This mixed-methods improvement study investigated how student writing proficiency and growth changed over one semester of a ninth-grade writing course following the implementation of two instructional supports: individualized writing conferences and the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) strategy Check, Check, Done (CCD) checklist. The study was conducted across two writing cycles (Paper 1 and Paper 2). The study was grounded in Flower and Hayes’ (1981) Cognitive Writing Theory and Social Cognitive perspectives on writing (Flower, 1994; Zimmerman, 1998), framing writing development as a combination of cognitive scaffolding (planning, monitoring, and revising) and a social feedback process that shaped engagement related to persistence and task-specific confidence.
Quantitative measures included standards-based rubric scores and proficiency rates across both papers, conference draft-to-final comparisons for the conference-selected skill, CCD checklist completion levels, changes in proficiency and growth, and repeated pre/post student survey items. Proficiency was defined as earning a 3.0 or higher on the rubric, and growth within conferences was defined as an increase of 0.5 or greater on the rubric or more from conference to final draft on the selected skill.
Qualitative evidence from student perspectives and teacher reflection helped explain these patterns by highlighting conferences as a means of clarifying expectations, selecting actionable revisions, and increasing students’ sense of control over their revisions. Whereas CCD checklists vary, some students used them as meaningful scaffolds, whereas for others, they were a compliance task.