Department of English
Annie Del Principe Honored with 2025 Outstanding Scholarship Award for Study on Racial Disparities in Writing Assessment
Annie Del Principe, professor and chair of the English Department at Kingsborough Community College,
has received the 2025 Outstanding Scholarship Award from the Council of Writing Program
Administrators for a peer-reviewed article examining racial disparities in writing assessment outcomes. Presented at the organization’s
last virtual conference, the national award honors an exemplary article that advances
knowledge in the administration and leadership of writing programs.
Del Principe’s research analyzes data collected at Kingsborough in 2019–20 to better understand why a collaborative portfolio assessment process produced different results for students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
“Racially disparate outcomes in writing assessment are common nationally and at all levels of higher education, and the most common explanations in my field for this phenomenon are either that students from different backgrounds are not well-prepared for college or that writing assessment mechanisms favor Standard American English and are biased against Black English Vernacular and other dialects of English,” she explained. “My research helps to broaden and diversify my field’s understanding of why race is often a factor in writing assessment environments and, in doing so, shift the conversation to try to figure out what we can do to assess student learning in the fairest way possible.”
She said she was honored to get the “stamp of approval” for her years of research from those in her field. Her next project is a long-term study exploring how students’ most valued writing projects at Kingsborough carry into their post-graduation lives
Del Principe’s research analyzes data collected at Kingsborough in 2019–20 to better understand why a collaborative portfolio assessment process produced different results for students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
“Racially disparate outcomes in writing assessment are common nationally and at all levels of higher education, and the most common explanations in my field for this phenomenon are either that students from different backgrounds are not well-prepared for college or that writing assessment mechanisms favor Standard American English and are biased against Black English Vernacular and other dialects of English,” she explained. “My research helps to broaden and diversify my field’s understanding of why race is often a factor in writing assessment environments and, in doing so, shift the conversation to try to figure out what we can do to assess student learning in the fairest way possible.”
She said she was honored to get the “stamp of approval” for her years of research from those in her field. Her next project is a long-term study exploring how students’ most valued writing projects at Kingsborough carry into their post-graduation lives