This unique volume brings together findings from six separate but interconnected studies, carried out over seven years in the same small bilingual elementary school. During a period of rapid gentrification in Austin, Texas, Hillside Elementary transformed from a predominantly Latinx, under-resourced and under-enrolled neighborhood school with a transitional bilingual program to a two-way dual language bilingual education (TWBE) school with a waiting list of middle-class families from across the school district. Chapter authors entered the context as researchers at various points along the timeline, with varied theoretical lenses, research questions, and methodological approaches. Most authors have also been parents or teachers at the school, and all were deeply invested in the school community and the education of bilingual students. They come together to argue that in order for a TWBE school to serve marginalized bilingual and BIPOC children and families, it must work collectively toward critical consciousness. Educators, parents, and students must learn to center the cultural, linguistic and racial/ethnic identities of marginalized families, and engage in ongoing dialogue at every level. The culminating product is a theme with variations: one context, one phenomenon, multiple varied positionalities and perspectives.

Written for professional educators, agency professionals, and pre-service teachers, Informed Teaching: Using Data to Improve Educational Performance helps readers understand how validity and assessment technical characteristics are involved in making accurate and appropriate inferences from scores, judgements, ratings, and other checks of student performance. Keeping in mind the overarching educational goal of supporting learning objectives and goals, the book uses a validity framework to address the complexity of assessment, including testing, measuring, evaluating, and both formative and summative predicting. Specific examples include assessment of phonological and morphological awareness, a developmental spelling inventory, a narrative writing rubric, an oral reading fluency sample, and a rubric for media-enhanced science education. Additional chapters are devoted to literacy promotion, particularly science literacy, and the value and utility of the MESPR. Informed Teaching is the rare textbook that actually allows readers to interact with samples and examples of assessments in order to practice understanding and interpreting validity types in a variety of contexts. The book is well-suited to graduate level courses in assessment and evaluation, and to in-service professional development.