Hopefully, your holiday and vacation were restful and enjoyable. I anticipate that 2001 will be a very good year. Please note the special upcoming holiday and teacher workday in January, which affect days of school attendance. In every walk of life there are terms, phrases, and initials that mean special things to people who work in these professions. For the rest of us, listening to the jargon can be very confusing.
Education is no exception.
So I thought, from time to time, I'd share a few terms that deal with education and what's going on in the classroom in an attempt to clarify some of the mystique associated with educationalese. These phrases are frequently used in parent-teacher conferences or in newsletter articles, and they often are not defined. Assessment is a way of studying or judging what the child knows and does not know. Its purpose is to shape future instruction to meet goals for the child's academic growth. Teacher observation may also be a form of assessment.