Judgment‐Based Scoring by Teachers as Professional Development: Distinguishing Promises from Proof

The engagement of teachers as raters to score constructed response items on assessments of student learning is widely claimed to be a valuable vehicle for professional development. This paper examines the evidence behind those claims from several sources, including research and reports over the past two decades, information from a dozen state educational agencies regarding past and ongoing involvement of teachers in scoring‐related activities as of 2001, and interviews with educators who served a decade or more ago for one state's innovative performance assessment program. That evidence reveals that the impact of scoring experience on teachers is more provisional and nuanced than has been suggested. The author identifies possible issues and implications associated with attempts to distill meaningful skills and knowledge from hand‐scoring training and practice, along with other forms of teacher involvement in assessment development and implementation. The paper concludes with a series of research questions that—based on current and proposed practice for the coming decade—seem to the author to require the most immediate attention.     

Using Blackboard in Library Instruction: Addressing the Learning Styles of Generations X and Y

Studies show that recent generations of college students have a learning style with identifiable characteristics. Library instruction efforts must adapt to these learning styles. Course management software (CMS), such as Blackboard, is one resource available to academic librarians to meet the challenges posed by the "Net Generation." At Stetson University, the use of Blackboard courseware in library instruction sessions successfully addressed the unique learning styles of students.     

Through the years: a longitudinal study of physical education teachers from a research-based preparation program

This study investigated factors that enhanced and constrained the career development of six teachers, who had graduated from the same university teacher education program, in their induction years (Woods & Earls, 1995) and again later in their career cycles. Three participants were physical education teachers (PETs), and three were former physical education teachers (FPETs). Fessler's (1985) Teacher Career Stage Model provided the theoretical framework. Data sources were: interviews with teachers and their teacher educators and direct observations of lessons. Results indicated that the PETs continued to have skill development as their primary teaching objective. The teachers maintained many of their teaching skills, and shifted between the career cycles of "competency building" and "enthusiastic and growing." All three FPETs left their physical education positions during the career frustration stage and at the time of publication were in the career exit stage.     

Knowledge,Labour and Education

In an emerging knowledge-based economy, the rationale for how resources are organised, value is created and, in turn, how value is converted into power will change radically. Educators, in particular, can play a central role in negotiating these power shifts. This paper examines the impetus behind the shift. In so doing, production is examined as to how it creates value and how that changes our work and learning environments. Emerging definitions of education, value, labour and knowledge are discussed in light of these changes. Finally, resultant social, political, production and structural changes are examined.     

Extending Responsiveness to Intervention to Mathematics at First and Third Grades

Responsiveness to intervention (RTI) is an innovative approach to the identification of learning disabilities (LD). The central assumption is that RTI can differentiate between two explanations for low achievement: poor instruction versus disability. If the child responds poorly to validated instruction, then the assessment eliminates instructional quality as a viable explanation for poor academic growth and instead provides evidence of a disability. For children who do respond nicely, RTI serves a critical prevention function. Most of RTI research has been focused on early reading. In this article, we describe two ongoing programs of research on RTI in the area of mathematics: one on a comprehensive mathematics curriculum at first grade and the other focused on word problems at third grade. For each research program, we describe the sample, explain how students are identified as at risk for mathematics disability, provide an overview of the interventions to which responsiveness is gauged, and describe some results to date.     

Use of machine-readable databases to support a large SDI service

The current awareness [or selective dissemination of information (SDI)] services of AT&T Bell Laboratories are described. Several bulletins announcing over 80,000 externally published items/year are issued at regular intervals and sent to about 6100 subscribers. Production is done by the BELLPAR (Bell Laboratories Publication, Alerting, and Retrieval) system, which processes four commercial machine-readable databases and prepares camera-ready bulletin copy. A photocopy service processing some 10,000 requests/month provides document delivery for items announced in the bulletins. Subscribers may order photocopies electronically if they wish. A “captive” journal collection supports the copying operation; non-journal articles, such as conference proceedings and technical reports, are ordered from external suppliers. Improvements in the SDI service include electronic bulletins, more focused bulletins and additional databases as input.