David Conley clearly articulates that “self-management behaviors” are one of the four key levers to ensure college and career readiness. Revision evaluates the changes made from the rough draft to final draft, including the depth of those changes, the incorporation of feedback from peers and teachers, and the effect of the changes on the essay. In middle school, this revision is scaffolded over the course of four years to help scholars begin to learn self-management behaviors in order to improve their writing.

Feedback:
This criterion evaluates to what extent the scholar has independently incorporated feedback to substantially improve his writing. Additionally, when applicable, this also assesses the scholar’s mastery of his independent progress goal as a way to measure both growth and self-management behaviors.

Drafting:
Drafting refers to both the number of revisions made and the quality of those revisions to the final product. Scholars should begin to internalize that writing is a process and that revisions lead to stronger final products.