Slomp · 2012
Challenges in Assessing the Development of Writing Ability
Examines the theoretical, construct, and methodological challenges that make writing development difficult to assess well.
Publications
Selected publications
This page offers a guided entry into my research program. It begins with publications that define its core intellectual commitments—justice-oriented validity, sociocognitive models of writing, and socially responsible assessment design—and then highlights selected articles, chapters, reports, and public writing that extend this work across different contexts.
Start here
A curated entry point into my research program, organized around three strands: foundational problems in writing assessment, work that reframes the field, and current research on justice-oriented and socioculturally responsive assessment design.
Foundational
Leu, Slomp, Zawalinski & Corrigan · 2015
Writing Research through a New Literacies Lens
Repositions writing research within a broader new literacies framework that accounts for digital, multimodal, and socially situated writing practices.
Slomp · 2016
Ethical Considerations in Writing Assessment
Articulates core ethical principles for writing assessment, foregrounding consequence, fairness, and responsibility in design and use.
Framing the field
Slomp · 2024
From Isolation to Integration: Technical Issues in the Assessment of Writing
Examines how technical approaches to writing assessment can be reoriented toward more integrated and context-sensitive models.
East & Slomp · 2024
The ethical turn in writing assessment
Synthesizes the field’s shift toward ethical assessment and identifies where important conceptual and practical work still remains.
Slomp · 2019
Complexity, Consequences, and Frames
A field-defining synthesis that foregrounds complexity and consequence as central organizing principles for writing assessment research.
Current directions
Forzani, Corrigan, Slomp & Randall · 2024
Prioritizing equitable social outcomes with and for diverse readers
Introduces a justice-based framework for reading assessment that places equitable social outcomes at the center of design and use.
Slomp, Oliveri & Poe · 2025
Culturally sustaining workplace assessment programs
Develops an integrated design and appraisal framework for building culturally sustaining assessment systems in workplace contexts.
Mislevy, Oliveri, Slomp et al. · 2025
An evidentiary-reasoning lens for socioculturally responsive assessment
Extends evidentiary reasoning approaches to support socioculturally responsive interpretation and use of assessment data.
Oliveri, Slomp, Rupp et al. · 2021
Meeting the Challenges of Workplace English Communication
Introduces a program of research focused on workplace communication, integrating sociocognitive theory with assessment design.
Selected journal articles
- 2024 · Forzani, E., Corrigan, J., Slomp, D., & Randall, J. “Prioritizing equitable social outcomes with and for diverse readers.” Educational Psychologist. DOI
- 2024 · Randall, J., Poe, M., Oliveri, M. E., & Slomp, D. “Justice-oriented, antiracist validation.” Educational Assessment. Open article
- 2024 · Randall, J., Poe, M., Slomp, D., & Oliveri, M. E. “Our validity looks like justice. Does yours?” Language Testing. Open article
- 2024 · East, M., & Slomp, D. “The ethical turn in writing assessment.” Language Teaching. Open article
- 2021 · Corrigan, J., & Slomp, D. “Articulating a sociocognitive construct of writing expertise for the digital age.” Journal of Writing Analytics. DOI
- 2021 · Oliveri, M. E., Slomp, D., Rupp, A., & Mislevy, R. “Principled Development of Workplace English Communication Part 3: An Integrated Design and Appraisal Framework.” Journal of Writing Analytics. Open article
- 2019 · Slomp, D. “Complexity, Consequences, and Frames: A quarter century of research in Assessing Writing.” DOI
- 2016 · Slomp, D. “An Integrated Design and Appraisal Framework for Ethical Writing Assessment.” Journal of Writing Assessment. Open article
- 2014 · Slomp, D., Corrigan, J., & Sugimoto, T. “A framework for using consequential validity evidence in evaluating large-scale writing assessments.” Research in the Teaching of English. Open manuscript
- 2008 · Slomp, D. “Harming not Helping.” Assessing Writing. DOI
Writing for educators
Selected articles written for teacher, literacy, and school leadership audiences, with a focus on assessment, writing instruction, ethics, and justice.
- 2021 · Nichols, T. P., LeBlanc, R., & Slomp, D. “Writing Machines: Formative Assessment in the Age of Big Data.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. DOI
- 2021 · Randall, J., Poe, M., & Slomp, D. “Ain’t Oughta Be in the Dictionary: Getting to Justice by Dismantling Anti-Black Literacy Assessment Practices.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. DOI
- 2020 · Slomp, D., & Elliot, N. “Where’s Your Theory of Action: Making Good Trouble with Literacy Assessment.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. DOI
- 2020 · Forzani, E., Corrigan, J., & Slomp, D. “Reimagining Literacy Assessment through a New Literacies Lens.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. DOI
- 2018 · Slomp, D. “Scaffolding for Independence: Writing-as-Problem-Solving Pedagogy.” English Journal. View article
- 2015 · Slomp, D. “Writing Assessment in Six Lessons.” Phi Delta Kappan. Open article