Reporting on a piece of small-scale research, this article considers the notion of a community of enquiry within the context of a Year 2 class. It suggests that the community of enquiry approach can provide a framework to support young children, comprehension in literacy and also has clear benefits in regard to young children's citizenship…

The period of the middle grades has seen numerous reforms to improve education for students in early adolescence. However, although several current reforms seek to overhaul middle schools, only a handful of studies have directly compared the effects of different configurations of grades. Our analysis uses district and student data from one of the…

The articles in this bibliography represent holdings to date in the area of assessment alternatives in mathematics. The annotated articles are intended mainly to stimulate thinking and provide ideas. Some of the entries are formal assessments and are intended mainly for the classroom. Other articles discuss performance based assessment and other…

A study investigated the effectiveness of a program for increasing students' abilities to self-assess writing. The targeted population consisted of a class of second-grade students in an upwardly mobile community located in the suburban Chicago area of Arlington Heights, Illinois. The inability to self-assess writing was documented through teacher…

This book offers portraits of portfolio keepers--from first graders to university sophomores and graduate students, from teachers in graduate classes to administrators in public schools--as they learn how to use portfolios. The book's introductory chapter looks at shifting definitions of portfolios and offers seven principles to ensure growth of…

This study examined the attitudes of elementary school teachers and students toward portfolio assessment. A total of 11 teachers and 116 students in grades 3 through 5 responded to open-ended questions regarding the benefits of portfolios for highlighting students' written work. Teachers were asked about the strengths and weaknesses of portfolio…

Establishing and refining a framework for performance assessment is especially difficult in large-scale settings that can involve hundreds of judges and thousands of students. This presentation advocates the interactive use of two complementary analytic perspectives and illustrates the approach in the context of the College Entrance Examination…

In 1989, the Kentucky Supreme Court determined that the state's public school system was unconstitutional and called for the General Assembly to "recreate and re-establish a new system of common schools." A new system of accountability in language arts departments required portfolio assessment that was both objective and strictly…

Alternative teaching strategies such as cooperative group work should be followed by cooperative assessment strategies. Teachers of teachers use various teaching models but may fail to also model a similar variety of assessment strategies. When the emphasis is on cooperative learning, especially with an issues-oriented approach, then the…

More and more, schools are looking to student portfolios as a valid, reliable, and authentic form of assessment. This collection offers practical, well-researched answers to a variety of philosophical, organizational, and implementational questions surrounding portfolio assessment. Articles in the first section provide a rationale for student…

The primary purpose for evaluating novice teachers is to improve their performance. The paper presents a model for assessing and assisting novice teachers to have a broad variety of professional learning experiences, to acquire a wide repertoire of teaching competencies and skills, and to gain familiarity with the language and norms governing both…

Public schools are increasingly investigating portfolio assessment as a means of evaluating student performance. A project examined student participation in portfolio assessment and cooperative learning in a "Reading in the Content Areas" class for preservice teachers. Students were a diverse group which included preservice middle school…

This paper reports the results of a large-scale portfolio pilot in which over 2,000 secondary students submitted portfolios in language arts, mathematics, and science classes. Students were asked to select work for their portfolios based on the criteria that would be used to evaluate the work. Students also reflected on how their work satisfied…

One approach to promote partnerships between parents and schools and parents' involvement in a child's literacy development is to instruct parents through a workshop about literacy development and how to develop a portfolio of their child's literacy development reflecting literacy behavior at home. Parents of prekindergarten students in one public…

This is a step-by-step guide to designing problem-based learning across the curriculum. Contents show teachers how to develop student-centered, problem-based curriculum, manage student projects across a range of subjects and disciplines, assess projects using portfolios, and involve community members as project mentors. Numerous examples are…