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Assessment in institutions of higher education is being driven by demands for accountability from legislators, trustees, and accrediting agencies. These assessment efforts are now expanding to library instruction programs. The library literature, however, reveals few rigorous efforts to evaluate the teaching of information literacy concepts and skills. Objective methods are being developed in many teaching disciplines, resulting in a body of research and descriptions of effective evaluation methods. Instruction librarians need to investigate these to determine which of them might be adopted/adapted for use in libraries. This paper reviews higher education assessment methods; identifies useful theories and practices; describes assessment programs in academic libraries; and makes recommendations for changes in library education and for future research.

A point of departure -- Frames for sense-making and sharing meaning -- What happens after "hello" : talk in the language and literacy classroom -- Tactics and strategies : oral expression -- Early moves in reading -- Reading as sense-making : beyond the early years -- Strategies and tactics : reading expressions of meaning -- Representing meaning -- Tactics and strategies : representing meaning -- Pedagogical arcs in literacy teaching -- Knowing well and doing well : responsible literacy assessment.

Abstract
This article is based on ethnographically-informed research carried out as part of a wider study of adult literacy education in Timor-Leste (Boon 2014). The research was designed as a multi-site and multi-scalar case study that was conducted in 2011. It included class observations and interviews with adult learners, teachers and coordinators who were involved in different types of literacy programs. In the article, I present some of the insights that I gleaned into the ways in which the research participants understood what it means to be literate, into their representations of the significance of involvement in literacy programs, into their understandings of the challenges and opportunities associated with such programs and into their discourses about literacy. The research findings are presented in three central sections of the article as follows: (1) literacy in the lives of adult learners; (2) teachers and coordinators navigating the challenges and opportunities of local literacy programs; and (3) teachers' and coordinators' discourses about adult literacy. The research presented here complements other research on adult literacy in Timor-Leste by building knowledge about what is happening "on the ground" in post-independence literacy programs.

Analyse der Erwachsenenbildungssituation und des vorherrschenden Analphabetismus. Mangelnde Ausbildung wird in Beziehung gesetzt zum Erfolg einer Selbsthilfe-Politik. Darstellung bildungspolitischer Alternativen, die den ländlichen Sektor miteinbeziehen und Rückwirkungen auf die Gesamtentwicklung haben. (DÜI-Fry)

A critical perspective on evidence is taken as axiomatic in the practice of librarianship. MLIS students are schooled in techniques for evaluating information sources; policymakers, program developers, practitioners, and LIS educators are encouraged to base decisions on a solid foundation of research evidence; practitioners are urged to provide library users with a range of sources from which to choose. Rarely, however, are critical questions asked about the nature of research evidence, the purposes for which research evidence is mobilized and the political, economic, social, and material consequences that may attend privileging one form of evidence over another. The article seeks to raise such questions. First we discuss how research and evidence have been mobilized in professional literature for children's services librarians working in public libraries and in children's services librarians' actual activities and talk about their support of children's early literacy. We then consider the forms of evidence being used by children's services librarians and ask what interests are served by the use or nonuse of particular forms of evidence. Finally we identify implications of our findings. We argue, as does John Budd (2006), that more is at stake than which methods or studies are most effective. We argue too that consequences attend the selection of research evidence, and that the choice of research evidence has implications – often unexpected and sometimes negative -- for public libraries and for their users and staff. Indeed, we seek to demonstrate that the privileging of one form of evidence over others does not further the public library's democratic mission and may well undermine children's services librarians' efforts to advocate for library services.

AbstractAlthough much individual variability exists, most persons with Down syndrome (DS) experience marked expressive language delays and challenges with speech production, hearing, and verbal memory that may negatively affect literacy development. There is, however, a paucity of research with respect to early intervention literacy programs with this population. The authors describe an early intervention literacy program that used a hybrid approach to reading instruction combining whole‐word (i.e., visual) and analytic (i.e., phonic or sound‐based) reading strategies. They also detail the changes observed in the literacy and language abilities of the participants over 1 year. The participants were 15 English speaking Canadian students with DS aged 3–6 years (M age 4;11, pretreatment) who took part in a 45‐week program. Weekly individual sessions with a certified teacher were augmented by regular homework. Each student's literacy and language abilities were assessed immediately pretreatment and posttreatment. Measures of letter name identification, letter sound identification, print concepts, and identification of taught sight words showed statistically significant changes. Letter name identification, letter sound identification, and number of sight words read pretreatment were all positively and significantly correlated with gains in word identification. There was also a clear difference regarding how many new sight words students were able to read posttreatment depending on whether they used abstract symbols to communicate (i.e., unprompted spoken words or signs) pretreatment. The authors note that this study provides support for literacy interventions that combine phonological awareness, word analysis, sight word training, and shared book reading with children with DS as young as 3 years of age with varying levels of language development.