Using Artifacts to Characterize Reform-Oriented Instruction: The Scoop Notebook and Rating Guide. CSE Technical Report 707

This document includes the final data collection and scoring tools created by the "Scoop" project, a five-year project funded through the Center for Evaluation, Standards,and Student Testing (CRESST), to develop an alternative approach for characterizing classroom practice. The goal of the project was to use artifacts and related materials to represent classroom practice well enough that a person unfamiliar with the teacher or the lessons can make valid judgments about selected features of practice solely on the basis of those materials. The artifacts and other materials were collected in a binder called the Scoop Notebook. Thus, the project sought to answer the question, "Can accurate judgments about reform-oriented instructional practice be made based on the classroom artifacts and teacher reflections assembled in the Scoop Notebook?" This document describes the Scoop Notebook and the rating guides, gives instructions for assembling the materials and explaining the process to teachers, and discusses two potential uses of the Scoop Notebook--as a tool to characterize classroom practice or as a tool for teacher professional development. The appendices present the final versions of the Scoop Notebook and rating guide for both mathematics and science. (Contains 3 footnotes.)