Collaborative Writing Placement: Partnering with Students in the Placement Process

This paper will discuss how the Writing Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara “flipped the script” on placement by implementing a model that emphasizes the importance of student voices. Our Collaborative Writing Placement (CWP) shares many similarities with Directed Self-Placement (DSP) in that its instrument consists of survey questions and reflective writing opportunities (Aull, 2021; Gere, Ruggles, et. al., 2013). But it differs from DSP in that students work with writing faculty in choosing the first-year course that is the best fit for them. Through an examination of our initial data, and the first two years of CWP’s implementation, our paper will discuss how the CWP offers another avenue for promoting student agency and generating more equitable placement outcomes.