Those three students' files might look quite different, she said, and yet each might deserve high scores. After readers finish scoring sample applications, their scores are tallied and written on a grid. They justify why they assigned one score and not another. With this information fresh in their minds, readers start evaluating applications shortly before spring semester begins. In the remaining seven cases, the file goes to a senior reader for a third opinion.
Team leaders meet frequently to cull applications that illustrate problems or important issues.
Once actual reading has begun, readers and faculty representatives tackle Burnett's instructive examples at the norming sessions which occur weekly throughout the reading period. The process is too important to the students and the campus to make them optional. Readers find the sessions valuable. Becoming reacquainted with the norming and other readers' perspectives brings me back to center. When scores are tallied and they appear on the board, closely clustered, it reassures me that I'm on the right track.