Marzano offers a brief review of research in vocabulary instruction, focusing on the concept of "tiers" to describe words used with different contexts and purposes. He then suggests teaching tools that may work to help specific student populations learn and retain those words across the K-12 curriculum.

The authors outline a research study that explores the plight of students who direct so much effort into decoding that comprehension suffers. They make the case that difficulties in reading for older readers (intermediate, middle, and high school) could be due to reading fluency difficulties, and they offer strategies for helping these students…

Describes events of the Maine Writing Project Summer Institute. Notes that what happened in this past summer's institute can serve as a model for the ways poetry can be integrated throughout educators' work with students and throughout the lives of educators. (SG)

Describes briefly the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and its assessment methods. (SR)

Presents extracts from the Preface of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Early Adolescence/English Language Arts Standards. Discusses the educational context, the young adolescent in context, the philosophical context, and the standards format. Presents the 14 standards. (SR)

Discusses what national board certification means and the current status of the certification program in English language arts. Offers an interim evaluation of what has been accomplished to date. Describes the Early Adolescence/English Language Arts Standards report and rubrics for evaluating teaching. Discusses what the profession of English can…

Describes the author's highest hope for the current National Board of Professional Teaching Standards Early Adolescence/English Language Arts certification process. Looks at factors that could undermine the potential benefits that a National Teaching Certificate can have on the profession. Encourages middle school teachers to support the project…

Describes an expert panel member's experiences in working with Educational Testing Service to redesign the scoring for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Early Adolescence/English Language Arts Assessment. Maintains that a less mechanistic and more valid scoring system could have been developed if criticism and open discussion…

Relates the experiences and reflections of a teacher who was a field test participant for the Early Adolescence/English Language Arts Assessment of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. (SR)

Presents the experiences and reflections of a teacher who was a field test participant for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification, and who served on the Standard Setting Panel which defined levels performance on the Early Adolescence/English Language Arts Assessment. (SR)

Presents questions and concerns of a teacher who served as a scoring assessor for the Early Adolescence/English Language Arts field test of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, run by the Educational Testing Service. (SR)

Presents the experiences, questions, and concerns of a teacher who served as a scoring assessor, evaluating the planning and teaching exercises submitted by teachers in the field test for National Board Certification in the Early Adolescence/English Language Arts Assessment. (SR)

Draws analogies between the character Lydgate in George Eliott's "Middlemarch" and the medical profession on the one hand, and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and the teaching profession on the other hand. (SR)

Argues that in its testing procedures, announcements of results, and methods of review, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is becoming a testing company when it should be becoming a professional certification agency. Discusses standards-based scoring, local certification versus national certification, individual applications…

Describes the author's experience when the director and teacher-trainers of a writing program persuaded him that the oral interpretation he wished them to perform was too troubling and explosive to use. Outlines his questions and anguish about the incident, and the urgency of dealing with the dilemmas of multiculturalism, racial intolerance, and…