Outlines the problems faced in the assessment of student achievement. Argues for the use of portfolios in student assessment. Describes the conditions necessary for portfolio assessment. Explores how portfolios can reflect a wide variety of student learning. (HB)

Studies and identifies the general problems that urban minority youths face in schools. Considers instructional practices impeding the academic growth of minority students. Recommends instructional strategies that are particularly beneficial to minority students. (HB)

Describes how, for English-as-a-Second-Language students, field trips can be a guided exposure to a new American reality. (SR)

Finds that the most important factors in an effective inservice program (delivered via electronic distance education to K-12 teachers in the Columbus, Ohio, Public Schools) were its content and how well prepared, organized, and effective was the person standing in front of the camera. (SR)

Discusses the difficulties of establishing national educational standards in a content area such as social studies. Describes how national standards are being studied and might be instituted. (HB)

Studies and identifies characteristics and attitudes most desired by employers. Provides a rationale for educators to take an aggressive role in adding employability skills instruction to their school's curriculum. Includes four brief sample employability skills activities. (HB)

Addresses questions which content-area teachers may have about writing across the curriculum: the kind of journal that will work best; the teacher's workload involved in journaling; grading; and how they should tell their students about journals. (SR)

Examines significant changes in the assessment of adolescents who struggle with reading (beginning in the early 1900s with the beginning of test development and the problem of what to do with adolescents who were poor readers). Discusses the broader improvements in educational assessment in general. (SR)

Finds (1) a steady progression (from grade 5 through grade 11) in students' ability to recognize irony; (2) the irony in a poem was more difficult to recognize than in a joke or in a story; and (3) less-able students recognized irony better than did academically able students. Offers pedagogical suggestions. (SR)

Describes how a group of foreign language teachers created and used a theatre set (called the "living lab") with changeable painted backdrops. Describes a number of ways to use the living lab in the language class; describes how one class wrote and produced an original 10-page drama in French; and describes the process of creating the living lab.…

Introduces a special section of this journal devoted to discussing the implications for secondary schools of understanding reading comprehension as a social act. Argues that, to be effective, comprehension instruction in middle and secondary classrooms must accommodate the particular influences of particular sociohistorical contexts on reading…

Discusses three steps to help legitimize grades as true measures of student success: eliminating superfluous inflationary pressures on grades; having expert teachers offer frank assessments of student progress (and stop teaching to the test) and give teachers authority over grades and the power to dismiss students who cannot or will not do the…

Focuses on foreign language research on learner strategies. Outlines the different types of strategies used by foreign language learners, and discusses ways to assess students' strategy use. (SR)

Discusses five strategies teachers can use to help struggling students: teaming, hands-on activities, practical applications, minimal time spans, and enrichment. Suggests creativity and practicality are imperative if teachers wish to help "applied" students grow both academically and personally. (RS)

Offers principals advice in two broad areas when it comes to hiring school counselors: understanding the changing role of the school counselor, and employing up-to-date selection criteria and methods. (RS)