The "Context of Discourse" is a major component of a proposed model of the outcomes of literacy. The Context of Discourse is defined by three major components (situation, vantage points, and content and language) and the 10 related outcomes of literacy (including purpose, audience, point of view, disciplinary perspective, and conceptual…

Rejects grading student journals. Describes various approaches to journal writing evaluation the author used with her students and approaches used by her professors when she returned to school. Questions the educational process of grading student journals. Discusses how to create real dialog. (RS)

This study examined inservice teachers' perceptions of classroom assessment, standardized testing, and alternative assessment methods. Participants were 168 predominantly white, predominantly female teachers working on master's degrees at Eastern Michigan University and the Citadel. During the fall of 1997, they completed a questionnaire that…

This paper explores how teachers who choose the New Literacy approach to the teaching of reading and writing reconcile the conflict between their need for personal pedagogical integrity and public demands for accountability. The paper's first section describes one teacher's changing conceptions of evaluation of student writing. The second section…

This annotated bibliography presents the holdings (as of November 1992) of the Test Center lending library of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. Many of the 76 entries are informal assessments and are intended mainly for the classroom. The journal articles, books, and chapters of books in the annotated bibliography were published…

The world of modern biotechnology is based on recent developments in molecular biology, especially those in genetic engineering. Since this is a relatively new and rapidly advancing field of study, there are few traditional sources of information and activities. This digest highlights biotechnology resources including those that can be found on…

Presents a discursive, reflective, and experimental essay. Considers the wealth of images created by a 75-year-old letter from the author's father to his sister. Reflects on the relationship of writing to identity, history, and personal expression. Suggests that assessment needs to be contextual, descriptive, and personal. (RS)

These four issues of the English Leadership Quarterly represent those published during 1992. Articles in number 1 deal with testing assessing, and measuring student performance, and include: "Real Evaluation: Portfolios as an Effective Alternative to Standardized Testing" (Kate Kiefer); "No More Objective Tests, Ever" (Carol…

This collection of 10 essays argues that portfolios in the writing classroom are worth exploring and that such exploration opens up new opportunities: new ways to learn to write, to think about teaching writing, to understand students, teachers, and curricula, and to describe and report on what is found. The collection makes this argument by…

Paper introduces a collection of papers on educational assessment, noting controversies surrounding both old and new assessment methods, discussing the persistent set of technical issues that must be addressed by the research community in measurement, and examining work by the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student…

This publication identifies and examines existing assessment instruments in oral communication for K-12 and higher education, and abstracts and describes assessment instruments and systematically reports their availability and interest to scholars, teachers, and administrators. It also provides background research needed to develop oral…

This 138-item annotated bibliography of books, journal articles, papers, and computer disks represents the reading assessment portion of the Test Center lending library. Listed alphabetically by author, materials in the bibliography were published between 1984 and 1996. An index using a set of descriptors developed for this material is attached.…

Secondary teacher education students should be given clear instruction in the assembling and assessment of professional teaching portfolios. In the teacher education program at the University of Louisville (Kentucky), student teachers are asked to prepare portfolios, exactly as all secondary students must in the state of Kentucky, meaning that the…

Presents observations of students' self-assessment capabilities. Describes the use of a new interactive question type that looks directly at self-assessment and its relationship to success on content questions. (DDR)

In the mid-1980s, partly through new developments in curriculum and instruction, a new assessment option has arisen under the banner of alternative assessment. The basic idea appears in several guises: "authentic assessment" (implying that standardized tests are not authentic), "performance tests," and "portfolios." The goal of writing portfolios…