Freelance Passage Writing

NWEA maintains a high-quality pool of literary and informational passages, developed by writers especially suited to creating texts for the school-aged audience. We continue to expand our pool of texts by working with select writers on a freelance basis under paid contract. Currently, we have a need for passage writers in the following area:

• Reading and Language Arts, Grades 2-12, Literary

We are seeking writers with solid research abilities and a strong sense of ethical source use, outstanding grammar and mechanical skills, and an excellent command of rhetoric. Passage writers must be aware of bias and sensitivity issues as related to educational assessment testing when writing original texts.

We are especially interested in acquiring passages that speak to the diversity of experience that children have, so we would like to hear from writers who can represent these diverse experiences in NWEA passages.

Ideally, passage writers will also be:

• Familiar with educational standards and assessment processes
• Familiar with passage needs unique to support assessment items
• Familiar with readability tools and grade-appropriate vocabulary

Interested individuals should submit the following to ItemWriting@nwea.org:

1)  Two to three literary writing samples. Acceptable passage samples will comply with the following criteria:

   a. Length of passages should be 200 to 1,000 words.
   b. Grade level or grade range of each sample is specified.
   c. Incorporate passage samples into the body of an email, or include as an attachment.
   d. Passages should be submitted in a searchable text document (MS Word, searchable Adobe
       PDFs, etc.). We cannot accept the following file extensions: .jpeg, .png, .bmp. gif, .tiff, etc.
   e. If the passage is from a published work, please provide the title and the publisher of the work.

2)  Letter of interest, outlining experience writing texts for assessments or other curriculum-aligned materials

3)  CV or resume

Because this is a remote-work position, writers must be able to negotiate technology and learn new technologies as needed. The ability to adhere to deadlines is essential.

Following the selection process, qualified individuals will be added to our passage writer bank and will be contacted for availability when specifications in discrete content areas are open for fulfillment. For more information, please contact us via e-mail at ItemWriting@nwea.org.