethical turn in writing assessment
Synthesizes the field’s ethical turn, identifying persistent gaps between principle and practice.
Articulating a sociocognitive construct of writing expertise for the digital age
Develops a sociocognitive model of writing expertise that informs writing analytics and AI-mediated assessment.
Public engagement
My scholarship extends beyond academic publication. It informs policy, professional learning, media commentary, teacher-facing scholarship, and editorial leadership in writing and literacy assessment.
- Partnerships and advisory work with Alberta Education, ETS, the Hawaii Department of Education, the International Literacy Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English.
- Media and public writing in outlets including CBC, the National Post, the Edmonton Journal, the Calgary Herald, the Lethbridge Herald, and University Affairs.
- Editorial leadership through Assessing Writing and the forthcoming Handbook of Writing Assessment: Current Complexities, Future Directions.
Graduate mentoring
I supervise graduate research in writing and literacy assessment, fairness and justice, digital literacies, AI-mediated feedback, and the consequences of assessment policy and practice.
Students I have supervised have received national and institutional awards, including the Language and Literacy Researchers of Canada Master’s Thesis Award, the J. Estill Alexander Future Leaders in Literacy Award, School of Graduate Studies Silver Medals, and SSHRC doctoral funding.