This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Erica Hernandez-Scott, Venita L. Bruton, Kirsten Lambert, Robin Pascoe, Krista Breithaupt, Wilbert Boudreaux, L. D. Rector, Takeisha Brown, Michelle Fine, and Omiunota Nelly Ukpokodu.
(2007). Automated Simultaneous Assembly of Multistage Testlets for a High-Stakes Licensing Examination, Educational and Psychological Measurement. Many challenges exist for high-stakes testing programs offering continuous computerized administration. The automated assembly of test questions to exactly meet content and other requirements, provide uniformity, and control item exposure can be modeled and solved by mixed-integer programming (MIP) methods. A case study of the computerized licensing examination of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants is offered as one application of MIP techniques for test assembly. The solution illustrates assembly for a computer-adaptive multistage testing design. However, the general form of the constraint-based solution can be modified to generate optimal test designs for paper-based or computerized administrations, regardless of the specific psychometric model. An extension of this methodology allows for long-term planning for the production and use of test content on the basis of an exact psychometric test designs and administration schedules. [More] Descriptors: Testing Programs, Psychometrics, Certification, Accounting
(2007). The Role of Demographics and Opportunities to Learn in Predicting Performance on a High-Stakes Test, Journal of Applied School Psychology. High-stakes testing has emerged as a central feature of the educational landscape in primary and secondary schools in the United States. Despite this prominence, there is a paucity of guidance available to practitioners on how they can best make predictions about student performance based on available test data. While achievement gaps based on demographics are widely known, less commonly analyzed are differences in opportunities to learn. Results from the first group of students in Massachusetts required to take a state-created exam in order to graduate from high school indicated that both demographics and courses taken were significant predictors of performance. Recommendations for analyzing test data and for promoting more comprehensive and culturally responsive assessment and curriculum practices are offered. [More] Descriptors: High Stakes Tests, Prediction, Performance, Access to Education
(2007). Navigating Mandated Instruction, Social Studies and the Young Learner. In this paper, the authors–a university social studies professor and two elementary classroom teachers in a metropolitan urban community–share their perspectives, experiences, and commitment to keeping social studies in the curriculum. Specifically, they discuss practices that they have engaged in to navigate the school district's mandated programs and high-stakes testing, which tend to leave social studies in the "back seat" of the elementary curriculum. Their experiences have shown that it is possible, even in a state where the emphasis is in other academic areas, to teach social studies concepts and perspectives, and develop students' knowledge, skills, and dispositions for critical and effective citizenship. [More] Descriptors: High Stakes Tests, Social Studies, Elementary School Curriculum, Global Approach
(2011). High Schools and High Stakes Testing in California: Size and Income Do Matter, Online Submission. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the size of high schools, their percentage of SED (socio-economic disadvantaged) students, and API (academic performance index) scores in California, and determine if teacher preparation is a contributing factor. The 2010 API scores and median income of all 52 counties, and the 2010 API scores and % SED of 1,089 high schools were tabulated and graphed to determine the strength of the correlation between the two different sets of data. Also, the percent proficient levels (in English) for all high school students by grade (9-11) and by socio-economic status from 2003 to 2010 were compared. Lastly, the number and percent of English and math teachers with the proper credentials are presented for analysis. Results indicate there is a strong correlation between the % SED and API of large high schools, and the correlation decreases as the size of high schools decreases. Also, the percent proficient levels in English of SED students are consistently lower than non-SED students across all grades. Results show that the performance of large, high % SED high schools on the CST (California Standards Test) is inferior to their large, low % SED counterparts, regardless of the percentage of teachers holding the proper credentials. Parents, policymakers, educators, and researchers need to question the scope and purpose of high stakes tests if the tests, by design, cannot account for circumstances beyond the control of students, parents, and schools. [More] Descriptors: Credentials, High Schools, High Stakes Tests, Mathematics Teachers
(2007). The Decline of Bilingual Education: How to Reverse a Troubling Trend?, International Multilingual Research Journal. For decades bilingual education in the United States has faced political adversity to varying degrees. Having survived several waves of English-only activism since the late 1970s, these programs seem unlikely to disappear anytime soon. Research has increasingly demonstrated their superiority to all-English approaches for educating English-language learners (ELLs), as documented by meta-analyses of the literature. Nevertheless, the continued availability of bilingual education in this country for significant numbers of ELLs is now in doubt. This is true in part because of the antibilingual backlash, which most recently took the form of English-only school initiatives adopted by voters in California, Arizona, and Massachusetts. In recent years a new and more formidable threat has emerged: the trend toward high-stakes testing, primarily in English, as mandated by the U.S. federal government's No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Despite provisions requiring instructional programs to reflect "scientifically based research," the law provides indirect but powerful incentives to ignore this principle when it comes to ELLs. That is, it encourages schools to abandon native-language instruction in favor of all-English approaches. In this article, the author contends that to reverse the decline of bilingual education, it must be combined with consistent efforts to educate the public about the pedagogical and societal benefits of developing students' native-language skills. There is no escaping the reality that, as long as high-stakes testing continues to drive U.S. education policy, the trend toward all-English programs will continue to accelerate. [More] Descriptors: Federal Legislation, Bilingual Education, Testing, High Stakes Tests
(2011). Georgia High-Stakes Testing: The Correlation between Eighth Grade and Ninth Grade Achievement, ProQuest LLC. Standardized tests are an education reality and an important accountability consideration in most states and school systems. Most states require standardized assessments to meet requirements of the federal "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001. Changes to curriculum and instruction and to the school culture frequently occur through a school improvement process, and standardized test data are often used to inform these decisions. The school improvement process and professional development should focus on student learning, but how administrators and teachers perceive standardized testing and the ensuing data analyses is an important consideration in understanding what needs improvement and the professional development that best supports student learning. Ultimately, standardized assessment results should inform changes to curriculum and instruction. However, who decides what change is needed or how to implement the change? In this study, the researcher seeks to understand the value of existing students' testing in middle school as it relates to and, perhaps, predicts their high school achievement in ninth grade. [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: Academic Achievement, High Stakes Tests, Educational Testing, Standardized Tests
(2007). Swimming: On Oxygen, Resistance, and Possibility for Immigrant Youth under Siege, Anthropology & Education Quarterly. In this article, we consider the ways in which educational policies and institutions today enable or obstruct young people who are immigrant English-language learners as they seek to cross cultural and educational borders. Contrasting a class action suit in California protesting high stakes testing that will significantly limit graduation rates, and an ethnographic analysis of the international high schools in which immigrant youth engage with cultural and educational depth and support and graduate at exceptional rates, this article challenges the current policy climate in which immigrant youth are increasingly under siege and at risk of being multiply undocumented. In the spirit of protest, we trace the many sites of resistance and possibility dotting the nation, in which educators, communities, families, advocates, and youth are demanding educational access and justice. [More] Descriptors: Access to Education, Youth, Graduation Rate, Immigrants
(2001). More Unintended Consequences of High-Stakes Testing, Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice. Explores the basis of negative sentiments toward high-stakes student testing and current critiques of the practice from within the education profession. Provides evidence for 10 unintended, unrecognized, or unarticulated positive consequences. Also examines the relationship between high-stakes testing and accountability systems. Descriptors: Accountability, Attitudes, Educational Testing, High Stakes Tests
(2011). Distributed Leadership and High-Stakes Testing: Examining the Relationship between Distributed Leadership and LEAP Scores, ProQuest LLC. Educational stakeholders are aware that school administration has become an incredibly intricate dynamic that is too complex for principals to handle alone. Test-driven accountability has made the already daunting task of school administration even more challenging. Distributed leadership presents an opportunity to explore increased leadership capacity by democratizing the decision-making process and vesting leadership activity to segments of the educational community traditionally viewed as followers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between distributed leadership and student achievement as measured by Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) assessments. The data were analyzed utilizing a quantitative methodological approach. Correlation coefficients were calculated to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between teacher perception of the collective effects, seven dimensions, and three forms of distributed leadership and student achievement. The results of correlational analyses indicated that the relationships between the collective effects of distributed leadership and academic achievement as measured by standardized LEAP ELA and math assessments were statistically non-significant at all performance levels of student achievement (e.g., Advanced, Mastery, Basic, Approaching Basic, and Unsatisfactory). There were statistically significant relationships between three dimensions of distributed leadership and the LEAP ELA assessment. Those dimensions include school culture, teacher leadership, and principal leadership. However, the significant relationships occurred only at the mastery achievement level. There were also statistically significant relationships between three forms of distributed leadership and the LEAP ELA assessment. Those forms include spontaneous collaboration, intuitive working relations, and institutionalized practices. These significant relationships also occurred only at the mastery achievement level. There were no significant relationships between any dimension or form of distributed leadership and the LEAP math assessment at any achievement level. [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: Academic Achievement, High Stakes Tests, Stakeholders, Educational Assessment
(2007). High-Stakes Test Accommodations: Documentation Review by Testing Agencies in an Era of Change, Assessment for Effective Intervention. Given the latest reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and evolving views on the identification of cognitive disabilities in special education, many high school graduates with learning disabilities and/or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder will have a Summary of Performance (SOP) in lieu of a recent psychoeducational evaluation as their primary documentation of disability from high school. This article discusses potential challenges faced by high school students in establishing eligibility for high-stakes test accommodations for college. There is skepticism regarding the SOP document in terms of satisfying established disability documentation requirements and documentation review criteria of testing agencies that administer college admission exams such as the SAT and the Graduate Record Examination. Recommendations for documentation of disability by high school personnel, as well as disability documentation review policies for high-stakes testing agencies, are proposed. [More] Descriptors: High Schools, Testing Accommodations, Learning Disabilities, Testing
(2007). Pedagogies for the Poor? Realigning Reading Instruction for Low-Income Students with Scientifically Based Reading Research, Educational Researcher. In this article, the author argues that there is minimal scientific support for the pedagogical approaches promoted for low-income students in the federal Reading First initiative. In combination with high-stakes testing, the interpretation of the construct "systematic phonics instruction" in Reading First has resulted in highly teacher-centered and inflexible classroom environments. By privileging these approaches, Reading First ignored the National Reading Panel's finding that systematic phonics instruction was unrelated to reading comprehension for low-achieving and normally achieving students beyond Grade 1. Also ignored was the significant body of research suggesting that reading engagement is an important predictor of achievement. Alternative evidence-based directions for rebalancing reading instruction for low-income students are suggested in the context of the impending reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind legislation. [More] Descriptors: Reading Comprehension, Reading Research, Phonics, Low Income
(2015). Data-Driven Performativity: Neoliberalism's Impact on Drama Education in Western Australian Secondary Schools, Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies. In recent years, the much touted "difficult economic times" has resulted in a drastic reduction in arts and education funding in western capitalist nations (Fowles 2014; Henwood and Featherstone 2013; Murray and Erridge 2012; Smith 2013). Combined with this "age of austerity," schools have been subjected to decades of neoliberal education reform policies and programs such as the No Child Left Behind Act and the Race-to-the-Top funding in the United States and The Academies Act in the United Kingdom. These and other education "reforms" promote high-stakes testing, accountability, and competitive markets (Hursch 2007; Loh and Hu 2014). How does this zeitgeist of austerity and reform affect arts education at the local level where practice is enacted? Many curriculum changes have been made as a result of these reforms. Consequently schools are primarily judged on the grades students achieve for English, mathematics, science and sometimes languages. This often means that subjects such as art, dance, drama, and music are among the first to be cut from the curriculum resulting in fewer options for students, as schools direct students to focus on so-called "academic" courses in order to attain the requisite data to be ranked as a "good" school. By way of example, Appleton (2014) reports that in the UK, 23% of schools have dropped drama in favor of "academic subjects." To acquire additional information about this trend, the authors performed an ethnographic research project based on semi-structured interviews with 15 drama teachers and 11 of their ex-students in Western Australia across government, Catholic, and independent school systems. Their findings showed that these responses are not isolated to one or two countries. For example, in two of the 15 schools represented in the study, dance as a subject had been dropped despite a strong desire for it by students. Speculating on a reason for this change, one student noted, "I think with subjects like dance they look at other countries like Asia and say, 'They do all science and all maths and they don't focus on the arts. They're smarter so we need to compete with that'" (Elizabeth, student, independent school). Interestingly, this desire by students themselves to do more in the arts is consistent internationally (Palmer Wolf 2014). Students also report that effects of the "reforms" go beyond curriculum choice to include the use of space–physical space such as theater, space on the timetable/curriculum, and emotionally safe space for teachers and students to express themselves freely. These forms of space are forms of capital and are impacted by the dominant neoliberal culture of competitive performativity. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Neoliberalism, Theater Arts, Art Education
(2016). Impact of Accumulated Error on Item Response Theory Pre-Equating with Mixed Format Tests, Applied Measurement in Education. The equating of tests is an essential process in high-stakes, large-scale testing conducted over multiple forms or administrations. By adjusting for differences in difficulty and placing scores from different administrations of a test on a common scale, equating allows scores from these different forms and administrations to be directly compared to one another (Kolen & Brennan, 2004); as such, the importance of the accuracy of equating is paramount for any assessment program. Due to the increasingly fast turnaround times required of testing companies in the reporting of test scores, many testing programs rely on pre-equating methodologies. Although many testing companies report the use of pre-equating for some of their tests, there is very little research evidence supporting its use. This study seeks to determine the impact of accumulated error from the long-term use of pre-equating in an operational testing program. Results indicate that for some tests, the pre-equating and post-equating produced almost identical results, while in other cases the differences were quite dramatic. [More] Descriptors: Item Response Theory, Equated Scores, Test Format, Testing Programs
(2007). Lost Opportunities to Learn: The Effects of Education Policy on Primary Language Instruction for English Learners, Linguistics and Education: An International Research Journal. This study examines the implications that state educational policies, such as high-stakes testing in English and Proposition 227, have on teaching and learning in primary language instruction for English learners in California. Utilizing cultural-historical activity theory of learning and development, this qualitative case study uncovers the impact these reforms have on primary language instruction, bilingual teachers and their students through the use of participant observations, teacher and administrator interviews, and discourse analysis of classroom interaction. The study demonstrates that the pressure to test well on the SAT-9 assessment compelled bilingual teachers to organize their primary language instruction to skill and drill teaching in Spanish. The findings illustrate the students' lost opportunities to learn and participate in more robust, student-centered literacy practices in their native language, facilitating the analysis of the efficacy of school reform and its mediation of everyday practices in schools and classrooms. [More] Descriptors: Learning Theories, Second Language Learning, High Stakes Tests, Discourse Analysis
(2015). Educators on the Edge: Big Ideas for Change and Innovation. Australian College of Educators (ACE) National Conference Proceedings (Brisbane, Australia, September 24-25, 2015), Australian College of Educators. The 2015 Australian College of Educators (ACE) National Conference theme is "Educators on the Edge: Big Ideas for Change and Innovation." ACE presented an opportunity for all education professionals to gather, discuss, and share cutting-edge, creative and innovative practices, nationally and globally at the conference held on September 24-25, 2015, in Brisbane, Australia. These ACE 2015 National Conference Proceedings include high quality Keynote Addresses, Paper Presentations, Interactive Workshop Session Papers, a Provocation Paper, and the winning Paper from the ACE | ASG Student Educator "Writing the future" National Award. Australian educators were invited to submit an Abstract for either a Paper Presentation, or for an Interactive Workshop Session consistent with the conference theme. Some of these submissions share practices related to the following: (1) Educators adapting to changes and challenges (including technological, economic, and social); (2) Innovative approaches educators "on the edge" are implementing to improve student learning; and (3) Cutting-edge, creative and innovative practices, nationally and globally. Following a welcome address by Stephen Dinham, keynote paper presentations in these proceedings include the following: (1) Regulation or deregulation? Observations on education in Germany and Australia (Stephen Dinham); (2) The worrying implications of privatisation in schooling and of the review of federation (Bob Lingard); (3) Educators "on the edge"–How innovative approaches improve children's learning (Rhonda Livingstone); and (4) Innovative technologies and human rights education (Gillian Triggs). Concurrent papers and interactive workshop presentations include the following: (5) Leveraging cloud-based technologies to enhance personal learning environments (Scott Adamson, Christine Beckmann, and Steve Crapnell); (6) Big ideas for change and innovation: Internationalising programs in an Australian offshore university campus (Robyn Anderson); (7) Conceptualising the challenge of integrating digital technologies in pedagogy (Christopher Blundell, Kar-Tin Lee, and Shaun Nykvist); (8) Big Picture learning: Why this, why now? (Chris Bonnor and Viv White); (9) The performance edge: Optimising wellbeing and achievement (Catherine Brandon); (10) Understanding creativity and innovation: The power of building a professional learning community that supports staff to lead school improvement (Brian Burgess, Peter Hart, and Clare Scollay); (11) Contributive leadership: How can you sustain a collegial culture within your organisation? (Brett Darcy); (12) Leadership on the edge: Big ideas for change and innovation–Exploring the leadership profiles (Margery Evans and Julie Hyde); (13) Pastoral care in times of high stakes testing and accountability (Kate Hall and Judy Smeed); (14) Educators on the edge…Of what? (Rachael Heritage); (15) Innovative approaches to the design of inclusive online learning environments (Denise Wood); and (16) Improving students' outcomes through the use of assessment diagnostics (Alec Young). Individual papers contain references. [For the 2014 proceedings, see ED571027.] [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Educational Innovation, Educational Change, Conferences (Gatherings)