This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include David C. Berliner, Andrew P. Huddleston, Wayne Au, Barbara L. Pazey, Paul Fawcett, Angela J. Stefanski, Chauncey Carr, Mark Garrison, Elizabeth Dutro, and Federico R. Waitoller.
(2009). MCLB (Much Curriculum Left Behind): A U. S. Calamity in the Making, Educational Forum. The relationships between high-stakes testing, curriculum, and the economic needs of our nation are explored. High-stakes testing has been found to narrow the curriculum by forcing more attention to be paid to reading, mathematics, and test preparation. Less time is available for the arts and humanities and for activities that could promote creativity and critical thinking–skills needed for national success in the 21st century. High-stakes testing may ultimately weaken our nation, not improve it. [More] Descriptors: Testing, High Stakes Tests, Creativity, Critical Thinking
(2016). Relying on High-Stakes Standardized Tests to Evaluate Schools and Teachers: A Bad Idea, Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas. In the twenty-first century, the use of standardized tests as the primary means to evaluate schools and teachers in the United States has contributed to severe dilemmas, including misleading information on what students know, lower-level instruction, cheating, less collaboration, unfair treatment of teachers, and biased teaching. This article provides reasons for the increased use in high-stakes testing and detail on the problems it causes. Also included are possible solutions to alleviate the concerns associated with high-stakes testing. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, High Stakes Tests, Standardized Tests, Educational Legislation
(2012). Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP): A Historical Analysis of Louisiana's High Stakes Testing Policy, ProQuest LLC. High stakes testing is popularly examined in educational research, but contemporary analyses tend to reflect a qualitative or quantitative research design (e.g., Au, 2007; Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2006; Gamble, 2010). Exhaustive debate over the relative success or failure of high stakes testing is often framed between competing visions of epistemological constructs, and the historical foundations of high stakes testing policies are rarely explored. The origins of high stakes testing can be traced to local school reform efforts in states like Louisiana, and investigating the roots of high stakes testing at the state level contextualizes the national debate on student assessment in research and scholarship. Using historical research methods, this project details the local campaign to implement the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) as Louisiana's comprehensive high stakes testing program. Enacted under state law in 1986, the LEAP is a series of K-12 student assessments aligned to prescriptive state standards. The LEAP is among the nation's longest comprehensive high stakes testing programs and is the centerpiece to Louisiana's school accountability system. The narrative of its development offers critical insight into the overarching rationales for high stakes testing that continue to drive accountability policies throughout the country. This study interweaves sociological and political history into a singular chronological record of the LEAP. Historical research methodology informs this study by establishing the basis for data collection and analysis. Historical research method is the systematic collection and evaluation of primary source data in order to determine trends, causes, or effects of past events (Gay, 1996; Lucey, 1984). Methods used in this research investigation include document analysis and oral history interviews. Multiple data sources are used to gain a thorough understanding of the historical context surrounding the implementation of the LEAP. The LEAP functions as both a student assessment program and policy of school accountability, and the story of its development is an important narrative within the field of high stakes testing research and scholarship. [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, Educational Change, Student Evaluation, State Standards
(2016). Here to Stay: A Teacher's 46-Year Journey with Accountability in One School Context, Mid-Western Educational Researcher. This narrative study explores accountability and care in the stories of an exceptional teacher, Marsha Ethridge, who taught more than 46 years in one low-socioeconomic community. While there has been an abundance of research related to teachers' stories of accountability conducted in the last 20 years, much of it reflects accountability imposed on classrooms through systems of high-stakes testing. In this study, however, multiple perspectives of accountability populate one teacher's stories. As a new teacher in 1964, Marsha recounted the negative impact of teaching in a time of little formal accountability. From the late 1990s moving forward, however, high-stakes testing had become a constant, sometimes friendly, sometimes oppositional, presence in her school. This analysis of Marsha's stories extends the work of Noddings to consider face-to-face accountability as an ethical act of caring that leads to transformation and hope. [More] Descriptors: Experienced Teachers, Accountability, Personal Narratives, Low Income Groups
(2015). Is the Physical Being Taken out of Physical Education? On the Possible Effects of High-Stakes Testing on an Embattled Profession's Curriculum Goals, Quest. Building on recent discussions regarding how current national standards for physical education promote cognitive outcomes over physical outcomes, the authors explore how a new era in high-stakes testing is also contributing to an emphasis on the cognitive, over the physical. While high-stakes testing has been linked to reducing the amount of physical education schools offer, less attention has been given to the newest phase of high-stakes testing: the use of student achievement test data to evaluate teachers. To explore how this new high-stakes testing may influence physical education curriculum goals, the authors examine new teacher evaluation policies in New York State. The authors then propose an alternative rational for physical education. By promoting the physical–physical activity, exercise, and structured physical movement through physical education programming–physical education can play a unique and key role in creating the conditions for both student cognitive development and improved public health. [More] Descriptors: Physical Education, High Stakes Tests, National Standards, Cognitive Ability
(2013). Policy Implications for Continuous Employment Decisions of High School Principals: An Alternative Methodological Approach for Using High-Stakes Testing Outcomes, Journal of School Public Relations. Several teacher models exist for using high-stakes testing outcomes to make continuous employment decisions for principals. These models are reviewed, and specific flaws are noted if these models are retrofitted for principals. To address these flaws, a different methodology is proposed on the basis of actual field data. Specially addressed are the identification of variables beyond the control of principals via a multiple regression approach and how these variables can be used to level the playing field when continuous employment decisions are made for principals on the basis of high-stakes testing outcomes. [More] Descriptors: Principals, High Schools, Employment Practices, Decision Making
(2016). Meritocracy 2.0: High-Stakes, Standardized Testing as a Racial Project of Neoliberal Multiculturalism, Educational Policy. High-stakes, standardized testing is regularly used within in accountability narratives as a tool for achieving racial equality in schools. Using the frameworks of "racial projects" and "neoliberal multiculturalism," and drawing on historical and empirical research, this article argues that not only does high-stakes, standardized testing serve to further racial inequality in education, it does so under the guise of forms of anti-racism that have been reconstituted as part of a larger neoliberal project for education reform. This mix of neoliberalism, high-stakes testing, and official anti-racisms that are used to deny structural, racialized inequalities are a manifestation of what the author calls, "Meritocracy 2.0." [More] Descriptors: High Stakes Tests, Standardized Tests, Neoliberalism, Multicultural Education
(2016). Examining Competing Notions of Social Justice at the Intersections of High-Stakes Testing Practices and Parents' Rights: An Inclusive Education Perspective, Teachers College Record. In this chapter, we examine tensions that can materialize at the intersection of high-stakes accountability assessments and the rights of parents of students with dis/abilities. We bring to the surface and analyze the competing notions of social justice that have fueled the implementation of both high-stakes testing and the inclusion of students with dis/abilities in public schooling. Our purpose is to problematize narrow discussions about high-stakes testing and students with dis/abilities, contextualizing them in broader struggles for inclusive education. To achieve this task, we examine an event, framed as a case study, which emerged from a larger research project (Kozleski & Waitoller, 2010). Our analysis is informed by an understanding of inclusive education as situated practice in which historically evolving notions of justice are tangled and enacted to negotiate situated identities. We conclude with implications for practice and accountability models. [More] Descriptors: Social Justice, High Stakes Tests, Accountability, Parent Rights
(2016). Reading Assessment: Looking Ahead, Reading Teacher. In this article, I focus on three areas of reading assessment that I believe to be crucial for students' reading development: developing comprehensive formative assessments, assessing the wide array of factors that contribute to students' reading development, and fostering student independence by helping students learn to use reading assessment on their own. I also describe the consistent and negative effects of high-stakes testing on related reading assessment efforts. [More] Descriptors: Reading Tests, Reading Achievement, Formative Evaluation, Performance Factors
(2012). Negative Impacts of High-Stakes Testing, Journal of Pedagogy. High-stakes testing is not a new phenomenon in education. It has become part of the education system in many countries. These tests affect the school systems, teachers, students, politicians and parents, whether that is in a positive or negative sense. High-stakes testing is associated with concepts such as a school's accountability, funding and parental choice of school. The study aims to explain high-stakes testing, how it is created and developed in selected countries and look at the negative impacts of tests on various actors within this relationship. [More] Descriptors: High Stakes Tests, Accountability, Foreign Countries, Educational History
(2010). The Impact of Socioeconomic Status on High Stakes Testing Reexamined, Journal of Instructional Psychology. High-stakes testing plays a critical role in education today in the United States. Every state uses a high-stakes test to comply with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandate. While many believe high-stakes testing is an acceptable and accurate way to measure students' learning, one has to ask whether high stakes testing is an effective measurement tool for all children. Researchers continue to debate the effectiveness of high stakes testing and need to continually reexamine the possible impacts it may have on children from differing socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds especially disadvantaged youth. [More] Descriptors: Federal Legislation, Disadvantaged Youth, Testing, High Stakes Tests
(2015). Assessment for the Masses: A Historical Critique of High-Stakes Testing in Reading, Texas Journal of Literacy Education. This historical critique of high-stakes testing in reading focuses on selected events from three historical movements: 1) the history of standardized testing, 2) the history of standardized reading tests, and 3) the history of high-stakes testing. These three interrelated histories have produced the high-stakes, standardized reading tests used in U.S. public schools today. Describing each historical movement from a critical perspective, the authors argue that concerns for objectivity, efficiency, and accountability, rather than assessment, have historically been the driving forces behind testing in U.S. schools. The authors conclude by encouraging educators to move beyond objectivity, efficiency, and accountability and instead advocate for the development of alternative indicators that focus on students' needs. [More] Descriptors: Criticism, High Stakes Tests, Accountability, Efficiency
(2012). "I Like to Read, but I Know I'm Not Good at It": Children's Perspectives on High-Stakes Testing in a High-Poverty School, Curriculum Inquiry. A significant body of research articulates concerns about the current emphasis on high-stakes testing as the primary lever of education reform in the United States. However, relatively little research has focused on how children make sense of the assessment policies in which they are centrally located. In this article, we share analyses of interview data from 33 third graders in an urban elementary school collected as part of a larger qualitative study of children's experiences in literacy in high-poverty classroom. Our analysis of assessment-focused interviews focused on two research questions related to children's perspectives on high-stakes testing: What patterns arise in children's talk about high-stakes testing? What does children's talk about high-stakes testing reveal about their perceptions of the role of testing in their school experiences and how they are positioned within the system of accountability they encounter in school? Drawing on tools associated with inductive approaches to learning from qualitative data as well as critical discourse analysis, we discuss three issues that arose in children's responses: language related to the adults invested in their achievement; their sense of the stakes involved in testing; and links between their feelings about test taking, perceptions of scores, and assumptions of competence. We argue that children's perspectives on their experiences with high-stakes testing provide crucial insights into how children construct relationships to schooling, relationships that have consequences for their continued engagement in school. [More] Descriptors: High Stakes Tests, Discourse Analysis, Literature Appreciation, Educational Change
(2016). Techies, the Tea Party, and the Race to the Top: The Rise of the New Upper-Middle Class and Tensions in the Rightist Politics of Federal Education Reform, Educational Forum. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and their associated high-stakes testing are key parts of the federal Race to the Top (RTTT) initiative. There has been considerable resistance to both CCSS and related testing, particularly from conservative actors. This resistance suggests that CCSS has caused substantial tension within the conservative alliance that originally coalesced around No Child Left Behind (NCLB). This article examines the fracturing of the NCLB alliance in response to RTTT and CCSS. [More] Descriptors: Middle Class, Federal Regulation, Educational Change, Politics of Education
(2012). Teachers' Perceptions of the Impact of High Stakes Testing on Instructional Content, Instructional Strategies, Motivation and Morale, and Pressure to Improve Student Performance in Relation to Their Views on Accountability and Its Effect on Students with Learning Disabilities, ProQuest LLC. The purpose of the study was to examine teachers' perceptions of the impact of high stakes testing on instructional content, instructional strategies, motivation and morale, and pressure to improve student performance in relation to their views on accountability. It also sought to identify teachers' perceptions of the effect of high stakes testing on students with learning disabilities. A correlation research design was used to investigate teachers' perceptions. Seventy-two (N = 72) fourth and eighth grade general and special education teachers from high and low performing school districts in Louisiana completed a survey. The research questions were: (1) What are the differences in teachers' perceptions of the impact of high stakes testing on instructional content, instructional strategies, motivation and morale, and pressure to improve student performance? (2) Does a relationship exist between teachers' perceptions of the impact of high stakes testing and their views on accountability? And, (3) Do differences exist in teachers' perceptions of the effect that high stakes testing has on students with learning disabilities? Findings from this study revealed mixed results for research question one in that significant differences were found in teachers' perceptions of the impact of high stakes testing on instructional content based on district level performance. However, there were no statistically significant differences in teachers' perceptions for instructional strategies, motivation and morale, and pressure to improve student performance. Mixed results were also found for research question two. There was a relationship in teachers' perceptions of the impact of high stakes testing on instructional content, motivation and morale, and views on accountability but there was no relationship in teachers' perceptions of instructional strategies, pressure to improve student performance, and views on accountability. Interestingly, the results for research question three indicated no statistically significant differences in teachers' perceptions of the effect of high stakes testing on the performance of students with learning disabilities. Recommendations are provided for future research on teachers' perceptions of high stakes testing that focus on how effectively teachers are implementing the mandates of NCLB and IDEA in relation to the performance of students with learning disabilities on high stakes tests. [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 Attitudes, Learning Disabilities, Course Content, Teaching Methods