Quantitative Data in Writing Assessment – Panacea or Poison? The Biopolitics of Writing Program Development

Abstract Through the use of Michele Foucault's theory of biopolitical power, I critique current practices of writing program assessment and the ways writing is framed in the context of neoliberalism. When compared to more the direct ways social power is exerted on individuals through educational processes such as grading, programmatic assessment instead resembles biopolitical power through its emphasis on aggregate data and acting as a support of the larger social frames of neoliberalism. I determine that current methods of programmatic assessment overly value quantitative research methods due to the ways that form of assessment is tied to neoliberal configurations of education. That ultimately leads to a system that fails to support the most vulnerable stakeholder in the situation being the students.