Worlds of Literacy Worlds Apart: Reading at Home and at School

This article considers the findings of a literacy survey with Year 7 students who had experienced difficulties with reading. It highlights the range of texts and events that these students were choosing to engage with outside school and the mismatch between home and school literacy. The findings signal a need to go beyond the traditional reading test to uncover the texture of literacy experience and achievement in students' lives.     

A Conceptual Evaluation of Primary Assessment Policy and the Education Policy Process in the Republic of Ireland

This paper offers a conceptual evaluation of primary assessment policy and the policy process in the Republic of Ireland. It considers, in particular, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment's policy document, A Programme for Reform: curriculum and assessment policy towards the new century and within that, the policy statement, The Curriculum at Primary Level: programme development and pupil assessment and it also refers to the primary teachers' union stance on assessment. It critically evaluates the Irish policy position on assessment in the light of recent literature in this field. The main argument of the paper is that the proposed policy is preoccupied with measurement issues and it does not sufficiently recognise the complexity of implementing formative assessment. The paper also seeks to explain the nature of current policy in Ireland with reference to the decision-making process and comparisons with other systems outside Ireland, particularly England/Wales, are made, where appropriate.     

Of cultures and compromises: Publishers,textbooks, and the academy

Relationships between professors as textbook authors and publishing houses as textbook producers have always been fragile. L. Kathy Heilenman examines this relationship and describes how current changes in the climate of universities and in the structure of publishing houses have converged to render this relationship more than usaually problematic. She concludes with suggestions for restructuring the relationship so as to encourage the production of high-quality, innovative textbooks in a partnership between publishers and professors. L. Kathy Heilenman teaches French at the University of Iowa and is one of the authors ofVoilà! a first-year college-level French textbook.     

Test-Wiseness for Teachers and Students

Seventh-grade students' comments about their responses to a test designed to illustrate faulty items suggests students are quite proficient in using secondary clues to figure out correct answers. Teacher comments suggest teachers are unaware they provide such clues.     

Gene Forrester and Tom Brown:A Separate Peace as school story

Children's Literature in Education -