by Sharon Vaughn, Ph.D., & Kerri L. Briggs, Ph.D.

• Helps schools choose the best systems for assessing outcomes and pinpointing methods that aren't working — goals that are more important than ever in light of No Child Left Behind's focus on improving school performance and implementing statewide accountability systems.
  
  
• Covers timely topics in literacy instruction — teaching English language learners, expanding professional development opportunities, improving education for students with learning disabilities, and more.

The best way to pinpoint what works and doesn't work in reading instruction is classroom observation — and this text will help educational stakeholders choose from available observation systems or design their own system. Each of the nine field-tested systems discussed has a different focus, such as assessing the effectiveness of early reading instruction for English language learners, assessing and improving the writing performance of students who struggle, and reviewing school-wide literacy outcomes and determining professional development needs. Each chapter explores the system's development; details its field testing, reliability, and validity; examines its strengths and limitations; and may include the actual tool discussed. With this invaluable book, researchers, teachers, and decision-makers will explore observational systems that give them the best possible understanding of which approaches to reading instruction are working — and what kind of work still needs to be done.

About the Editors
About the Contributors
Foreword
Louisa Moats
Preface

1. Measurement of Teaching Practices During Reading/Language Arts Instruction and Its Relationship to Student Achievement
   Barbara R. Foorman and Christopher Schatschneider
   
   
2. The Instructional Content Emphasis Instrument: Observations of Reading Instruction
   Meaghan Edmonds and Kerri L. Briggs
   
   
3. Ecobehavioral Strategies: Observing, Measuring and Analyzing Behavior and Reading Interventions
   Charles R. Greenwood, Mary Abbott, and Yolanda Tapia
   
   
4. The Classroom Climate Scale: Observing During Reading Instruction
   Ae-Hwa Kim, Kerri L. Briggs, and Sharon R. Vaughn
   
   
5. The English-Language Learner Classroom Observation Instrument for Beginning Readers
   Diane Haager, Russell Gersten, Scott Baker, and Anne W. Graves
   
   
6. Conducting Ethnographic Observations of Reading in Elementary Schools
   Janette Klingner, Keith M. Sturges, and Beth Harry
   
   
7. “I Can Rite:” Informal Assessment of Written Language
   Nancy Mather and Noel Gregg
   
   
8. Reviewing Outcomes: Using DIBELS to Evaluate Kindergarten Curricula and Interventions
   Roland H. Good III, Ruth A. Kaminski, Sylvia Smith, Deborah C. Simmons, Ed Kame’enui, and Joshua Wallin
   
   
9. Similarities and Differences Between Experienced Teachers and Trained Paraprofessionals: An Observational Analysis
   Marcia L. Grek, Patricia G. Mathes, and Joseph K. Torgesen
   

Index