This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Daekwon Park, Melissa Streiff, Mary Klehm, MaryAnne Chiarelli, Leslie Haas, Martha James-Hassan, David C. Virtue, Jaekyung Lee, Tamsin Meaney, and Susan Williams.
(2011). Understanding the Interaction between High-Stakes Graduation Tests and English Learners, Teachers College Record. Background/Context: The prevailing theory of action underlying No Child Left Behind's high-stakes testing and accountability ratings is that schools and students held accountable to these measures will automatically increase educational output as educators try harder, schools will adopt more effective methods, and students will learn more. In Texas, the centerpiece of high school accountability is the pressure to improve exit test scores, a battery of minimum competency exams that students have to pass to graduate from high school. Despite the theory underlying accountability, it is unknown whether policies that reward and sanction schools and students based on high-stakes tests improve English learner (EL) student outcomes over the long term. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The purpose of the research is to better understand the interaction between high-stakes testing, accountability, and ELs. This study asks the following questions: Have student outcomes for ELs improved since the inception of accountability in Texas? To what extent does social capital theory inform our understanding of the impact of high-stakes exit testing on EL exit test performance in Texas high schools? What are the perceptions of teachers, principals, and students regarding the effects of high-stakes testing and accountability on ELs? Research Design: This article reviews longitudinal student outcomes (test scores, dropout, grade retention, and graduation rates) for Texas ELs from the inception of accountability in 1993. To understand the interaction between ELs and high-stakes exams, the researcher undertook qualitative field work in high schools in four Texas districts with large numbers of ELs to understand how the life contexts of ELs interact with Texas-style high-stakes testing and accountability policies. Via administrator, teacher, and student perceptions of exit testing, the article attempts to shed light on the academic challenges faced by ELs in the current accountability context. Conclusions/Recommendations: This article underscores the legitimacy of the concern that ELs experience unintended consequences associated with high-stakes exit testing and accountability policy and suggests that social justice and equity are ratiocinative critiques of high-stakes testing and accountability policies. The next round of federal and state educational policy must be a mandate that provides support for ELs to meet performance standards by providing evidence-based solutions: appropriate curriculum, pedagogy, and well-trained teachers. Furthermore, policy makers, practitioners, and researchers should be cognizant of the less intrusive approach that many ELs and their families have toward schools by reconsidering whether "one size fits all" high-stakes exit testing policies are plausible for increasingly heterogeneous student populations. The use of multiple measures of EL student success in content areas, such as portfolios, is an accountability mechanism that makes sense, not just for ELs, but for all students. [More] Descriptors: Educational Policy, Minimum Competency Testing, High Stakes Tests, Grade Repetition
(2014). The Effects of Teacher Beliefs on Teaching Practices and Achievement of Students with Disabilities, Teacher Education and Special Education. Many students with disabilities (SWD) are not meeting proficiency, and achievement scores disaggregated by disability status show that SWD are often not meeting progress targets established by states. A survey was developed to collect data from 218 general and special educators to analyze trends in teachers' attitudes and practices that may be affecting the educational experience and achievement of many SWD. Results of these analyses provide information regarding the attitudes of teachers toward the ability of SWD and the fairness and validity of high-stakes testing. Teachers' attitudes toward the ability of SWD, teacher classification, and the amount of teacher training were all found to be predictors of the use of evidence-based practice. The attitude of teachers toward the ability of SWD to learn and achieve higher level thinking was found to predict proficient scores of SWD on the New England Common Assessment Program achievement test. [More] Descriptors: Teacher Attitudes, Special Education Teachers, Attitudes toward Disabilities, Teaching Methods
(2012). What's New Is Old? Philanthropic Influence on Education, Phi Delta Kappan. Philanthropic interest in K-12 education has grown substantially in the past 10 years, with some estimates putting K-12 educational spending at 25% of all philanthropic giving. Critics have pointed to the lack of educational expertise held by philanthropists and the intrusive nature of their giving, calling them a small group of billionaires promoting privatization, deprofessionalization, and high-stakes testing as fixes for American public schools. Others say it's not so simple. Funders have a diversity of perspectives on charter schools and other initiatives and do not march in lockstep. But all agree their influence is growing. [More] Descriptors: Elementary Secondary Education, Philanthropic Foundations, Partnerships in Education, United States History
(2014). Addressing Standardized Testing through a Novel Assesment Model, International Association for Development of the Information Society. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation spawned a plethora of standardized testing services for all the high stakes testing required by the law. We argue that one-size-fits all assessments disadvantage students who are English Language Learners, in the USA, as well as students with limited economic resources, special needs, and not reading on grade level. The SAVE Science project was developed to explore whether and how contextually driven assessments support these students demonstrate their understanding of science content in middle grades in the USA. Preliminary findings from this 6-year study suggest that situating assessment in virtual contexts does in fact help students in answering multiple choice questions correctly and also helps students better understand their own science knowledge and learning process. [For the complete proceedings, see ED557311.] [More] Descriptors: Standardized Tests, Models, Evaluation Methods, Educational Legislation
(2014). Don't Let Little Johnny Keep You from Your Money: A Critical Analysis of the Implementation of Neoliberal Accountability on an Elementary School, ProQuest LLC. In this research study, the principal investigator used the methodology of auto-ethnography, interviews, and a critical perspective to analyze the effects of the implementation of high-stakes testing on educators and the classroom environment. In accessing reflective journals and interviews, the researcher gains insight into the dynamics of ideology and power. The study gives voice to the main stakeholders in the debate over our schools: the educators. This research indicates that when education becomes about producing test scores for economic gain (high stakes) teachers reported a poor work atmosphere, destructive frictions within the school community and a lack of true leadership which caused burdening episodes, great anxiety, stress, and illness. [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: Elementary Schools, Accountability, Neoliberalism, Ethnography
(2014). What Matters to Career K-12 Educators, Action in Teacher Education. Case studies about issues arising from education policy were written between 2003 and 2011 by doctoral candidates in Curriculum and Instruction who were career K-12 educators. Literary analysis was employed in grouping 57 case studies, which described primarily situations that occurred in school districts in one large metropolitan area, by topic and theme. Case studies of high school reform; development of programs for vulnerable students; high-stakes testing provisions of No Child Left Behind with attention to the variables of time, alignment, grouping for instruction, professional development, and teacher quality; and ethical issue were considered. Conclusions reinforce concerns about the ability of current federal accountability and related state policy to support the curriculum or the qualities of teachers needed by today's public school students. To be successful, a locally implemented innovation must achieve an unlikely confluence of policy compliance, administrative support, and a common vision at least at the campus level. [More] Descriptors: Elementary Secondary Education, Case Studies, Educational Policy, Doctoral Programs
(2014). Do American and Korean Education Systems Converge? Tracking School Reform Policies and Outcomes in Korea and the USA, Asia Pacific Education Review. This study examines key school reform policies and outcomes of the USA and Korea over the past three decades from comparative perspectives. Since the two nations' unique educational problems brought divergent educational reform paths–standardization versus differentiation, high-stakes testing versus individualized assessment, and centralization versus decentralization–the study tracks international policy benchmarking efforts and potential impact on educational convergence. The study employs mixed methods, including the content analysis of research and media documents and the trend analysis of TIMSS and PISA datasets. The results indicate that, despite significant changes in policy discourse, the gaps between Korea and the USA in student math achievement and school climates did not narrow. The policy¬ lessons from these cases and the issues of international education benchmarking are discussed. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Educational Change, Educational Policy, Mathematics Achievement
(2014). It's Just as Well Kids Don't Vote: The Positioning of Children through Public Discourse around National Testing, Mathematics Education Research Journal. The importance of mathematics or its alter ego "numeracy" is being cemented in the public's mind with the instigation of national, high-stakes testing in Australia. Discussions about national testing in press releases, online news articles and online public comments tacitly attribute importance to mathematics. In these discussions, children are positioned as commodities, with mathematics achievement being the value that can be added to them. Deficit language identified some children as being less valuable commodities and less likely to gain value from schooling. In the same public discourse, the value of the sort of mathematics that can be assessed in these tests appeared to be so accepted that it did not need to be mentioned. This has social justice implications. [More] Descriptors: Mathematics Instruction, Numeracy, High Stakes Tests, Standardized Tests
(2012). Digging Postholes Adds Depth and Authenticity to a Shallow Curriculum, Social Studies. In the current era of high-stakes testing and accountability, many social studies teachers struggle to find creative ways to add depth and authenticity to a broad, shallow curriculum. Teachers can use the time after tests are administered for students to reflect back on the social studies curriculum and select topics they want to study more deeply by digging "postholes," or inquiries into questions, persons, processes, or events of their choosing. This article describes one teacher's efforts to implement an inquiry project in which she conferred with her students individually to formulate research questions and a research strategy and gave them opportunities to publicly and authentically share their work. [More] Descriptors: Curriculum Development, Curriculum Enrichment, Curriculum Evaluation, Instructional Innovation
(2014). Common Purposes: Using the Common Core State Standards to Strengthen Physical Education Instruction, Strategies: A Journal for Physical and Sport Educators. In a climate of high stakes testing in education in America physical education is an oft-overlooked content area. As physical educators, however, we know the value that we have in the educational lives of our students. Instruction in our content area is engaging and immediately applicable to the "real world." The skills and concepts that comprise our content standards are the texts that we instruct around in the gym. Instructing students to rigorously engage with those texts, both cognitively and in the psychomotor domain, supports mastery and application. The Common Core State Standards are not one more thing but rather are a tool that can serve to support learning in our classrooms and help us inform the larger educational community of the academic and wellness benefits of physical education. This article will provide readers a few practical strategies to accomplish the task of instructional improvement through the Common Core. [More] Descriptors: Physical Education, State Standards, Academic Standards, Curriculum Development
(2012). Maxine Greene and the Quest in Our Times: A Teacher Educator's Reflections on Imaginative Praxis, Teacher Education and Practice. Given the culture of compliance produced at the intersection of standardization, high-stakes testing, and punitive measures for all who deviate from the hyperrationalized frenzy of accountability that currently prevails, how is it that I have the audacity to offer teacher-learners space to exercise their imaginative capacities, to envision and enact more democratic ways of being in the world–in short, to think of how things might be otherwise? Greene's work on freedom and the use of imagination figure largely here in terms of remembering-imagining-anticipating as a suitable critical pedagogical approach to the educational problems of our times. [More] Descriptors: Educational Change, Teacher Educators, Praxis, Imagination
(2012). Understanding and Applying the QAR Strategy to Improve Test Scores, Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education. The academic landscape has been changing over the last several years bringing with it an emphasis on high stakes testing. Studies conducted over the past several years that have shown the success of the Question-Answer-Relationships (QAR) strategy in helping students develop their comprehension skill. This study looks at the effects of the QAR strategy on a small group of 4th graders. The study shows how the students become more diligent in their efforts to find the correct answers in academic comprehension tasks, including tests. [More] Descriptors: Reading Comprehension, Reading Tests, Grade 4, Reading Strategies
(2014). The Mathematical Experiences of Black Males in a Predominantly Black Urban Middle School and Community, Online Submission. There is a growing body of research focused on the mathematical experiences of Black males in the United States of America. This research has emerged to challenge the dominant narrative in mathematics education focused on Black males' low performance on international, national, and state standardized tests. There is very little research that has explored the impact of high-stakes testing in mathematics on Black males in urban areas. Using qualitative research methods, this study examines the middle school mathematics experiences of four Black males and provides insight into their responses to challenges they face in urban communities, schools, and math classrooms. Critical race theory was used to illuminate Black males' desire to be challenged in the classroom and describe the community, school, and classroom conditions that impact their lived realities and mathematics experiences. [More] Descriptors: Males, African Americans, Mathematics Achievement, Mathematics Instruction
(2012). Battling Creaticide: An Interview with David C. Berliner, Roeper Review. This article presents an interview with David C. Berliner, a Regents' Professor in the College of Education at Arizona State University. His books include "Educational Psychology," "The Manufactured Crisis," and "The Handbook of Educational Psychology." He has served as president of the American Educational Research Association and of the Educational Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association. Berliner is a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Education. In this interview, Berliner discusses his career, high-stakes testing, and five things he would push as teacher and/or student rights. [More] Descriptors: Educational Research, Educational Psychology, High Stakes Tests, Behavioral Sciences
(2012). Inspirational Impetuous: Lifelong Learning, SRATE Journal. Adolescents' motivation is a critical factor for reading success. The lack of motivation adversely affects adolescents' abilities to enhance vocabulary and reading comprehension skills as well as developing powerful reading strategies (Roberts, Torgesen, Boardman, & Scammacca, 2008). Starting in the fourth grade, students' academic expectations increase due to high stakes testing. Researchers analyzed questions 8 and 16 from the Motivation to Read Profile focusing on participants' perception of readers and beliefs about how much time they would spend reading as adults. Results showed 80% of all 3rd and 4th grade participants had a positive outlook on reading in their future. [More] Descriptors: Reading Comprehension, Reading Strategies, Lifelong Learning, Grade 4