IRA, NICHD panel issues report on measuring instruction

"Instruction is the foundation of any educational system," begins Towards Building a Research Agenda on Measuring Classroom Instruction: Panel Reflections on Key Issues and Next Steps," a new report prepared as a joint activity of the International Reading Association (IRA) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

The report, prepared over a period of two years by an expert panel convened by IRA and NICHD, addresses key issues to consider in attempts to measure classroom instruction in the primary grades and offers recommendations for important next steps in the process. The key issues to consider, which are elaborated upon in the report, are as follows:

• What aspects of classroom instruction are being measured?
• How can multiple data sources on the measurement of classroom instruction be integrated or reconciled and what should those data sources be?
• What role do curriculum standards and instructional content and materials play, and how can information about them inform the measurement of classroom instruction?
• How can available and emerging technologies be used to enhance and refine our data collection and manipulation as we attempt to measure classroom instruction and test models?

To learn more, read the entire IRA, NICHD report.