This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include David Hursh, Hea-Jin Lee, Terry Pickeral, Dianna Huxhold, Jennifer Booher-Jennings, David R. Johnson, Maria K. Dibenedetto, Peter V. Murphy, Dian Schaffhauser, and Leah M. Herner.
(2011). High-Stakes Online Testing, T.H.E. Journal. For decades the No. 2 pencil and bubble sheet have ruled the student assessment process. The time has finally come to move all of those important tests online. High-stakes computer-based testing has been around for more than 10 years, with some states eagerly embracing it and others avoiding it like whooping cough. But the advent of national standards is luring more states into online testing–to the point where districts can no longer assume it won't happen where they are. In this article, the author discusses the benefits of online testing as well as the challenges districts can expect to face as they transition to online testing. [More] Descriptors: National Standards, Computer Assisted Testing, High Stakes Tests, School Districts
(2005). Standards, Special Education, and Access to Mathematics Curriculum, TEACHING Exceptional Children Plus. Recent legislation has pushed reform efforts to new heights. Students with disabilities now have higher standards, which include participation in high stakes testing. This article explains one elementary teacher's approach to math education and preparing all students to be successful on standardized tests. Details of how she gives all learners access to the curriculum are described. [More] Descriptors: Mathematics Curriculum, Standardized Tests, Educational Change, High Stakes Tests
(2005). High School Graduation Requirements and Students with Disabilities. Developments in Secondary Education and Transition. Information Brief. Vol. 4, Issue 2, National Center on Secondary Education and Transition, University of Minnesota (NCSET). High school graduation requirements vary from state to state and district to district across the United States. These requirements establish criteria that students must meet in order to obtain diplomas or certificates of completion. An increasingly common graduation requirement is the achievement of a passing score on an exit exam, a practice often referred to as high-stakes testing. With the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002, schools are required to test students to document their academic progress. Schools have also been mandated by this legislation to increase rates of graduation. To comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), states must include all students in achievement testing, including students with disabilities. Policy makers hold varying opinions about what should be required for graduation from high school, whether the same requirements should apply to all students, and how these requirements should be determined. The area of high-stakes testing fosters debate, with individuals on both sides presenting reasoned arguments. A study was conducted in which representatives from all states were asked how their state determines graduation requirements and the role that high-stakes testing played in those requirements. Information specifically pertaining to students with disabilities was also collected. The viewpoints of both proponents and opponents of high-stakes testing are presented in the study, and the findings of that study are summarized in this brief. [More] Descriptors: Federal Legislation, Disabilities, High Stakes Tests, Student Evaluation
(2008). Building on the Basics: The Impact of High-Stakes Testing on Student Proficiency in Low-Stakes Subjects. Civic Report No. 54, Center for Civic Innovation. School systems across the nation have adopted policies that reward or sanction particular schools on the basis of their students' performance on standardized math and reading tests. One of the most frequently raised concerns regarding such "high-stakes testing" policies is that they oblige schools to focus on subjects for which they are held accountable, but to neglect the rest. Many have worried that the limited focus of these policies could have an unintended negative effect on student proficiency in other subjects, such as science, that are important to the development of human capital and thus to future economic growth. This paper evaluates whether the F-grade sanction in Florida's A+ program has led schools to increase student learning in the high-stakes subjects of math and reading to the detriment of learning in the important, but low-stakes subject of science. Results indicate that the F-grade sanction led to substantial student gains in the learning of math, reading, and science. Finally, a simple model is produced to explain the impact of high-stakes testing on student learning in low-stakes subjects. Evidence is provided suggesting that virtually all the positive findings in science are attributable to complementarities in the learning of math and reading. [More] Descriptors: High Stakes Tests, Sanctions, Science Education, Science Achievement
(2014). Synthesizing Experiences in Arts Methods Courses: Creating Artists' Maps in Preservice Elementary Teacher Education, Art Education. Each semester, preservice elementary generalist teachers navigate to and through the multiple sections of our art methods courses. These elementary education majors bring concerns relating to dominant education discourse such as high stakes testing and accountability measures that relate to how they will be evaluated as future teachers. Often, they are consumed with generalist issues regarding what and how they are expected to teach, such as ensuring grade-level reading mastery and math skills (Duncum, 1999). On a personal level, many are uncomfortable with artmaking and/or can recall unpleasant art class experiences (Smith-Shank, 1993). These preoccupations and preconceived notions often obstruct their students' way of engaging with experiences in art methods courses and conceptualizing this content in future pedagogical practice. How can these challenges be acknowledged, providing a safe collegial space to work with and through them? In this article Dianna Huxhold and Libba Willcox describe a project in which preservice elementary generalists used artistic mapping to document, reflect on, and synthesize their engagement in the authors' art methods courses. The maps also provided instructor insight about the nature of student thinking; learning; and experiences around key course topics, activities, issues, and questions. Artistic mapping is an alternative practice that uses mapping as an expressive medium in charting personal, conceptual, or imaginary geographies. Huxhold and Willcox asked the 78 students (from their three sections of the course) to create maps that showed not only which projects were most memorable, meaningful, and relevant, but also how they made connections across course readings, assignments, and class content. Herein, they share their reflections on the success, challenges, and usefulness of this project for both students and instructors; side-by-side they made meaning together. [More] Descriptors: Preservice Teacher Education, Elementary Education, Maps, Student Projects
(2008). Renewing the Civic Mission of Schools, School Administrator. Public school leaders know their schools have a civic mission, but in this period of high-stakes testing, who has time to emphasize civic learning in the overburdened school day? In this article, the authors assert that for democracy to flourish, public education must play a central role in promoting responsible moral action that serves the common good. The authors offer six steps school district leaders can take to integrate and sustain quality opportunities for students to acquire and enhance their civic character. [More] Descriptors: Civics, Citizenship Education, Public Education, Elementary Schools
(2002). High-Stakes Testing & Student Learning, Education Policy Analysis Archives. Studied 18 states with high-stakes testing to see if their programs were affecting student learning, analyzing results from additional tests covering some of the same domain as each state's own test. Findings suggest that in all but one case, student learning is indeterminate, remains at the same level, or actually decreases with the implementation of high-stakes testing. Descriptors: Academic Achievement, High Stakes Tests, Learning, State Programs
(2008). Mastery Learning and Assessment: Implications for Students and Teachers in an Era of High-Stakes Testing, Psychology in the Schools. Federal efforts to improve American students' achievement through high-stakes testing have led to significant concerns about the fairness and effectiveness of standardized tests. We attribute these concerns to the use of summative tests to assess academic progress without the benefits of an effective formative model of assessment and instruction, such as mastery learning. Historically, mastery learning models emerged as a reaction to the misuse of psychometric models of assessment for instructional purposes. Differences between these models are discussed along with a more recent form of mastery assessment, curriculum-based measurement. Apprehensions about the summative testing requirements of No Child Left Behind are considered along with efforts to make these tests fairer, such as the inclusion of a growth provision. Finally, we identified a mastery learning intervention program in mathematics in a high school that achieved national recognition, and we interviewed participating teachers and students. They reported the positive academic and motivational outcomes expected of a mastery learning approach and a few concerns about drawbacks associated with high-stakes testing. [More] Descriptors: Intervention, Curriculum Based Assessment, Recognition (Achievement), Federal Legislation
(2008). A Case Study: A Teacher's Instruction of Writing in Rural Northeast Mississippi, ProQuest LLC. When writing instructors use form (essay form) based upon state testing standards on the state rubric to guide students in writing, they may be teaching form to limit higher level thinking content (Albertson, 2004). Instructors may not feel confident enough in their teaching of writing for high-stakes' testing; therefore, they may instruct students in using the five-paragraph format or formulaic writing as a safe way of teaching writing (Albertson, 2004). With accountability pressures of a testing environment, teachers may not feel that they can allow adolescents enough freedom with writing in the classroom to experiment with composing through the writing process. Writing that leads to forms other than the essay comes from risking or experimenting with language (Graves, 1999). Teaching literacy has become a concern for many states and school districts who strive to meet students' needs within mandated No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements. This study in Mississippi narrates an exemplary teacher's instruction of writing and reading to meet the NCLB (USDOE, 2002) within a high stakes testing environment. More specifically, the study was designed to identify and describe a language arts teacher's practice and perceptions of teaching writing within a rural northeast Mississippi public school district. The participant for this case study was referred by experts in education who perceived her as highly qualified; she had 13 of 85 students who scored 3s on Mississippi's state writing assessment. This teacher has taught in a school that continues to receive a level 5 rating, the highest that is awarded by the state for meeting state and federal requirements. The teacher perceived herself as accountable and taught to help students' success toward her school's level 5 rating. A major question and five related questions formed the inquiry base for this case study. These related to teaching sophomores writing, which necessarily includes the other side of literacy–reading–within the high stakes testing environment created by No Child Left Behind. This study revealed a northeast Mississippi exemplary English II teacher's (Rebecca) perceptions and practices of the teaching of writing to 10th grade students within a high stakes' testing environment. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: www.proquest.com/en-US/products/disserta… [More] Descriptors: Case Studies, Writing Instruction, Rural Education, Public Schools
(2004). High Stakes Testing: Why?, Theory and Research in Education. This response argues that, although evaluation of student learning is required for accountability, high stakes testing is not required and may even be counterproductive. It also questions whether the goals of the "No Child Left Behind Act" are reasonable and contends that, if they are not, there may be no justification for imposing punishments and sanctions on children and schools unable to meet them. Moreover, high stakes testing may be incompatible with many defensible aims–among them, critical thinking. [More] Descriptors: Testing, High Stakes Tests, Test Interpretation, Educational Policy
(2008). High-Stakes Testing and the Decline of Teaching and Learning: The Real Crisis in Education. Critical Education Policy and Politics #1, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.. This book examines the changes in educational policy in the U.S. and Britain over the last twenty-five years. The author contends that education in the States and Britain has been significantly transformed, through efforts to create curricular standards, increased emphasis on accountability measured by standardized tests, and efforts to introduce market competition and private services into educational systems. The writer offers an alternative to the conception of society and education, citing examples of parents who reject the current emphasis on individual success and of schools that promote civic-mindedness. Contents include: (1) Situating the personal in the political; (2) Demystifying education: Theorizing practice and practicing theory; (3) Years of struggle and hope; (4) Conflicting visions of schooling and teaching: The historical and political context; (5) The rise of high-stakes testing at the state and federal levels: New York, Texas and No Child Left Behind; (6) Chicago's Renaissance 2010: The reassertion of ruling-class power (David Hursh and Pauline Lipman) ; and (7) Imagining the future: Alternatives to high-stakes testing and neoliberalism. [More] Descriptors: Federal Legislation, Educational Testing, Standardized Tests, High Stakes Tests
(2014). Test Accommodations for English Language Learners Using the Student Language Assessment Plan, ProQuest LLC. Public schools are attempting to work with a growing number of immigrant English language learners (ELLs) in the U.S. education system at a time when the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has mandated that ELLs achieve proficiency on assessments even if they have not acquired sufficient language proficiency. The purpose of this qualitative case study at a Midwestern elementary school was to investigate support staff, teacher, and administrator perceptions of the assessment accommodation process for ELLs about high-stakes testing. The conceptual framework for the study was based on second language acquisition (SLA) and basic interpersonal communication skills and cognitive academic language proficiency. Research questions guided the investigation regarding the development of the Student Language Assessment Plan (SLAP) and the perceptions of teachers regarding the SLAP process. Data were collected through observations of the SLAP process in assessed grade level data meetings, interviews with 5 teachers, and review of SLAP documents. Open, axial, and selective coding was used to identify themes and categories within the data. Results showed that the participants lacked knowledge about the SLAP and would benefit from targeted professional development (PD) with more utilization of formal assessment measures for the SLAP. A PD Project involved the collaboration of school staff, parents, and community members and was designed to increase their knowledge of SLA while promoting the academic advancement of ELLs. Implications for positive social change from the PD Project presented an opportunity to directly impact the school staff, parents, and community members while indirectly impacting ELLs and students' lives. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: www.proquest.com/en-US/products/disserta… [More] Descriptors: Testing Accommodations, English Language Learners, Public Schools, Immigrants
(2014). The Effects of the Mississippi Curriculum Test: Second Edition: A Study on the Teacher Morale and Teacher Efficacy of Seventh and Eighth Grade Teachers, ProQuest LLC. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the effects that high-stakes tests have on middle school teachers' morale and teachers' efficacy in the state of Mississippi. The participants in this study were teachers in the areas of language arts, mathematics, and science at the middle school level. The researcher used a correlational design, using multiple regression to determine whether teacher efficacy and teacher morale could be predicted from the factors identified in the literature that impacted teachers. Two one-way ANOVAs were used to determine whether there were differences in teacher morale and teacher efficacy between teachers in low performing and high performing schools. Data were collected using an online version of the High-Stakes Testing-Teacher Attitude Survey (Burke, 2006). The results of the multiple regression indicated that both teacher morale and teacher efficacy can be significantly predicted from pressure/stress and changes to instructional practices and content experienced by teachers as a result of Mississippi Curriculum Test: Second Edition (MCT2). In contrast, the results of the ANOVA indicated that there was not a significant difference in teacher morale or teacher efficacy between teachers in low performing schools versus high performing schools. It is recommended that further study be conducted in elementary schools. It is also recommended that additional study be conducted to examine the school environment as it relates to teacher morale and teacher efficacy. Finally, additional study can be conducted that utilizes a mixed-methods approach. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: www.proquest.com/en-US/products/disserta… [More] Descriptors: Teacher Morale, Statistical Analysis, High Stakes Tests, Self Efficacy
(2014). The Effect of Font Selection on Student Test Anxiety, ProQuest LLC. The emergence of standards-based curriculums has resulted in an increased frequency of student testing, including high-stakes testing. Of students who take tests, up to 65% may experience test anxiety, which can have negative effects on student outcomes. For this reason, the purpose of this single-group, repeated measures design, quantitative study was to determine if differences in font styles (Times New Roman, Verdana, and Georgia) affected student-reported test anxiety and if gender was a contributing factor. The research questions for this study reflected those two concepts. The framework used for this study was the theory of implicit perception. Data were collected using three versions of a fictitious test and the Test Anxiety Inventory by Spielberger, and both descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted. To answer the research questions, one- and two-way repeated-measures ANOVAs were performed. Results indicated a significant difference in anxiety levels with regard to font type, but no significant differences were found between the genders. However, these results should be interpreted with caution because of the small sample used in the study and the weaknesses in the research methods employed with this research. Based on the literature reviewed for this study, implications for social change include the decrease in student test anxiety through the implementation of various strategies, which may or may not require students' active participation and their meta-level awareness of their test anxiety. Decreased levels of student test anxiety can help improve student outcomes in the academic setting. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: www.proquest.com/en-US/products/disserta… [More] Descriptors: Test Anxiety, Statistical Analysis, Layout (Publications), Test Format
(2008). Learning to Label: Socialisation, Gender, and the Hidden Curriculum of High-Stakes Testing, British Journal of Sociology of Education. Although high-stakes tests play an increasing role in students' schooling experiences, scholars have not examined these tests as sites for socialisation. Drawing on qualitative data collected at an American urban primary school, this study explores what educators teach students about motivation and effort through high-stakes testing, how students interpret and internalise these messages, and how student hierarchies develop as a result. I found that teachers located boys' failure in their poor behavior and attitudes, while arguing that girls simply needed more self-esteem to pass the test. Most boys accepted their teachers' diagnosis of the problem. However, the boys who felt that they were already "doing their best" and "working hard" began to doubt that educational success is a function of merit and effort. I conclude that students learn about much more than the three Rs through their experiences with high-stakes testing, and argue that future research should attend to the social dimensions of these experiences. [More] Descriptors: Hidden Curriculum, Testing, High Stakes Tests, Males