Bibliography: High Stakes Testing (page 06 of 95)

This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices.  Some of the authors featured on this page include Kaitlyn Cariss, Matthew Sanger, Monica Brady, Jonathan Supovitz, Nancy Patterson, Richard Osguthorpe, Tracie L. Pollard, Gina A. Forchelli, Randall Curren, and Virginia Snodgrass Rangel.

Wade, Rahima (2011). Service for Learning, Educational Leadership. In an education environment focused on high-stakes testing in reading and math, service learning may seem like an unnecessary frill. But well-planned service learning projects can enhance student engagement in school and give students opportunities to use academic skills and knowledge to make a difference in their communities. This article gives examples of service learning projects connected to literacy and math and offers guidance for planning projects.   [More]  Descriptors: Learner Engagement, Service Learning, Teaching Methods, Student Participation

Pollard, Tracie L. (2014). The Impact of High-Stakes Testing on Instructional Practices: Perceptions of 3rd-5th Grade Teachers and Administrators in North Central Wyoming, ProQuest LLC. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 requires all schools to be accountable for student performance. High-stakes accountability represents a growing concern among the field of education. Literature supports that teachers are vital to the success of students; however, the impact of high-stakes testing on instructional practice is changing the way teachers' approach teaching and learning. In an effort to identify the instructional practices being used to support high-stakes accountability mandates, a qualitative study was conducted to identify the perceptions of teachers and administrators of the impact high-stakes testing has on instructional practices. Ten third through fifth grade teachers and administrators in north central Wyoming were selected as participants of the study. At the completion of the in-depth interviewing process, qualitative data was analyzed into major themes using the participants' in-depth interview responses. Three major themes emerged as a result of the data analysis: Systems, Implementation, and Professional Response. More specifically, the study discusses how the accountability system impacts instructional practice and curriculum implementation and professional responses to the accountability mandate set by legislators. Analysis of the data revealed teachers and administrators spend time preparing for high-stakes tests; however, students' well-being and intellectual growth were more of a priority. Teachers and administrators claimed they were not willing to compromise students' learning for an assessment that is unreliable and an invalid measure of what students' actually know. In this study, it was concluded that the general consensus to the perceptions of teachers and administrators of the impact high-stakes testing has on instructional practices is minimal. Although teachers and administrators shared concerns about the accountability system, its implementation, and their professional realities, teachers and administrators spoke more about employing best instructional practices to ensure students will be successful citizens. Lastly, this study concludes with future research recommendations, which will be of interest to other researchers and educators. [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 Practices, Grade 3, Grade 4

Palmer, Deborah; Rangel, Virginia Snodgrass (2011). High Stakes Accountability and Policy Implementation: Teacher Decision Making in Bilingual Classrooms in Texas, Educational Policy. This article contributes to an emerging body of literature on the impact of high stakes testing accountability policies on implementation and teaching practice. It uses a theory of implementation, sense-making, to highlight the process by which policy and context shape teacher decision making. We focus on teachers in bilingual classrooms in an urban district in Texas where we found that teachers make decisions in an environment that exerts both formal and informal pressures to limit the curriculum they offer their students and privilege test preparation. Teachers struggle to reconcile their context, constituted by their students' specific pedagogical and linguistic needs, with the pressures of their high stakes testing environment.   [More]  Descriptors: Bilingual Education, High Stakes Tests, Decision Making, Accountability

Brady, Monica (2013). No Quick Fixes: Problems in the Development of A-Level Students' Writing (and Learning), Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education. Over the past 15 years, there has been a range of standards-driven educational interventions in England: focused particularly on students' writing, they have been targeted at particular students, short-term and based on the assumption that identifiable, quantifiable inputs would produce pre-identified, measurable outputs. This article explores one such intervention, aimed at students in Year 13 who were seen as having difficulty with academic writing. It looks closely at the work of one student, and raises questions about the effects of high-stakes testing upon pedagogy in schools and the damaging impact that this has upon student learning.   [More]  Descriptors: Writing Instruction, English Instruction, Standards, Intervention

Misco, Thomas; Patterson, Nancy; Doppen, Frans (2011). Policy in the Way of Practice: How Assessment Legislation Is Affecting Social Studies Curriculum and Instruction in Ohio, International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership. In a national context of standards and high-stakes testing, concerns are emerging about challenges to the already tenuous position of the citizenship mission in the social studies curriculum. In this qualitative study, the authors administered a survey to social studies teachers in Ohio and conducted follow-up interviews focusing on the present purposes of social studies and the ways in which standards and testing are affecting instructional practice. The findings reveal a perception of standards as being of high quality, yet ultimately undermined through changes in scope and sequence, narrowing of the curriculum, and a paucity of time to enact them. In addition, respondents indicated that high-stakes testing has become the primary curricular focus, which impacts instructional strategy decision making and frustrates citizenship education.   [More]   [More]  Descriptors: Social Studies, Citizenship Education, Secondary School Curriculum, Academic Standards

Osguthorpe, Richard; Sanger, Matthew (2013). The Moral Nature of Teacher Candidate Beliefs about the Purposes of Schooling and Their Reasons for Choosing Teaching as a Career, Peabody Journal of Education. This study reports teacher candidate beliefs about the purposes of schooling and their reasons for choosing a career in teaching. The beliefs are analyzed in relation to the moral work of teaching, and the findings suggest that teacher candidates choose teaching as a career, in part, to engage in moral work, and that they believe that schooling has moral ends. The article concludes by providing implications for teacher education research and practice, suggesting that these implications have particular relevance in the current environment of high-stakes testing and accountability, as well as for constructivist teacher educators who seek to understand and meaningfully respond to their teacher candidates' beliefs.   [More]  Descriptors: Student Teacher Attitudes, Preservice Teachers, Teacher Education, Teaching (Occupation)

Berliner, David (2011). Rational Responses to High Stakes Testing: The Case of Curriculum Narrowing and the Harm That Follows, Cambridge Journal of Education. The inevitable responses to high stakes testing, wherein students' test scores are highly consequential for teachers and administrators, include cheating, excessive test preparation, changes in test scoring and other forms of gaming to ensure that test scores appear high. Over the last decade this has been demonstrated convincingly in the USA, but examples in Great Britain abound. Yet the most pernicious response to high stakes testing is perhaps the most rational, namely, curriculum narrowing. In this way more of what is believed to be on the test is taught. Curriculum narrowing, however, reduces many students' chances of being thought talented in school and results in a restriction in the creative and enjoyable activities engaged in by teachers and students. The tests commonly used with narrower curricula also appear to restrict thinking skills. In addition, responses to high stakes environments can easily retard the development of achievement in later grades as a function of the restrictions on learning in earlier grades. Finally, narrowing compromises interpretations of construct validity. The dominance of testing as part of American and British school reform policies insures that many of the skills thought to be most useful in the twenty-first century will not be taught. Thus students and their national economies will suffer when nations rely too heavily on high stakes testing to improve their schools.   [More]  Descriptors: Test Preparation, School Restructuring, Testing, Construct Validity

Ralston, Amie Beth (2013). The Implications of NCLB for Gifted Education: One District's Story, ProQuest LLC. This dissertation addresses the question of what implications, if any, has implementing NCLB as mandated had on gifted students in one district. The purpose of this study is to determine 1.) How has a district responded to gifted and high-achieving students within the boundaries of post-NCLB curriculum? 2.) How have teachers responded to gifted and high-achieving students within the boundaries of the post-NCLB curriculum? Data for this study comes from one large, Midwestern suburban school district. Current literature evaluating the success of NCLB legislation has identified unintended consequences due to implementation: curriculum narrowing, high-stakes testing & accountability, and reallocation of limited resources. Within the current body of existing literature is the identification of an excellence gap for gifted and high-achieving students. Because NCLB mandates yearly assessments in reading and mathematics, there is pressure on districts to report scores to the public. This pressure inadvertently creates situations in which test preparation and extra instruction in reading and mathematics are a larger focus than non-tested subjects; this focus may potentially be narrowing curriculum for gifted students. Additionally, because assessments are expensive to implement, limited resources must be reallocated in order to support portions of NCLB requirements. Using qualitative data from interviews along with quantitative data, this study sheds light on curriculum narrowing, high-stakes testing & accountability and reallocation of limited resources and the role of each in gifted education. Key findings indicate there is no significant effect on gifted students in this district. Though there is some evidence of curriculum narrowing, high-stakes testing & accountability pressure and limited resource reallocation, stronger evidence is needed for significant results to surface. [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: Educational Legislation, Federal Legislation, Program Implementation, Curriculum Implementation

Cruz, Bárbara C. (2013). A Novel Approach: Historical Fiction in the Elementary Classroom, Social Education. Barbara Cruz describes how what began as a challenge (i.e., finding or justifying the time to spend on history instruction in an environment of high-stakes testing) turned into a rich learning experience for students using historical fiction. By designing experiences that were literacy centered but based in historical content, this group of teachers was able to both engage students and make them look forward to learning history. Learning was meaningful, relevant and will likely result in a lifelong interest in the topics they chose. End of unit project examples are also provided.   [More]  Descriptors: History Instruction, Fiction, History, Childrens Literature

Curren, Randall; Kotzee, Ben (2014). Can Virtue Be Measured?, Theory and Research in Education. This article explores some general considerations bearing on the question of whether virtue can be measured. What is moral virtue? What are measurement and evaluation, and what do they presuppose about the nature of what is measured or evaluated? What are the prospective contexts of, and purposes for, measuring or evaluating virtue, and how would these shape the legitimacy, methods, and likely success of measurement and evaluation? We contrast the realist presuppositions of virtue and measurement of virtue with the behavioral operationalism of a common conception of measurement in psychometrics. We suggest a realist and non-reductive conceptualization of the measurability of virtue. We then discuss three possible educational contexts in which the measurement of virtue might be pursued: high-stakes testing and accountability schemes, the evaluation of programs in character education, and routine student evaluation. We argue that high-stakes testing of virtue would be ill-advised and counterproductive. We make some suggestions for how program evaluation in character education might proceed, and offer some examples of evaluation of student virtue-related learning. We conclude that virtue acquisition might be measured in a population of students accurately enough for program evaluation while also arguing that student and program evaluation do not require comprehensive evaluations of how virtuous individual students are. Routine student evaluation will typically focus on specific aspects of virtue acquisition, and program evaluations can measure the aggregate progress of virtue acquisition in all its aspects while evaluating only limited aspects of the learning of individual students.   [More]  Descriptors: Ethical Instruction, Ethics, Moral Values, Psychometrics

Johnson, Karen A. (2013). Are Two Better than One? Implications of the Co-Teaching Service Delivery Model on High-Stakes, Standards-Based Assessments for Students with Educational Disabilities, ProQuest LLC. The enactment of No Child Left Behind (2002) and the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act had a significant impact upon how we hold schools and its students accountable for high stakes testing. In particular, students with educational disabilities who were previously exempted from any performance accountability on high-stakes testing are now required to pass the same standards-based assessments as their general education peers. This action research study was prompted by concerns of school leaders who identified an immediate need for instructional reform for students with educational disabilities was necessary. The study design was to examine the impact of the inclusion co-teaching model of instruction on high-stakes testing for students with educational disabilities. Guiding the study were the perceptions of co-teachers within the inclusion classroom and how this also impacts assessments. It also explored the self-esteem of these students who are in an inclusion co-teaching program. The collection instrumentation that supported this action research study consisted of teacher and student surveys, student interviews, teacher interviews, teacher focus groups, case manager interviews, end-of-year final grades, New Jersey Department of Education School Report Card and archival assessment data. This course of action provided both quantitative and qualitative data. The research yields credence for placing students with educational disabilities into inclusion co-teaching environments to increase academic proficiency on high-stakes assessments. Research findings revealed that a significant increase in the self-esteem of students with educational disabilities in inclusion classrooms and the perceptions of co-teachers all contributed to an increase in academic proficiency. [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: Accountability, High Stakes Tests, Disabilities, Academic Standards

Hong, Dae S. (2011). Best Known Problem Solving Strategies in "High-Stakes" Assessments, International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology. In its mathematics standards, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) states that problem solving is an integral part of all mathematics learning and exposure to problem solving strategies should be embedded across the curriculum. Furthermore, by high school, students should be able to use, decide and invent a wide range of strategies. If students are being assessed by "high-stakes" testing, shouldn't they be able to use different problem solving strategies on such tests? NCTM also asserts that assessments should determine students' ability to perform different aspects of problem solving and also test students' use of strategies and problem solving techniques. This means that students not only need to learn problem solving strategies but also be able to use those problem solving strategies when they are assessed in testing. This article describes how different problem solving strategies can be used in "high-stakes" testing.   [More]  Descriptors: Mathematics Education, Testing, Problem Solving, Mathematics Teachers

Supovitz, Jonathan (2009). Can High Stakes Testing Leverage Educational Improvement? Prospects from the Last Decade of Testing and Accountability Reform, Journal of Educational Change. This article examines major trends in testing and accountability reform in the United States over the past decade. The review covers the apex and decline of the national experimentation with a range of alternative assessments and the rise of test-based accountability as a central policy initiative. These trends signify that testing has become a widely utilized instrument for educational reform in America. Research on these trends indicates that high stakes testing does motivate teachers and administrators to change their practices, yet the changes they motivate tend to be more superficial adjustments in content coverage and test preparation activities rather than promoting deeper improvements in instructional practice. Further, the information provided by large scale assessments is primarily useful to measure school and system progress, but of more limited utility for instructional guidance. Most problematic is that the high stakes testing system in America has been repeatedly promoted as a substantive reform in itself. However, high stakes testing is a relatively weak intervention because, while it reveals shortcomings, it does not contain the guidance and expertise to inform response. The article concludes with suggestions on how to capitalize on the strengths of high stakes testing while minimizing its shortcomings.   [More]  Descriptors: Alternative Assessment, Educational Improvement, Educational Testing, Educational Change

Boyle, Joseph R.; Forchelli, Gina A.; Cariss, Kaitlyn (2015). Note-Taking Interventions to Assist Students with Disabilities in Content Area Classes, Preventing School Failure. As high-stakes testing, Common Core, and state standards become the new norms in schools, teachers are tasked with helping all students meet specific benchmarks. In conjunction with the influx of more students with disabilities being included in inclusive and general education classrooms where lectures with note-taking comprise a majority of instruction, teachers must find ways to assist all students in their classes, especially students with disabilities. For these students to learn efficiently, note-taking becomes a critical skill for their success. This article addresses the demands placed on students during class lectures, difficulties they experience with note-taking, specific accommodations for students with disabilities, and practical ways in which teachers can help students successfully record notes in content area classes.   [More]  Descriptors: Intervention, Notetaking, State Standards, Academic Accommodations (Disabilities)

Hursh, David (2013). Raising the Stakes: High-Stakes Testing and the Attack on Public Education in New York, Journal of Education Policy. Over the last almost two decades, high-stakes testing has become increasingly central to New York's schools. In the 1990s, the State Department of Education began requiring that secondary students pass five standardized exams to graduate. In 2002, the federal No Child Left Behind Act required students in grades three through eight to take math and language arts tests. Results from the state and federal tests are not only used to assess students but also to evaluate schools, with poorly performing schools facing overhaul and potentially privatization. Most recently, President Obama's "Race to the Top" competition requires evaluating teachers based on their students' test scores which, because of the way in which New York has constructed the grading curve, most teachers will be rated as "ineffective." Standardized testing, along with other neoliberal reforms such as granting the mayor of New York City control of the public schools, has been promoted as providing more objective assessments and increasing educational efficiency. However, I will suggest that high-stakes testing has come about as part of a larger neoliberal agenda to disparage public institutions and educators to justify reducing public expenditures and privatizing schools. Further, a brief review of testing and other policies indicates that they are neither objective nor efficient.   [More]  Descriptors: High Stakes Tests, Public Education, Urban Schools, Standardized Tests

Leave a Reply