Until children can produce letters quickly and accurately, it is assumed that handwriting disrupts and limits the quality of their text. This investigation is the largest study to date (2596 girls, 2354 boys) assessing the association between handwriting fluency and writing quality. We tested whether handwriting fluency made a statistically unique contribution to predicting primary grade students’ writing quality on a functional writing task, after variance due to attitude towards writing, students’ language background (L1, L2, bilingual), gender, grade, and nesting due to class and school were first controlled. Handwriting fluency accounted for a statistically significant 7.4% of the variance in the writing quality of primary grade students. In addition, attitude towards writing, language background, grade and gender each uniquely predicted writing quality. Finally, handwriting fluency increased from one grade to the next, girls had faster handwriting than boys, and gender differences increased across grades. An identical pattern of results were observed for writing quality. Directions for future research and writing practices are discussed.

This protocol article describes the project Functional Writing in the Primary Years, which received funding in late 2018 and was started in August 2019. The Functional Writing in Primary School (FUS) project aims to increase the quality of teaching and learning writing in the first years of schooling. A large-scale, mixed-methods study, the FUS project investigates the effects of an early start with functional writing, focusing on young students' development as writers and their ability to use writing as a tool for learning and communication. The project also investigates teachers' writing instruction and professional development. The protocol describes the project's rationale and major methodological aspects and culminates in a concluding discussion about possible caveats.

Writing assessment scales were developed to include functional aspects of writing proficiency in contemporary Norwegian teaching toolkits for Grades 1 to 3. This study aims to describe the process of developing empirically based, assessor-oriented writing proficiency scales and of investigating the quality of the scales. We focus on psychometric qualities, professional users’ perceptions of their quality, and the teachers’ use of the scales. Overall, the first piloted version of the scales showed indications of well-functioning scales. The results from this investigation show that it is possible to develop scales for the assessment of young children’s writing proficiency that capture the intended construct and provide a basis for reliable assessment. The investigation also found that users of the assessment tool found that it functioned well. Keywords: writing assessment, writing development, rating scales, reliability Upprätta bedömningsskalor för att utvärdera utvecklingen av skrivförmågan hos unga studenter Sammanfattning Denna artikel berör arbetet med att utveckla bedömningsskalor för bedömning av funktionell skrivförmåga i årskurs 1–3. Syftet med undersökningen var att dels beskriva arbetet med att skapa empiriskt baserade bedömar-orienterade skalor, dels att undersöka kvaliteten på dessa skalor. Det senare gjordes genom att studera skalorna psykometriska kvalitet, den kvalitet de uppfattades att ha samt lärares användning av skalorna. Sammantaget visade undersökningarna att skalorna fungerade väl, redan vid första utkast. Vidare indikerade resultaten att det var möjligt att konstruera skalor för bedömning av små barns skrivande som kunder generera reliabel bedömning samtidigt de fångade väsentliga aspekter av funktionellt skrivande. Undersökningarna indikerade också att användare av bedömningsverktygen generellt uppfattade dem som välfungerande. Nyckelord: skrivbedömning, skrivutveckling, bedömningsskalor, reliabilitet

This article addresses the basis for the development of the screening tool Norwegian Early Writers Signal (NEWS). The aim of the study was to develop a tool for teachers in grades 1–3 to identify student texts in ‘the Warning Zone’, i.e., texts that signal insufficient overall text quality associated with students in need of extra instructional support. Text norms were elicited from a panel of 14 experts in a standardsetting seminar. The standard-setting procedure was a benchmarking-like approach in which panelists chose texts that according to their judgement were in the Warning Zone. Additionally, in an online questionnaire, data on experts’ expectation growth pattern for eight text quality aspects in grades 1–3 were collected. Furthermore, student texts in the Warning Zone were marked and then included in the screening tool to concretize the norms, showing that texts in this zone can take several shapes. The article discusses what steps can be taken to further validate and implement the NEWS tool.

Denne artikkelen undersøker utviklinga av skriveprøver i Norge (i 2005 og 2009–2017). Formålet er å drøfte utfordringer forbundet med det å måle elevers skriving som grunnleggende ferdighet gjennom skriveprøver. I undersøkelsen tar vi utgangspunkt i flere av de endringene som ble gjort fra de nasjonale prøvene i skriving i 2005 til de læringsstøttende prøvene som ble utviklet fram mot 2017. Et viktig grunnlag for undersøkelsen er tekniske rapporter som ble skrevet av de gruppene som lagde prøvene. Å måle elevenes skriveferdigheter har vært faglig komplekst og kostbart. Artikkelen gjør rede for hvordan prøvene ble utviklet, hva som har kjennetegnet dem og hvilke endringer som har skjedd med dem i løpet av denne perioden, og belyser derved denne kompleksiteten. Vi redegjør for dilemmaer som følger med skriveprøveutvikling, men peker også på mulige løsninger for å ivareta god prøvekvalitet.Nøkkelord: skriveprøver, skriving, skriving som grunnleggende ferdighet, validitet, reliabilitetMeasuring writing as a key competenceAbstractThis article investigates the development of national writing tests in Norway (in 2005 and 2009–2017). The purpose of the study is to present and discuss challenges associated with the assessment of writing proficiency through standardized writing tests. The article focuses on changes that were made between the first administration of national writing tests in 2005 and the subsequent administrations following a new test design in 2009. Key sources that document this change are technical reports from the test developers. Assessing writing through national writing tests has proved to be complex, posing several challenges including numerous design choices, and has also proved to be expensive. To shed light on these complexities, this article provides information on how the tests were developed, how they can be characterized and what type of changes that were made in the period 2005–2017. The article explicates some dilemmas associated with development of writing tests, but also some viable solutions when aiming to produce high quality tests.Keywords: writing assessment, writing, writing as a key competence, validity, reliability