Record S8 · 1979
S8: Persuasive Public Speech
Written spring 1979; published in the December 1980 NAEP report. Age 17 in school; individual grade unknown.
Original student excerpt
I think converting an old house into a recreation center for young people is a excelent idea. The kids will probably clean up the house and yard since it is for there own use. To take care of the house might give them a feeling of responsibility.
Three consecutive sentences from the handwritten response; original language preserved.
Prompt and conditions
Exact prompt. Some high school students have proposed converting an old house into a recreation center where young people might drop in evenings for talk and relaxation. Some local residents oppose the plan on the grounds that the center would depress property values in the neighborhood and attract undesirable types. A public hearing has been called. Write a brief speech that you would make supporting or opposing the plan. Remember to take only ONE point of view. Organize your arguments carefully and be as convincing as possible. Space is provided below and on the next three pages.
- Source conditions
- Prompt Facts No Sources; prompt scenario and stated opposition only.
- Time
- 16.6 minutes. Appendix records 998 seconds.
- Production / archive
- handwritten; anonymous facsimile in 1980 report.
- Drafting
- timed first draft; no feedback revision.
- Population and selection
- National probability sample of in-school U.S. 17-year-olds; individual grade/geography suppressed. NAEP probability task sample; displayed paper purposively selected as score-point exemplar.
Scorer and feedback role
Institutional Assessor. Not an authenticated classroom-teacher feedback pair.
- Original source classification
- 3 of 4 — one substantially or two moderately developed argument lines. Whole-response persuasive primary trait; opposition was required only at score 4.
- Form
- Score Only; response-specific.
- Revision after feedback
- None survives.
Read the evidence coding
Conceptual claimA recreation center can foster care and responsibility.
Ideas and relationships3 coded units. Conversion, self-interested upkeep, and responsibility form a qualified causal chain.
AbstractionEmerging
Causal reasoningMultistep
Qualification / counterargumentModal
Evidence useHypothetical Mechanism
OrganizationClaim Mechanism Consequence
Sentence controlMeaning Clear
Lexical precisionFunctional
Articulation limitNo counterargument or concrete comparison appears in the excerpt.
These are descriptive codes, not scores. No composite or rank is calculated. Primary-trait score 3 represented 14.5%; competent but not a population median. Score 4, requiring opposition, was 0.6%.