This report presents estimates of the proportion of teachers who use a wide range of teaching practices, including those frequently recommended in curriculum and teaching standards and those that have traditionally been part of teachers' practice. The report analyzes data from the 1994-95 Teacher Follow-up Survey, which administered a series of items on instructional practices to a national sample of K-12 teachers in all subject areas. The report examines teachers' practices in four areas: roles that teachers and students play in learning activities; materials and technology used in the classroom; kinds of learning tasks that students complete in the classroom and at home; and how teachers assess and evaluate student learning. The report discusses whether teachers' choices of instructional strategies vary with characteristics of teachers and their students. The report concludes that U.S. teachers use a wide variety of instructional strategies on a weekly basis, including strategies recommended by reformers and traditional techniques. Student grade level and class subject area relate to the strategies for instruction that teachers choose. Teachers' instructional choices are partly responses to characteristics of their students. Teachers who participate in recent faculty development are more likely to use recommended teaching practices than those who do not. Four appendixes present detailed tables, standard error tables, technical notes and methodology, and the Teacher Follow-up Survey (questionnaire for current teachers). (Contains approximately 75 references.) (SM)

The Sage Handbook of Research on Classroom Assessment provides scholars, professors, graduate students, and other researchers and policy makers in the organizations, agencies, testing companies, and school districts with a comprehensive source of research on all aspects of K-12 classroom assessment. The handbook emphasizes theory, conceptual frameworks, and all varieties of research (quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods) to provide an in-depth understanding of the knowledge base in each area of classroom assessment and how to conduct inquiry in the area. It presents classroom assessment research to convey, in depth, the state of knowledge and understanding that is represented by the research, with particular emphasis on how classroom assessment practices affect student achieventment and teacher behavior. Editor James H. McMillan and five Associate Editors bring the best thinking and analysis from leading classroom assessment researchers on the nature of the research, making significant contributions to this prominent and hotly debated topic in education.

Explores why some schools may be better than others at helping students learn, reviews 13 characteristics of schools, classrooms, and teachers that are most likely related to school quality and student learning. For each indicator, the report identifies where national data are currently available and reliable. It assesses the current status of our schools by examining and critiquing these national indicator data. The report is designed for policymakers, researchers, and others interested in assessing the strength of our schools.