Empirical Articles Validity of Indirect Assessment of Writing Competency for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing College Students

Indirect tests of writing competency are often used at the col-lege level for a variety of educational, programmatic, and re-search purposes. Although such tests may have been vali-dated on hearing populations, it cannot be assumed that they validry assess the writing competency of deaf and hard-of-hearing students. This study used a direct criterion measure of writing competency to determine the criterion validity of two indirect measures of writing competency. Results suggest that the validity of indirect writing tests for deaf and hard-of-hearing baccalaureate-level students is weak. We recommend that direct writing tests be used with this population to en-sure fair and accurate assessment of writing competency. The assessment of writing skills is commonplace in ed-ucational environments. During a student's education, writing skills are assessed at various stages, both for-mally and informally, for a variety of reasons. Writing is generally assessed through tests administered for college admission, course placement, and course evalu-ation. In addition, colleges and universities often have writing policies intended to ensure that students do not graduate until their writing skills reflect those of edu-This research was conducted at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a college of Rochester Institute of Technology, in the course of an agreement with the US. Department of Education. A preliminary rer-sion of these finding * was presented at the April 1994 annual conventio