A Lot of Students and Their Teachers Need Support: Using a Common Framework to Observe Teacher Practices Might Help

The authors take the opportunity to respond to the commentaries (this issue of Educational Researcher) that were written regarding their article (in the March 2009 issue of Educational Researcher) summarizing the conceptual and empirical basis for using standardized approaches to observing teachers’ practices in classrooms and the potential that such approaches have for addressing some concerns about youngsters’ early literacy development. In this response, their intent is to clarify what appear to be points of misunderstanding and to add some details that could be helpful in interpreting their earlier article. They do not use citations for their assertions; the points made in this response requiring such documentation are made in the original article and are cited there, Interested readers can pursue those references.