Sheila W. Valencia

Complex Interactions in Student Teaching: Lost Opportunities for Learning

Student teaching is a cornerstone of teacher preparation, yet it remains one of the most difficult experiences to understand. Calls for an ecological approach to research on student teaching prompted this study in which the experience is examined from the perspective of the three key triad members. Using activity theory, this study explores how their interactions in specific contexts shaped opportunities for student teachers to learn to teach language arts. The findings reveal that all members of the triad were simultaneously operating in multiple settings and facing competing demands that shaped their actions and stances. Consequently, there were numerous instances of lost opportunities for student teachers to learn to teach, including sparse feedback on teaching subject matter and few links to methods courses, plus limited opportunities to develop identities as teachers. The structures that frame student teaching and its participants have deep roots in the cultures of universities and schools that must be considered if student teaching is to maximize its potential.

Curriculum Materials for Elementary Reading: Shackles and Scaffolds for Four Beginning Teachers

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to learn how beginning elementary teachers understood and used curriculum materials for teaching reading, and how, in turn, these materials shaped teachers’ instruction. We followed 4 teachers who worked in markedly different school situations and were provided a variety of curriculum materials, ranging from scripted reading programs to supplemental materials without teaching guides. Data were gathered through classroom observations, interviews, and curriculum artifacts over the teachers’ first 3 years on the job. Our analysis suggested that curriculum materials interacted with teachers’ knowledge of reading and reading instruction, and with the contexts in which they worked. As a result, curriculum materials both fostered and inhibited teachers’ on‐the‐job learning. We found that the 2 teachers with weak knowledge or more restrictive materials and environments learned the least and were least able to adapt instruction to meet the needs of their students. The 2 teachers with stronger knowledge, access to multiple materials, and support for decision making regarding materials and instructional strategies learned the most and were most able to adapt instruction. Furthermore, early experiences with specific curriculum materials had effects 2 years later on these teachers’ instructional practices. Implications for curriculum mandates, material selection, and professional development are discussed.

Beyond Breadth-Speed-Test: Toward Deeper Knowing and Engagement in an Advanced Placement Course

We report a mixed-methods design experiment that aims to achieve deeper learning in a breadth-oriented, college-preparatory course—AP U.S. Government and Politics. The study was conducted with 289 students in 12 classrooms across four schools and in an “excellence for all” context of expanding enrollments in AP courses. Contributions include its investigation of a model of deeper learning, development of a test to assess it, and fusion of project-based learning with a traditional curriculum. Findings suggest that a course of quasi-repetitive projects can lead to higher scores on the AP test but a floor effect on the assessment of deeper learning. Implications are drawn for assessing deeper learning and helping students adapt to shifts in the grammar of schooling.

Practice Makes Practice: Learning to Teach in Teacher Education

In this article, we argue that teaching is and should be a central element to learning to teach, particularly as teacher education once again turns toward practice. From this perspective, we must elaborate how such a shift addresses the need to bridge the gap between knowledge for teaching and knowledge from teaching, between theory and practice, and among university courses and fieldwork. If the intent of such a shift is to fundamentally change the preparation of teachers, we argue that it requires teacher education programs to do more than increase the amount of time candidates spend in clinical field placements. It requires, we argue, that teacher educators engage in simultaneous innovation in three related, but distinct aspects of program design and implementation: organizational structures and policies, content and curriculum, and teacher education pedagogy. Without such dynamic engagement, the practice-turn will go the way of many past reforms in teacher education—it will be symbolic but not significant or meaningful.

Assessment in RTI: What Teachers and Specialists Need to Know

This article describes the role of language and literacy assessment in Response to Intervention, the assessment requirements and intent of RTI legislation, and the assessment principle in the International Reading Associations guiding principles on RTI. It outlines the multiple purposes of assessment required for a coherent RTI system, including screening, diagnostics, formative progress monitoring, benchmark progress monitoring, and summative outcome assessment. Building on this framework, the article then presents types of knowledge and skills teachers and specialists need in order to use assessments and their results effectively in an RTI approach to preventing language and literacy problems.

Putting Text Complexity in Context: Refocusing on Comprehension of Complex Text.

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts have prompted enormous attention to issues of text complexity. The purpose of this article is to put text complexity in perspective by moving from a primary focus on the text itself to a focus on the comprehension of complex text. We argue that a focus on comprehension is at the heart of the Common Core Standards for ELA and that characteristics of the text represent only one of several factors that influence comprehension. Using both theoretical and empirical sources, we highlight the relationship between texts and tasks. We propose a Text-Task Scenario framework in which the simultaneous consideration of text and task results in a more nuanced and more instructionally responsive estimate of the comprehension of complex text.

Inside English/Language Arts Standards: What's in a Grade?

In this commentary on standards-based education reform, the authors assert that such reform must set challenging standards for student performance and then help all students meet them.

Principles for Classroom Comprehension Assessment

This paper presents five principles to guide reading comprehension assessment in the classroom. Based upon an interactive model emerging from the past two decades of reading research and theory, these principles acknowledge a close tie between assessment and instruction; namely, that assessment is part of instruction. The principles suggest that we (1) consider the reader, the text, and the context as we construct and interpret assessments. (2) Focus on orchestrating rather than isolating skills. (3) Regard reading as a dynamic process rather than a static product. (4) Develop techniques that encourage rather than ignore student-teacher interactions. (5) Use a variety of measures of reading comprehension. The paper concludes with several applications of these principles to classroom assessment.

Issues in Literacy Assessment: Facing the Realities of Internal and External Assessment

We are at a crossroads in literacy assessment. The forms and products of assessment are being critiqued in unprecedented ways by an unprecedented range of stakeholders—psychometricians (e.g., Linn, Baker, & Dunbar, 1991; Shepherd, 1991), policy-makers (e.g., Darling-Hammond, 1991; Smith, 1991), test publishers (e.g., Kean, 1992), literacy researchers (e.g., Calfee & Hiebert, 1991; Farr, 1992; Johnston, Afflerbach, & Weiss, 1993; Valencia & Pearson, 1987) and classroom teachers (e.g., Howard, 1990). Many have written about the problems associated with the standardized tests used for external decision-making, whereas others have written about the need to place more emphasis on assessment for instructional purposes. However, few have dealt with the relations between these two assessment purposes that teachers and students must deal with on a continuous basis. In this paper, we explore both the characteristics of, and relations between, two broad purposes of literacy assessment, the tensions resulting from these characteristics and relations, and new ways to think about these tensions so that we might build assessment systems that further the literacy education and achievement of all students.

How Will Literacy Be Assessed in the Next Millennium

In this “RRQ Snippet,” several researchers share their ideas about trends in literacy assessment, including high-stakes testing, the influence of technology, and assessment to inform instructional practice.