This short commentary offers praise for Tom Wartenberg's book "Big Ideas for Little Kids" and raises questions about who is best qualified to lead a philosophy discussion with children, and how we are to assess the benefits of doing philosophy with children.

This commentary highlights convergent themes from four articles in the March 2009 issue of "Educational Researcher" on measuring classroom instruction. Classroom instruction is a complex enterprise that occurs at the intersection of teachers, students, and texts within the surrounding classroom, school, and community environments. Progress in…

In the last several decades, investigators have made remarkable strides in developing and evaluating school-based prevention and intervention strategies for elementary school-age youth focused on the development of healthy social, emotional, and behavioral skills. Although there has been rigorous examination of the efficacy of some of these…

This article argues that the Council of Europe's European Language Portfolio is capable of supporting the implementation of language learner autonomy on a large scale. It begins by explaining what the author understands by "language learner autonomy", then introduces the European Language Portfolio and explains how it can stimulate…

Identifies and analyzes seven threats to authentic evaluation, and predicts implications. Warns educators to beware of the term "standards"; norm-referencing; aggregation; credibility, comparability, and calibration; multiple measures; schemes that rule out varieties of excellence; and "untests." (SR)

Proposes a framework for holistic evaluation of literacy development that is based on principles from whole-language theory. Argues that evaluation should be longitudinal, contextual, and evaluative. (RS)

Discusses the need for change in assessment procedures for students with mild or moderate handicaps, and makes recommendations for change. Suggests that ongoing holistic assessment that interacts with instruction is a vehicle by which teachers can discover what their students really know and document their actual progress. (RS)

Discusses different types of reading program evaluation. (FL)

A teacher relates his successful experience in using a journal to record his efforts with slow learners, efforts which were not reflected in the standard methods that school administrators used to evaluate teacher performance. Highlights from the journal were submitted along with required evaluation forms. (IAH)

Examines six challenges that face teachers interested in developing alternative assessments of literacy: (1) clarifying goals; (2) clarifying audiences; (3) selecting and developing assessment techniques; (4) setting performance standards; (5) establishing methods of management; and (6) integrating assessment and instruction. (SR)

Addresses the challenge of finding or creating alternatives to tests and traditional grading systems. Reflects on and describes the experience of creating an assessment tool and cautions against choosing alternatives that merely camouflage the grades. Encourages educators to find authentic alternatives to describe children's growth. (BAC)

The authors take the opportunity to respond to the commentaries that were written regarding their article (in the March 2009 issue of "Educational Researcher") summarizing the conceptual and empirical basis for using standardized approaches to observing teachers' practices in classrooms and the potential that such approaches have for addressing…

Discusses the deficiencies of the various methods of evaluating children's writing, especially the writing of children for whom English is not the native language. (FL)

The ease with which standardized test results and other objective measures can be used to compare the effectiveness of educational programs has led to an overemphasis on such measures among educators, the government, and the public alike. This overemphasis has led schools to ignore less easily measured but equally important objectives, to design…

A New Zealand educator attributes end-of-school year feelings of guilt about things left undone, or things that should not have been done, to not practicing evaluation as part of planning. Suggests developing a framework that ensures certain beliefs and practices consistent with the curriculum requirements. Provides an example of such a framework.…