ASSESSMENT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING IN LITERATURE-BASED CLASSROOMS

This study explores the ways teachers in ''literature-based'' language arts programs keep track of and make sense of children's literate dev elopment and of their own professional effectiveness in teaching child ren to read and write. Extensive interviews were conducted with 25 tea chers in elementary schools with high levels of poverty. Transcripts w ere analyzed inductively. Most of the teachers in this study were caug ht in conflicts among belief systems, and institutional structures, ag endas, and values. The point of friction among these conflicts was ass essment, which was associated with very powerful feelings of being ove rwhelmed, and of insecurity, guilt, frustration, and anger. These teac hers expressed difficulty in keeping track of and having the language to talk about children's literate development. They also described pre ssure from external accountability testing. They differed in their ass essment strategies and in the language they used to describe students' literacy development. Those who worked in highly controlling situatio ns were inclined to use blaming language and tended to provide global, negative descriptive assessments in impersonal language. Their assess ments were likely to be based on a simple, linear notion of literacy. The less controlling the situation the less this was likely to occur. This study suggests that assessment, as it occurs in schools, is far f rom a merely technical problem. Rather, it is deeply social and person al.