I mentioned a few days ago the new blog from Sophia, a New Jersey pre-kindergarten teacher, who describes what goes on in her classroom. As a journalist, I find her entries to be quite enlightening, giving me a sense of what to notice in classrooms and what to ask pre-k teachers about.

One example: in an entry headed "Wow!" she talks about one of her student's progress toward learning letters and their sounds. It reminded me of a point made by a Hechinger Institute seminar about assessment. "If you ask a good teacher how a particular student is doing, you'll never hear her say, 'I don't know. I don't have her test scores back.' " That's because good teachers always know how they're students are doing, and what they need help with. Good point for journalists to ponder.