Composition Organization and Development Analysis (CODA) Scale: Equipping high school students to evaluate argumentative essays

Experimental and quasi-experimental studies of student writing have presented evidence for the positive effect of feedback and criteria-referenced assessment. Furthermore, scholars have demonstrated the value of analytic judgments in providing actionable feedback. This study brought together the elements of feedback, criteria-referenced assessment, and analytic judgments in an original instrument, the CODA Scale, designed to support high school students in the process of writing arguments. We sought to ascertain (1) whether the Composition Organization and Development Analysis (CODA) Scale is a valid and reliable formative-assessment instrument for argumentative writing and (2) whether it is an appropriate instrument for high school writers. We enlisted students and teachers to apply the scale to two anonymous essays, with two overall results. First, the scale's good internal consistency and two interpretable factors in alignment with its design pointed to its validity and reliability. Second, the findings of no statistically significant difference in students' and teachers' scores for Essay 2, along with a statistically significant difference in the scores of less than one-third of the items applied to Essay 1, indicated that the scale is a suitable instrument for high school writers.