This article presents the author's critique of R. Stephen RiCharde's argument in his essay on the humanities and interrater reliability in the July-August 2008 issue of "Assessment Update." RiCharde suggests that the humanities' historical commitment to a dialectical pedagogy, a "nonlinear" process that values disagreement and debate, is at odds…

Asked to review the four articles that appear in this special issue of "Educational Psychologist," these authors discuss the articles in alphabetical order, describe their major arguments, analyze strengths and weaknesses from their perspective, and provide some considerations. The analysis section about each article brings their…

Three English teachers share their ideas on how their work as a writer helped them as a teacher. One teacher has found that the desire for meaningful response to her own writing has led her to evaluate her students similarly. A second teacher discusses how personal experience translates into teaching how to convey rejection in a useful and tactful…

The Black and Wiliam 1998 paper, "Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment," was a landmark article. It crystallized hundred of studies to advance an argument that certain kinds of assessment by teachers and students in their own classrooms is one of the most effective ways to improve educational achievement. More than…

The mental activities of reading and responding to literature and the difficulties that occur as students try to produce written accounts of what they have gained are explored, as are the demands made on the student's language when putting into words what s/he has gained through a study of literature. (Author/KC)

In this personal narrative, the author notes that he has often said more or less in jest that when it comes to evaluating international studies, people lose their critical capacities and forget everything they ever learned in their courses in research methods and statistics. Results that would raise flags in any other endeavor receive no…

Montessorians respond to the following criticisms and concerns about Montessori education: (1) accessibility by all racial and socioeconomic groups; (2) evaluation of children's progress; (3) the noisiness of Montessori classrooms; (4) the inclusion or exclusion of humanities and physical education in Montessori curriculum; and (5) transition…

Parents want validation of the quality of education their children are receiving, but education is complex, non-linear, and to a great extent unquantifiable. This article discusses two current trends that are said to be indicative of educational quality: standardized tests and school rankings. This author argues that while standardized tests may…

Subjectivist literary criticism, which emphasizes readers' emotional responses to texts and adopts psychoanalytic classroom techniques, renders questionable such aspects of literature teaching as goals, evaluation, and teacher preparation. Literature teachers must abandon the scientific orientation of objectivism and subjectivism in favor if an…

Suggesting that many works by and about women are available, accessible, and necessary to balance the high school English curriculum, this book offers diverse selections from women writers and introduces practical ideas on how to integrate them into the curriculum. Multicultural and feminist, the book is intended for teachers already engaged in…

The difficulties and the advantages of giving oral critiques of student speeches are discussed. The advantages of using oral critiques are such that many speech teachers will want to include them. It is argued in this paper that the difficulties associated with oral critiques can be overcome by using communication messages that are intended to…

This books contains papers written on issues related to externally mandated mathematics tests and their influence on school mathematics. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the book, including brief abstracts of each chapter. Chapter 2 presents a summary of the overall problems associated with the need for valid information. Remaining chapters…

Presents a potpourri of classroom techniques used by 28 teachers to develop skills in paragraph composition, public speaking, classroom discussion, the examination of specific literary works, and other language arts activities. (RL)

Examines the effectiveness of recognition and reward programs in holding schools accountable for the academic performance, various ways of measuring student academic performance, and the effects of incentive systems on teacher morale. Issues related to evaluating recognition and reward programs and questions related to how incentive programs can…

Reviews major issues germane to the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) case. Discusses the second wave of Texas standards-based reform that would institutionalize retention for students failing a state-mandated achievement test, proposed federal legislation limiting use of high stakes tests, and psychometric and policy lessons learned from…