“A New Language Tester is Born”

Abstract

This was the subject heading in the e-mail my advisor, Jim Purpura, sent out to the doctoral seminar group after I announced the arrival of my baby girl. While I clearly shared others’ enthusiasm in my happy news, I was also more than a little apprehensive about how a baby was going to affect my lifestyle and career goals. Panic quickly set in as many questions raced through my mind: How was I going to continue working full time? When would I be able to finish my doctorate? When will I find time to continue my research in writing assessment? What will happen to the person(s) I used to be?