These AP and NWP teachers tend to rate students' specific writing skills as good" or "fair" Overall, how would you rate your students in their ability to do each of the following? Excellent Very good Good Fair Poor
Asked to assess their students’ performance on nine specific writing skills, AP and NWP tended to rate their students “good” or “fair” as opposed to “excellent” or “very good.” Students were given the best ratings on their ability to “effectively organize and structure writing assignments” with 24% of teachers describing their students as “excellent” or “very good” in this area. Students received similar ratings on their ability to “understand and consider multiple viewpoints on a particular topic or issue.” But ratings were less positive for synthesizing material into a cohesive piece of work, using appropriate tone and style, and constructing a strong argument.
These AP and NWP teachers gave students the lowest ratings when it comes to “navigating issues of fair use and copyright in composition” and “reading and digesting long or complicated texts.” On both measures, more than two-thirds of these teachers rated students “fair” or “poor.”
In addition to giving students low ratings on their understanding of fair use and copyright, a majority of AP and NWP teachers also say students are not performing well when it comes to “appropriately citing and/or referencing content” in their work. This is fairly common concern among the teachers in the study, who note how easy it is for students today to copy and paste others’ work into their own and how difficult it often is to determine the actual source of much of the content they find online. Reflecting how critical these teachers view these skills:
These AP and NWP teachers tend to rate students' specific writing  | skills as good" or "fair"  | Overall, how would you rate your students in their ability to do each of the following?  | Excellent Very good Good Fair Poor  | Effectively organize and structure writing  | 21%  | 43%  | 28%  | 5%  | assignments  | Understand and consider multiple  | 18%  | 39%  | 32%  | 8%  | viewpoints on a particular issue or topic  | Give constructive feedback on other  | 13%  | 37%  | 35%  | 13%  | students' work  | Appropriately cite and/or reference content 31 12%  | 20%  | 29%  | 37%  | Synthesize content/information from  | multiple sources into a cohesive piece of  | 15%  | 38%  | 33%  | 11%  | work  | Use tone and style appropriate for their  | 34%  | 14%  | 40%  | 10%  | intended audience  | Construct a strong argument 13%  | 36%  | 37%  | 12%  | Read and digest long or complicated texts  | 8% 22%  | 38%  | 31%  | Navigate issues of fair use and copyright in  | 7% 25%  | 37%  | 30%  | composition  | 0%  | 20%  | 40%  | 60%  | 80%  | 100%  | Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project Online Survey of Teachers,  | March 7 to April 23 2012 Based on a non-representative sample of 2, .067 middle and high school  | teachers 