Portfolio assessment was investigated as a method of evaluating elementary school students' competence in writing. The study comprised an empirical study of the utility and meaningfulness of using a holistic/analytic scoring rubric to score students' portfolios and a qualitative analysis of scoring approaches drawing on raters' critiques of the…

The fourth year of the partial immersion program in grades one through four at Key Elementary School (Arlington, VA), where half the day is taught in English and half in Spanish, is reported. Eight teachers and 85 students are involved in the 4 classes. As in other years, the "special" classes (music, physical education, and library) are…

This is one of a series of reports that document the formative research that supported the development of the "First Steps" program designed to improve the literacy and numeracy of primary school students in Western Australia, particularly those considered at-risk. The four themes of First Steps (reading, writing, spelling, and oral…

The fifth year of the partial immersion program in grades 1-5 at Key Elementary School (Arlington, Virginia), where half the day is taught in English and half in Spanish, is reported. The annual review, which included classroom observations, student and teacher interviews, student assessment, and parent and staff interviews, revealed a highly…