Editor’s Introduction: Placement and Its Discontents or The Long Winding Road toward Change

The JWA 18.1 editor's introduction contains Carl Whithaus's reflections on 10 years editing the journal. It also provides an overview of the six articles in the issue: Sallie Koenig, Catrina Mitchum, and Rochelle Rodrigo's (2025) exploration of completion rubrics on student learning and agency in online asynchronous courses; Maggie Fernandes, Emily Brier, and Megan McIntyre's (2025) critique of "ungrading" and development of alternative writing assessments to more effectively achieve the goals of "ungrading"; Kate L Pantelides and Erin Whittig's (2025) section introduction updating us on Student Self Placement (SSP); Amy Ferdinandt Stolley, Dauvan Mulally, and Craig Hulst's (2025) 30-year retrospective on how Directed Self Placement (DSP) has developed and changed over time at Grand Valley State University; Genie Giaimo and Kristina Reardon’s (2025) examination of how SSP can encourage changes across different writing courses at a small liberal arts college; and, Jessica Nastal and Kris Messer’s (2025) reflection on the history of SSP and particularly on how the three proceduing articles resonate with current work ranging from initial design of a college's SSP system to large-scale revisions of existing SSP systems.