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History

In the US, the first applied holistic scoring of writing samples was administered by Paul B. Diederich at The College of the University of Chicago as a comprehensive examination for credit in the first-year writing course. The method was adjusted-rater scoring with teachers of the course as scorers and members of the Board of Examiners as adjusters. Around 1956 the Advanced Placement examination of the College Board began an adjusted-rater holistic system to score essays for advance English credit. Raters were high-school teachers, who brought the rating system back to their schools. One teacher was Albert Lavin, who installed similar holistic scoring at Sir Francis Drake High School in Marin County, California, 1966–1972, at grades 9, 10, 11, and 12 in order to show progress in school writing over those years. In 1973 teachers in the California State University and Colleges system used the Advanced Placement adjusted-rater system to score essays written by matriculating students for advance English composition credit. Pooled-rater holistic scoring was tested as early as 1950 by the Educational Testing Service (using the term "wholistic"). It was first applied in the College Board's 1963 English Composition Test. In higher education, the Georgia Regents' Testing Program, a rising-junior test for language skills, used it as early as 1972.