Dylan B. Dryer

Assistant Professor of English

Education

• Ph.D., Composition & Rhetoric, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2007
• M.A. (Research), English Literature, Saint Louis University, 1999
• B.A., English Literature, Rhodes College, Memphis TN, 1994

Publications

• “Scaling Writing Ability: A Corpus-Driven Inquiry.”
• “Composing Citizens: Epistemic Work in the Interstices of Comprehensive-Planning Genres”
• “The Persistence of Institutional Memory: Genre Uptake and Program Reform.” WPA: Writing Program Administration 31.3 (Spring 2008): 32-51.

Placement Testing Pilot

• Genre- Placement Test (EPT)
• Program Reform
• ENG 095 vs ENG 101
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee FYWP
• Student Need

Pilot Findings

• It was therefore clear that the EPT could not identify with any accuracy which students “needed immediate remedial help,” since students who “could justifiably be placed in advanced courses” were only slightly more likely to pass English 101.

Pilot Findings

• Confirming our suspicions that the net effect of English 095, whatever its intention, was to “slow…progress toward earning a degree” (Horner and Bott 3)

Making a Change

• Challenge the EPT's construction of student need (ENG 095)
• Met with Testing and Administration directors
• Adjust EPT cutoff scores
• Impossible to test into ENG 90
• Moved about 1000 students into ENG 101/105
• Institutional reform vs student choice

Advice concerning WPA position

• Go into a context with the intent of learning
• Understand program practices have long histories, at a minimum they are what people are used to
• Linked to our working and life ideals/principles
• Approach change with other's principles in mind