Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Summer 2026
Abstract
This article examines the process one community college first-year writing program used to revise its exit criteria for the first-semester composition course. The authors reflect on the complexities of revising program policies through shared decision-making practices without pausing the operation or offering of courses. This article, which we imagine will be useful for writing program administrators, department chairs, and committee members tasked with the work of revising writing program curricula or assessment practices, is particularly pointed toward those seeking to cultivate confidence with institutional research in their faculty and colleagues, and to view both data and change initiatives as tools for ameliorating the conditions of our programs and better responding to the experiences of our students. We discuss the paradox of needing faculty buy-in for institutional change along with faculty resistance to taking up the labor required to make such changes happen. We explain how our method for data collection seeks to address this tension before detailing the specifics of our data collection method as a ready-to-use tool that can be employed by others facing similar circumstances. We close by offering strategies for implementing our data collection method in different institutional contexts.
Comments
Open access publication, available online at: https://compstudiesjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/schlachte-bruno.pdf