An Integrative Approach to Portfolio Evaluation for Teacher Licensure

The purpose of our overall research agenda is to develop and evaluate a methodology for the assessment of teachers in which experienced teachers, serving as judges, engage in dialogue to integrate multiple sources of evidence about a candidate to reach a sound conclusion. The project that provides the venue for this research agenda is the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC), which is developing a portfolio assessment system to assist participating states in making a decision about teacher licensure. To develop the theoretical foundation necessary to support and evaluate such dialogic and integrative assessment practices, we turn, in part, to the tradition of philosophical hermeneutics, as a complement to psychometrics. In this article, we characterize and assess the processes in which judges, trying out an integrative approach to portfolio evaluation for the first time, engage as they collaboratively construct and document their conclusions, and we locate this work in the larger research agenda. The premise of this project, which is being carefully evaluated in the course of inquiry, is that these integrative practices cannot only lead to an epistemologically sound evaluation of teaching but also promote an ongoing professional dialogue of critical reflection on teaching practice.     

The Role of Consequences in validity Theory

How do individuals make sense of and use the products and practices of testing in their everyday lives? What is the responsibility of the educational measurement community to take these issues into consideration in assessing what it is that we do?     

Teachers' reports of student misbehavior in physical education

Classroom management, and, more specifically, the management of student behavior, is an essential skill for and central concern of physical education teachers. Surprisingly little information is known, however about the specific nature of student behaviors that might negatively affect the class environment. The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' reports of student behaviors that may create management issues in physical education classes. Over 300 teachers representing a range of grade levels and school contexts completed a survey related to the frequency of potentially negative student behaviors. Many types of misbehaviors were reported, but the most common were mild. Teachers' reports varied by sex, years of teaching experience, and school context.     

2008 Benjamin Franklin medal in life science is Presented to Victor Ambros, Ph.D. (University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts), Gary Ruvkun, Ph.D. (Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts) and David Baulcombe, Ph.D., FRS (University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK)

The discovery of small RNAs that can turn off genes has given us a new way to think about how genes are regulated. These molecules are present in all complex organisms and are thought to regulate upwards of 30% of human genes. Due to their small size, their discovery was surprisingly recent and was underappreciated initially. Beginning with two back-to-back papers published in 1993, the labs of Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun reported the first small RNA (now known as a microRNA or miRNA) and how it regulated a target mRNA in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans through base-pairing interactions. It took until 1999 for another report to document novel small RNAs in complex systems, when David Balcoumbe discovered similarly sized molecules, now known as small interfering RNAs or siRNAs, that were associated with shutting off or “silencing” genes in plants. A frenzy of reports on small RNAs and their roles in turning off genes ensued with many researchers including Ambros, Ruvkun, and Baulcombe prominently participating. Almost instantly it became clear that small RNAs were not a quaint oddity exclusive to the worm, and molecular biology was never the same. Now we know that these molecules are critical for normal growth and development, are associated with cancer and other diseases, and have tremendous applied potential to improve agriculture and human health.