This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Catherine J. Hall, Andrea Smolin, Tonya R. Moon, Sarah W. Beck, Michelle Allison Henderson, Lucinda Pease-Alvarez, Kellie Bousfield, William Shaver, Stephen Heimans, and Jennifer K. Clayton.
(2009). Standardized Testing: How Prepared Are We?, Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership. This case exemplifies the effects of high stakes standardized testing and accountability on education and stakeholders. When schools are pressured for success, educational leaders and teachers often find themselves in circumstances where regulations and procedures are violated, sometimes with noble intent. The case focuses on the ethical and procedural dilemmas faced by an administrator when teachers violate testing policy to give what they view as necessary assistance to students. Background information is provided to allow students to analyze the situation and propose a solution for the school principal. [More] Descriptors: Instructional Leadership, Principals, Standardized Tests, High Stakes Tests
(2009). We All Make a Difference: Social Justice Education through Service-Learning and Critical Literacy, ProQuest LLC. The purpose of this research was to study the development, implementation, assessment, and revision of an integrated social justice curriculum with the goal of providing an understanding of the elements which supported and hindered social justice education from the perspective of an elementary school teacher. The research procedures used in this study involved ethnographical methods of data collection through classroom observation of a teacher and her first, second, and third grade students, as well as interviews and document analysis. During this case study a social justice curriculum was developed which included service-learning and critical literacy lessons for the primary grades. For the service-learning lessons, the students created decorations, bowls, and a compact disk of songs to contribute to an annual benefit for the local food bank. For the critical literacy lessons, students learned about local hunger issues through direct instruction and student-led research. Based on what they learned, they wrote songs, poems, letters, and reports. This research resulted in an analysis of the elements of the social justice curriculum and the factors that supported and hindered social justice education for a primary teacher. The main elements of the social justice curriculum developed during this study were democratic educational practices, thematic integration, community connections, service-learning, and critical literacy. The factors which facilitated social justice education in this study were administrative support, developmentally appropriate practice, teacher priorities, and resources in the form of grant money and volunteers. The factors which hindered social justice education in this study were the teacher's lack of time, autonomy, and efficacy due to the constraints of high-stakes testing under No Child Left Behind. Implications of the study are examined and include the importance of exemplary teaching, the opportunity costs of high stakes testing, and the need for civic engagement. The concluding discussion argues for inclusion of social justice education in the primary grades to prepare students for effective participation in a democratic society. [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: Direct Instruction, Social Justice, Federal Legislation, Observation
(2013). School-Wide Positive Behavior Support: Effects on Pennsylvania High School Achievement, Discipline, and Climate, ProQuest LLC. Teachers and administrators are faced with managing the behaviors of students while preparing for the high stakes testing associated with the No Child Left Behind Act. One program that has demonstrated positive results at the elementary and middle school level is the school-wide positive behavior support model (SWPBS). Limited research is available as to the results of the SWPBS model at the high school level. This qualitative study explored the effects of the SWPBS model on student academic achievement, the reduction of discipline, and the improvement in the overall school climate. A qualitative holistic multiple case study was conducted on two high schools in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with data being collected using semi-structured interviews of six teachers and three administrators at each site. Each site for this study constituted a unit of analysis. The teachers selected were both tenured and non-tenured employees. Site visits were conducted in the common areas at both schools. A record review was performed on the results of Pennsylvania State System of School Assessment (PSSA) test used to determine adequate yearly progress (AYP) and each schools frequency of student misconduct violations. The study focused on four research questions. Results demonstrated that both administrators and teachers recorded a consistency of the rules, a more positive approach, and student behavior improved, therefore positively affecting the climate. In addition, both Site A and Site B common areas were not impacted by the SWPBS model. The review of discipline data was inconclusive to determine if the SWPBS model had an effect. This was primarily due to the ceiling effect of the discipline data. The PSSA results from Site A and Site B revealed no change in test data for the three years that the SWPBS model has been implemented, therefore no effect occurred academically. Future research concerning the SWPBS model at the high school level can be conducted through a longitudinal study that could track a cohort of students for a set period of time to detail grades, behavior, and attendance. A quantitative survey could be effective in collecting information regarding students and parents perceptions of the SWPBS model. [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: Behavior Modification, Positive Reinforcement, Academic Achievement, Discipline
(2014). A Sociological Analysis of Australia's NAPLAN and "My School" Senate Inquiry Submissions: The Adultification of Childhood?, Critical Studies in Education. Growing consensus in popular and academic commentary suggests the lived reality of Western childhood differs considerably from its dominant cultural construction as an innocent period free from adult responsibilities. Sociologically, this disjuncture is conceptualised as adultification. Adopting a critical theoretical lens, we question if Australian high-stakes standardised testing and reporting, National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) and "My School", evidences adultification of childhood experience in primary and secondary schools. Qualitative critical analysis of 270 submissions to NAPLAN's 2010 Senate Inquiry demonstrates adultification in Australian schools, with children subjected to developmentally inappropriate expectations, pressure, stress and precocious knowledge in response to NAPLAN testing and reporting. Adultification, we argue, is a side-effect of individualisation, managerialism and neo-liberal government policy played out in Australian schools and exposing children to the harsh realities of political, economic and social life. De-politicalisation and de-marketisation of children is argued as urgently needed to foreground a critically considered "best practice" when promoting or measuring educational progress and performance. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Sociology, Standardized Tests, High Stakes Tests
(2003). What Every Special Educator Should Know about High-Stakes Testing, TEACHING Exceptional Children. This article discusses high-stakes testing and how special educators can incorporate accommodations, include test preparation in the curriculum (test approach skills, test taking skills, and test preparedness), prepare for test administration, and explore exam alternatives. Key legal and ethical concerns and considerations when determining alternative assessments are also addressed. (Contains references.) [More] Descriptors: Alternative Assessment, Curriculum, Disabilities, Educational Assessment
(2013). A High School Mathematics Teacher Tacking through the Middle Way: Toward a Critical Postmodern Autoethnography in Mathematics Education, ProQuest LLC. The "urban" mathematics classroom has become an increasingly polarized site, one where many middle-class White teachers attempt to bridge the divide between themselves and their relatively economically disadvantaged, non-White students. With its mania for high-stakes testing, current education policy has intensified the importance of mathematics in the school curriculum–both drawing attention to and reifying an "achievement gap" between White (and Asian) and non-White students (Martin, 2009c, 2010). Keeping in mind the "Mathematics for all" rhetoric as it affects the academic and life success of students (Martin, 2003), this cultural polarization in the mathematics classroom provides a rich site for exploring pedagogical practices that might improve mathematics achievement and persistence for all students. As a middle-class White man, I am a teacher in such a divided situation; I have spent the past 7 years working with almost entirely Black 9th graders as a mathematics classroom teacher in an urban high school. In this study, I employ a critical postmodern theoretical perspective (Stinson, 2009; Stinson & Bullock, 2012) toward an autoethnography (e.g., Ellis & Bochner, 2000) of my experiences as a teacher in this particular educational environment. Using writing as a "method of inquiry" (Richardson, 2000), with an emphasis on two particular intersections of critical race theory (e.g., Tate, 1997) and poststructural theory (e.g., St. Pierre, 2011)–the role of storytelling and the concept of "race" as metanarrative–I examine, theorize, and (re)tell of my life and teaching experiences. My aim is to provide assistance of sorts for a new teacher in a similar situation; the kind of educator–middle class and White–who, according to projections, will more times than not be filling the role of teacher in the urban mathematics classroom. The goal of this study is twofold: (a) to gain and share theoretical and practical insight into my teacher identity and pedagogical practices, and (b) to provide potential insight for and assistance to other mathematics teachers who may see themselves in the (re)telling of my stories. [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: Mathematics Education, Secondary School Mathematics, Secondary School Teachers, Mathematics Teachers
(2014). Policy Enactment, Context and Performativity: Ontological Politics and Researching Australian National Partnership Policies, Journal of Education Policy. Recently, critical policy scholars have used the concepts of enactment, context and performativity as an analytic toolkit to illuminate the complex processes of the policy cycle, in particular, the ways in which a multitude of official education reform policies are taken up, challenged and/or resisted by actors in local, situation-specific practices. This set of theoretical tools are usually deployed to analyse interview data collected from a single school or cluster of schools to draw findings or conclusions about the complex processes of policy enactment. We aim to build on this critical policy studies work by, firstly, highlighting key aspects of these theoretical/methodological constructs, secondly, exploring the performative role of research in the materiality of specific contexts and, thirdly, theorising education policy research in terms of ontological politics. We ground this work in a recent collaborative enquiry research project undertaken in Queensland, Australia. This research project emerged in the Australian policy context of National Partnership Agreement policies which were designed to reform public or government-funded schools servicing low socio-economic communities, in order to improve student learning outcomes, specifically in literacy and numeracy as measured by high-stakes national testing. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Educational Policy, Policy Formation, Accountability
(2013). Effects of Remediation on High-Stakes Standardized Testing, ProQuest LLC. This dissertation examined the impact of an intervention aimed at improving the standardized test scores for students on the mathematics portions of a high-stakes high school examination. Research shows that the achievement gap between high performing and low performing students on standardized tests continues to grow and that the long-term negative consequences of poor academic progress are substantial. This study used a pre-experimental posttest only design along with secondary data sources to investigate the HSPA results of students enrolling in a test preparation course. Using logistic regression, findings suggest that various student subgroups continue to underperform on standardized tests despite participation in the intervention. The results of this study have implications in the area of school social work practice and social policy that can be used to guide education and policy reform. [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: High Stakes Tests, Standardized Tests, Intervention, Mathematics Tests
(2009). Individual Goals and Academic Literacy: Integrating Authenticity and Explicitness, English Education. Finding a way to integrate authentic learning experiences and explicit instruction is essential if teachers are to adapt to the current policy environment while at the same time acknowledging the rights of students to determine their own goals for literacy learning. Toward this end, the author presents a case study of one student's development as a writer in the context of an English classroom in which both curriculum and instruction were strongly influenced by a districtwide context of standards-based reform and the accompanying pressure surrounding high-stakes testing. Sheila, the African American student who is the subject of this study, challenged the values that underlay her teacher's expectations for observing the conventions of Standard English in her writing and, in doing so, contributed to a compelling illustration of the limits of explicitness in the teaching of writing. It has been argued that when students have a chance to declare "who they are, what they know, and that they care about" (Oldfather & Dahl, 1994, p. 144) in their literacy activities, and when they "perceive a sense of competence as literate persons–as readers and writers who use tools of literacy for their learning goals" (p. 144), they are more likely to be motivated to take an active stand as agents in the pursuit of their own literacy learning. Interviews with Sheila about her essays offer insight into the sources of motivation that inspired her to develop complex analytical ideas in her essays, even as she maintained her stance on the seeming irrelevance of Standard English as a criterion for a high-quality paper. Drawing on these interviews and samples of her writing, along with teacher interviews and field notes from observations of her English class, the author discusses both her resistance to and her enthusiasm for certain aspects of the writing tasks her teacher set for her, highlighting the significance of points at which the teacher's instruction intersected with her goals and where it did not. A larger aim of this paper is to urge teacher educators, and the teacher-candidates whom they are charged with educating, to consider the nature of authenticity in tasks and contexts for writing development against the present backdrop of standards-based reform and high-stakes testing. [More] Descriptors: Standard Spoken Usage, High Stakes Tests, Essays, Literacy
(2014). Teachers Working Together to Resist and Remake Educational Policy in Contexts of Standardization, Language Policy. Recently, those examining the role teachers of language minority students play in the language policy-making process have found that their autonomy has been threatened by increasing standardization as reflected in rigid one-size fits all curricular mandates focused on the learning of discrete skills in the national language, enforced high-stakes standardized testing, and external monitoring. Given the pervasive nature of this policy environment, we are heartened by our experiences working with a teacher collective in Northern California that has resisted policies of standardization requiring them to teach in ways that ignore students' instructional needs, interests, and experiences. In elucidating a perspective that considers all educational stakeholders, including teachers, as engaged in the LPP process, this article provides an account of how the collective is negotiating educational policies concerning the teaching of language and literacy to students designated as English language learners. As a members of the collective, the authors draw on participatory and ethnographic approaches to describe how resistance and agency are implicated in the LPP processes, paying special attention to the processes, actions, and impacts that have comprised our collaboration. In addition to discussing how these findings contribute to a dynamic and complex view of the role teacher agency and resistance play in the LPP process, the authors discuss the implications of their findings for promoting agentive teacher education. [More] Descriptors: Educational Policy, Standards, High Stakes Tests, Standardized Tests
(2009). The Survival of Arts Education in the NCLB Era: A Case Study of One K-8th Grade Arts-Focused Charter School in a California Program Improvement School District, ProQuest LLC. This research study presents one in-depth case study that investigates the successes, challenges, and processes of developing and enacting arts education programming at the elementary school level given the time limitations and other constraints associated with the high stakes testing environment that currently characterizes many of California's schools. The study explores an arts-based K-8th grade dependent public charter school that is situated within a program improvement school district. The study began with a qualitative inquiry (Phase 1) to identify the arts programming in place at the school site, and then engaged the entire school faculty and administration in a participatory action research process (Phase 2) where the participants collaboratively identified their own challenges and success in the arts education area and took collaborative action to improve those programs. Phase 1 utilized surveys, interviews, observations and district documents and artifacts as the main sources of data. Phase 2 utilized a focus group/inquiry group format for the main sources of data. The research study revealed that the school was providing some measure of arts education in all four of the arts disciplines (music, theatre, dance, visual arts) to their students, despite the high stakes testing environment pressures they faced. How were they doing this? Some of the significant findings included: shared goals and a strong vision for arts education guided and shaped the programs; the faculty was unwilling to compromise on their belief that the arts are essential to the development of an individual; a school culture was maintained that honored each student and faculty member as a creative human being and artist; they had an experienced teaching faculty; they had developed strong partnerships with parents, community members and local businesses; the teaching priority was on language arts and mathematics, however, another priority was arts education which was taught both as a discrete subject and through interdisciplinary methods; on-going school productions and art exhibits contributed to building a sense of community and belonging for both students and faculty. [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: Charter Schools, Qualitative Research, School Culture, Action Research
(2007). State Standardized Testing Programs: Their Effects on Teachers and Students, National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. A driving force in standards-based educational reform was the 1983 release of "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform" (National Commission of Excellence in Education [NCEE], 1983). The report called for "an end to the minimum competency testing movement and the beginning of a high-stakes testing movement that would raise the nation's standards of achievement drastically" (Amrein & Berliner, 2003, p. 6). This report was predicated on the assumption that the public school system was in dire need of comprehensive reform to increase student and school performance, as it was currently failing to effectively prepare the nation's youth for the workplace and preventing Americans from competing on an international stage (Marcoulides & Heck, 1994; Smith & Fey, 2000). The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of state testing programs on schools, teachers, and students, focusing on selected issues that have arisen separately from previous studies. The trigulated mixed method study was conducted in two phases. The theoretical, conceptual framework that was used for both phases of the study was that of an interpretist theory (Erickson, 1986). Blumer's (1972) framework of symbolic interactionism guided the phase focusing on student perceptions of state testing. For Phase I, survey methodology was used to ascertain the beliefs and self-reported practices of a national sample of elementary, middle school, and high school teachers. Phase II employed a qualitative research methodology to ascertain students' and teachers' perceptions of the influences that state testing mandates have on the curricula and the instructional process. Results from both studies indicated four prominent findings: (a) teachers and students feel a tremendous amount of pressure associated with high-stakes testing; (b) the pressure felt by teachers results in drill and practice type of curriculum and instruction; (c) the pressure felt by high-stakes testing is greater in disadvantaged schools and results in more drill and practice instruction; and (d) gifted and talented students feel pressure to perform well to bring up all scores oftentimes resulting in disengagement from the learning process. [More] Descriptors: Standardized Tests, High Stakes Tests, Teacher Surveys, Teacher Attitudes
(2007). The Consortium and the Commissioner: A Grass Roots Tale of Fighting High Stakes Graduation Testing in New York, Urban Review: Issues and Ideas in Public Education. The following paper provides a case study of the resistance of the New York Performance Standards Consortium to the state's unitary high stakes testing policy from 1998 to 2006. After detailing the history of the grass roots actions undertaken by the group of alternative high schools called "The Consortium," the analysis seeks to apply sociological and philosophical theory of, among others, John Rawls and Charles Willie to explain: (1) the success of the subdominant people of power in fighting the implementation of the battery of high stakes graduation tests; and (2) the failures of the dominant state authority to uniformly enforce its policy, with particular regard to the decisions of New York's Commissioner of Education. Implications of the case are then discussed to place this little known educational struggle in a broader social, political and historical context. [More] Descriptors: Testing, Graduation Requirements, Consortia, Urban Education
(2013). Fine Arts Instruction as a Predictor of School Performance in South Carolina, ProQuest LLC. Budget constraints, political will, narrowed curricula, and a continued emphasis on high-stakes testing in public schools have resulted in a continued loss of instruction in fine arts. Fine arts instruction is known to improve student achievement, but the contribution to achievement in the elementary schools after accounting for demographic factors is uncertain. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the contribution of the quality of fine arts instruction to student achievement indicators after accounting for socioeconomic status, school size, special education status, and English language-learner status. The study was archival, correlational, and retrospective. Data were analyzed from 634 of the 639 elementary public schools in South Carolina Scores for third through fifth grades. Outcomes were based on scores on the state Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (PASS) assessment in 2010. Data were extracted from the South Carolina public school report card. The predictor variable was the quality of fine arts instruction, and the outcome variables were English language arts and mathematics scores based on the PASS assessments. Multiple linear regressions were computed to determine the contributions of the predictor variable to the outcomes. Results supported that ELA scores were higher in schools with higher rated fine arts programs ("p" = 0.01) and results were not significant ( "p" = 0.07 versus "p" < 0.05) that mathematics scores were higher in schools with higher rated fine arts programs. The "p" = 0.07, while not significant, suggests a positive trend worthy of future study. Implications of the study suggest positive support for fine arts instruction as a viable means to student achievement and a valuable part of a comprehensive public education for all elementary children. This study provided a mix of statistical significance with regard to the research questions examined and fulfilled the purpose of using quantitative analysis to determine the relationships between fine arts instruction and academic achievement. [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: Fine Arts, Art Education, Statistical Analysis, Educational Quality
(2009). How Is Taking Care of Caregivers of Children with Disabilities Related to Academic Achievement?, Child & Youth Care Forum. Respite care services have been linked to variety of positive outcomes for caregivers and families alike. The purpose of the current study was to examine the association of receiving respite care with academic achievement for children with disabilities across time. The study employed a nationally representative sample of children to examine this relationship using structural models. Results indicate a positive association between receiving respite care services and academic achievement across time for children with disabilities. In an era of high-stakes achievement testing, these results link respite care services to those academic achievement outcomes while complementing previous research. [More] Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Caregivers, Disabilities, Respite Care