An intervention program sought to improve third- and fifth- grade students' ability to transfer learning among subject areas and to apply their learning to everyday occurrences. Surveys and interviews revealed the lack of student transference of knowledge among subject areas; teacher surveys and an interview with the curriculum director provided…

The kinds of questions administrators, teachers, parents, the community, and children ask from under each of their hats makes educators and others aware of the information needs that people have for judging the success of schooling. Each audience, each role, asks slightly different questions, and the information needed to answer those questions is…

Highlighting the important innovations embodied in the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress' (NAEP) Reading Report Card, this report provides information on how the NAEP's large-scale reading assessment is evolving in response to changing perceptions of reading development and assessment procedures. Included in the report is an…

An outgrowth of the educational reform movement is interest in alternative forms of assessment. One response to the call for increased rigor in measuring learner progress has been the suggestion that assessment should be restructured to resemble real life, with learners taking more responsibility for assessing their own progress. Portfolio…

The use of portfolio creation with teacher education students is one way to enact the spirit and practices associated with the "true testing" movement. True testing advocates relevant work, in-context work, metacognitive work, self-evaluation, peer-collaborations, work commitment, self-directedness, successive work drafts, and work…

Unacknowledged and untended opposition can lead the "resistance" to destroy even the best planned of portfolio systems. The greatest cause of initial resistance to portfolio assessment is the fear that teachers will lose their autonomy and/or authority in the classroom. Writing instructors need to ask themselves about issues of control and…

Focusing on specific and practical aspects of assessment and evaluation in elementary classrooms, this book is not only about portfolios, but about collecting and recording information from multiple sources on an ongoing basis. Noting that making forms, especially on the computer, is very time consuming, the book includes over 120 reproducible…

This 42-item annotated bibliography provides information on some of the assessments currently available to assess communication competence. In addition to actual assessment instruments, the bibliography also includes related articles that discuss the oral communication skills that should be assessed, while other articles provide research results…

This special double issue focuses on the issue of alternative assessment and its place in educational reform. "Alternative Assessment: A National Perspective" (T. Stefonek) emphasizes that the fundamental purposes of new assessment methods are grounded in educational goals, meaningful outcomes, and curricular and instructional programs…

A pilot study systematically collected classroom assessment data in reading and compared that data to the students' test scores on the Degrees of Reading Power (DRP). A total of 61 teachers in 18 New York City public elementary schools gathered the data for 268 students in grades 2 through 6. Teachers identified the books their children could…

The increased classroom application of the perspective that defines and applies a description of learning, thinking, and language use as "processes"--or even one inseparable process--has the potential to make the 1990s another exciting decade for education. Accruing theory that stresses process and integration recommends instruction…

This annotated bibliography represents Test Center holdings to date in the area of assessment alternatives in mathematics and science. Alternative assessment, for the purpose of this bibliography, means assessment other than standardized, norm-referenced assessment. The list emphasizes examples of assessment, such as performance assessments,…

A study investigated teachers' and staff developers' perceptions and assessment of the Whole Language Network (which assists teachers in using the whole language approach), the support provided to participants, changes in teaching and assessment practices, and the effects of such changes on student attitudes and achievement. A total of 164…

A study surveyed teacher education students' attitudes, beliefs, and habits concerning portfolio assessment. Subjects were 230 students in 10 different graduate courses on literacy education at two colleges: the University of Wisconsin and the University of Nevada. One hundred fifteen subjects (a 50% response) responded to a questionnaire. Results…

Describes the efforts of the language arts staff of the Edmonton (Canada) Public Schools to develop statements of student outcomes that were generalizable across grade levels and tests of writing achievement based on those outcomes. (FL)