WPEA late call for Writing Proficiency Exam graders the day before it was administered last month should not be taken by students as a sign that the test is poorly graded, according to school officials responding to a story in the March 20 issue of The State Hornet.

Chairman of the Faculty Senate, Bob Buckley, sent out an e-mail to faculty on March 15, soliciting readers to grade exams the following day.

Readers received $210 in exchange for participating in a one-hour training session and a day of grading.

The English department was able to obtain enough graders, according to WPE Coordinator, Jon Price. Depending on the number of students taking the exam on any given test date, the department needs 30-60 readers to grade anywhere from 50-100 exams each.

The March 15 e-mail was a call to help lighten the load.

“We sent out a memo for readers not because we didn’t have any, but because we like to get done early. The more readers we have, the quicker it goes, and the more likely the case that readers will return for the next exam,” Price said.

Price said that the bulk of their readers are hired far in advance.”We start hiring three months before the exam. I wouldn’t call that last minute,” Price said. “We only take graduate students and professors. They are all trained. This last time we only had eight people that had never read before, and I trained them separately.”

The one-hour training session prior to the exam allows readers go over several sample exams.

“We go over a grading rubric, and talk about each sample exam as far as grading goes,” Price said.

But many readers that sign on fail to show up when it comes time to grade tests. Price said that this is not uncommon.

“I think if you take any group of people, no matter what, if people don’t have to be somewhere, there will always be some that don’t show. The consequence? They don’t get paid,” Price said.

California State University rules require students take the WPE before the second semester of their junior year. A passing test score or successfully completion of English 109W or 109E is a prerequisite to enrollment in any Advanced Study course.

The exam requirement, enacted in 1977 by the CSU Board of Trustees, was a response to complaints by employers that college graduates were entering the workforce without writing skills.

Sacramento State junior Joy Walker said that she is not comfortable with the system that Sac State uses to find graders for such an important test.

“There should be some sort of system where faculty are required to grade at a scheduled exam. That way, the amount of no-shows will lessen. They will know that they have to be there,” Walker said.

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