Teaching portfolios are becoming the most effective tool to improve new and seasoned teachers' instruction via a supportive, convincing evaluation method. In taking a concentrated three days to write a creditable portfolio, a new teacher feels more competent to think about teaching. The portfolio's process of written reflection invokes the power…

Del Schalock, Mark Schalock, and David Myton suggest that the education profession is stuck on an "input" teacher-assessment approach that fails to consider effects on student learning. They offer the Oregon Work Sampling Methodology as an exemplary alternative to portfolios and performance assessments. Although the Oregon WSM is a…

Peer-Mediated Self-Appraisal facilitates merit pay decisions by combining summative (standard professional review) and formative (teaching processes and strategies) evaluation. It requires clear teaching standards, objective measures, and community acceptance of teachers as professionals. Two figures compare formative and summative evaluation and…

In satirical verse the author affirms the value of merit pay proposals and laments the lack of action on such proposals that has resulted from indecisiveness concerning criteria for merit pay implementation. (JBM)

Reports on research that confounds normal expectations concerning the teacher behavior that encourages student achievement and self-concept development. For instance, using praise or rewards and pausing, eliciting, and responding to student questions were negatively correlated to student achievement gains. (IRT)

Teacher evaluation is problematic because it combines two conflicting tasks: improving instruction and judging performance. A Boston elementary principal gradually devised an informal supervision/evaluation system involving brief, random, and frequent classroom visits followed by praise, affirmation, suggestions, and constructive criticism. Even…

Formerly National Education Association president, Mary Futrell got NEA to support the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and helped shift NEA's focus to professional development and human-rights issues. She believes teachers must help state and district entities set academic and professional-development standards. (MLH)

Urges creation of national certification boards in several educational fields to justify highly qualified elementary and secondary teachers who could then be eligible for higher pay. Cites arguments against merit pay, explains how certification boards would defuse union opposition, and examines drawbacks in recent federal efforts to encourage…

Provides compilation and discussion of the results of the 13th annual Gallup survey of public attitudes toward the public schools. (WD)

Educational policy climate of the 1980s is being shaped not by educational research but by appeals to public opinion that emphasize standardized achievements, local classrooms, heightened yet vague requirements of teachers, technological solutions to educational problems, and private school methods. (JW)

Without governors' support, the emerging teaching reform agenda will go nowhere. States should eschew their "deja vu" attitudes and embrace quality of education as a major determinant of state and national economic survival. The governors' action agenda includes 10 recommendations addressing teacher education and standards, work…

Reviews public responses to 18 questions about significant school issues, such as (1) the most important problems facing schools today, (2) support for antidrug measures in local schools, (3) rating the schools on success characteristics, (4) the goals of education, and (5) attitudes about AIDS. (IW)