The purpose of this study was to examine teachers', students', and parents' perceptions of the effectiveness of student-led conferences using portfolios on promoting the real world skills of responsibility, reflection, self-assessment, and goal setting. This study suggested that using portfolios in student-led parent conferences carries…

This study investigated the impact of a three-week pilot practicum experience in an Aquarium setting on secondary pre-service biology teachers' epistemologies and pedagogies of teaching and learning. A qualitative case study methodology was employed to examine the experiences, views of teaching and learning, and teaching development of a small…

This book will help teachers examine and choose reading assessment in relation to current understandings of the reading process, students' development, and the culture of schooling. Each chapter focuses on a particular type of reading assessment to familiarize teachers with the broad array of assessments available; uses the CURRV framework as an…

This article presents a comprehensive model of daily, classroom informal writing assessment that is constantly linked to instruction and the characteristics of proficient writers. Methods for promoting teacher, student, and parent collaboration and their roles in dialoguing, conferencing, and reflection are discussed. Strategies for including…

This paper reports on the implementation of an educational collaboration project providing 40 preservice teachers with training and experiences in authentic/performance based portfolio assessment. Three professors and a public school teacher designed and facilitated activities in portfolio establishment and assessment for university students…

This paper is a preliminary report on a grant-funded project to use multimedia technology to create teacher portfolios. The workshop was the first step for testing the feasibility of multimedia for portfolio development for preservice and inservice professional development. The goals for the participants in the workshop were to begin learning…

Portfolios are developmental pictures of students' progress, providing alternative ways to evaluate both products and processes of students' learning. Portfolios also serve as vehicles for involving students in self-evaluation and goal-setting. This sourcebook was written to help teachers begin to use portfolios as an authentic assessment method.…

Classroom assessment measures, in the past often limited to multiple-choice and standardized tests, now can involve the creation of portfolios, or collections of pieces of work which the student selects as the best representation of his or her efforts, progress, skills, and accomplishments. Portfolios also usually include teacher evaluations and…

This article examines one of the challenges to the integration of classroom and large-scale portfolio assessment, a challenge posed by the use of a student's classroom portfolio for large-scale assessment of his or her individual competencies. When work is composed with the support of peers, teachers, and parents, whose work is being judged? The…

One of a series of educational packages designed for implementation either in a workshop atmosphere or through individual study, this Hot Topic guide on writing evaluation presents a variety of materials to assist educators in designing and implementing classroom projects and activities centering on the topic of evaluating writing in the…

Standardized written tests required for teacher licensure and certification often prevent or restrict qualified deaf and hard of hearing individuals from entering their chosen profession. These individuals do not have the same access to English as hearing people and the sentence structures, vocabulary, and language style in standardized tests are…

The result of an investigation into the grading writing by the National Council of Teachers of English Committee on Alternatives to Grading Student Writing, this collection of essays offers the writing teacher several innovative and interesting options. Following an introduction by the editor (chair of the Committee), in which he delineates the…

One of the major accomplishments of the New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers has been the development of a set of standards describing what beginning teachers should know, be like, and be able to do. These standards have been translated into content-specific standards for…

In Colorado, pre-service teachers in the larger teacher preparation programs are required to prepare portfolios to document the ways they will meet state licensure requirement standards. In the process, they learn the self-assessment skills and techniques necessary to prepare the renewal of licensure dossier required by the state. In addition, the…

This issue contains five articles about assessment in adult literacy programs. The first article, "Living Literacy: Rethinking Adult Learner Assessment" (Susan L. Lytle), focuses on developing alternative forms of assessment such as literacy portfolios to identify changes in four dimensions of adult literacy over the course of literacy…