This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Lawrence Hardy, David Powell, Anita P. Chikkatur, Georgios D. Sideridis, Diana Coben, David William Putwain, Joe L. Frost, Diane Yendol-Hoppey, Katherine Schultz, and Jeremy Hodgen.
(2008). Is Test-Driven External Accountability Effective? Synthesizing the Evidence from Cross-State Causal-Comparative and Correlational Studies, Review of Educational Research. In the midst of keen controversies on the impact of high-stakes testing and test-driven external accountability policy, the more balanced and careful selection, interpretation, and use of scientific research evidence are crucial. This article offers a critical synthesis of cross-state causal-comparative and correlational studies that explored the effects of test-driven external accountability policies on reading and math achievement. A meta-analysis of 76 effect-size estimates from 14 selected studies showed a modestly positive effect on average but no significant effect on the racial achievement gap. Nevertheless, this review calls for further evidence on the policy-outcome linkage, revealing limitations, uncertainties, and inconsistencies in many findings. The author explores variations among the studies in terms of independent and dependent variables, analytical samples and methods, and the reporting of statistical and practical significance. Implications for accountability policy and research under the No Child Left Behind Act are discussed. [More] Descriptors: Scientific Research, High Stakes Tests, Racial Differences, Accountability
(2008). Perceived Parental Bonding, Fear of Failure and Stress during Class Presentations, International Journal of Behavioral Development. The purpose of the present studies was to test the hypothesis that students' perceptions of parental bonding may be predictive of how individuals approach achievement situations. It was hypothesized that reports of parental overprotection would be predictive of elevated fears and subsequent stress and low achievement compared to perceived parental care. No hypotheses were specified regarding the gender of the parent. In Study 1 participants were 230 elementary school students who were assessed on motivation, stress and affect prior to a "high stakes testing". Results indicated that paternal caring scores and, to a lesser degree, maternal caring scores were associated with lower levels of fear of failure, anxiety and depression. In Study 2, 58 college students were monitored (physiologically) during a class presentation in order to test the hypothesis that perceived parental rearing is predictive of stress through influencing fear of failure. Results from Multilevel Random Coefficient Modeling showed that perceived parental caring was associated with significantly lessened stress compared to perceived overprotection. Modeling the relationships using Structural Equation Modeling indicated that students reporting an overprotective parental style approached the task with significantly elevated fears, had elevated stress during the task, and lower task performance. Another salient finding was that students' perceptions of their fathers' parenting style was highly predictive of the stress response. The discussion reviews these findings and examines possible implications for enhancing achievement motivation in educational contexts. [More] Descriptors: Elementary School Students, Student Attitudes, Structural Equation Models, Failure
(2008). Exit Scramble, Education Week. A decade-long push by states to make high school students pass an exit exam before getting their diplomas has stalled as politically sensitive student-failure rates contribute to a growing public backlash against high-stakes testing. Though 26 states have adopted such mandates–most of them since 2000–that number has remained static since last year, according to a report scheduled for release this week by the Center on Education Policy, a Washington-based research and advocacy organization that has tracked the trend for the past seven years. For nearly a dozen states, compliance deadlines that once seemed far off have begun to bite, leading Arizona, Alabama, Maryland, and Washington, among others, to soften their mandates by offering alternative paths to a diploma, or by also weighing factors such as a student's grade point average. States that rushed to tie high school graduation to passing a high-stakes test now face pressure to come up with alternatives, even as critics warn against a dilution of standards. All states with exams offer alternative paths to a diploma for students with disabilities, and 18 of the 23 that have fully phased in their exit-exam requirements also offer alternatives for general education students. [More] Descriptors: Grade Point Average, Graduation, High Stakes Tests, Exit Examinations
(2008). Agricultural Literacy: Clarifying a Vision for Practical Application, Journal of Agricultural Education. "Agricultural literacy" is a working concept with considerable range in meaning and impact. An overview of agricultural literacy curricula shows complementary deductive and inductive approaches to the systematic incorporation of agricultural education in K-12 classrooms. Based on positions discussed at the 2005 Agricultural Literacy Special Interest Group meeting of the American Association for Agricultural Education, the authors identified three curricular approaches to promote agricultural literacy: (1) a deductive approach based on programmed frameworks, (2) an inductive approach based on the application of knowledge and process skills, and (3) a utilitarian, values-based approach promoting evaluation of agri-food system issues. The authors provide an original conceptual model underscoring points of possible synergy between these approaches. The model points out interactions imposed on the system by cognitive-constructivist expectations for learning, which conflict with political and social pressures for a "traditional" curriculum assessed through "high-stakes" tests. The authors suggest capitalizing on the strengths of each approach to lever change within the current public education environment. The authors offer a systematic plan that may resolve the external conflict between the expectations of agricultural educators and political/social advocates of standardized curricula and high stakes testing, turning these pressures into forces to promote agricultural literacy. [More] [More] Descriptors: Constructivism (Learning), Elementary Secondary Education, Agricultural Education, Conflict
(2008). Debating Assessment in Music Education, Research and Issues in Music Education. Music education organizations achieved a huge success in Texas several years ago when legislation declared music as a part of the core curriculum. Similarly, more recent national education legislation like No Child Left Behind has recognized music as a core curricular subject. Since that time, little has been done to assess music students to ensure a set of basic skills and knowledge is being achieved. While national and state music standards exist, these standards, in many cases, are not mandatory and merely serve as a guide or recommendations for music educators to follow. Other core subjects endure severe oversight and rigorous testing at the state and local levels to measure whether or not students are attaining minimum standards. Some music educators are pushing for national testing of music students to demonstrate that music has an academically measurable component. Yet other music educators are fearful that assessment of music education will have the same negative effects that other core subject high-stakes testing has had on schools. This article serves to discuss the current debate on national music assessment and to argue that music education's place in the core curriculum demands an increase in oversight through standardized music assessment of students in music education classes. [More] Descriptors: Music Teachers, Music Education, Professional Associations, Music
(2003). Personal Writing and Basics: Reflections from a Writing Project Summer Institute, Michigan Reading Journal. Considers how the Meadow Brook Writing Project's summer institute provides a fertile field for reflection because it involves experienced and successful teachers in a process of critical review of what works and what does not, and how to bring about change. Discusses the power of personal writing. Considers teachers of old and young, and teachers of students in the middle. Addresses high-stakes testing and writing. Descriptors: Educational Change, High Stakes Tests, Personal Writing, Reflective Teaching
(2003). Overburdened, Overwhelmed, American School Board Journal. Health professionals concerned about children's mental health say schools have become more stressful places and that many students cannot handle the pressure. Factors contributing to students' stress include high-stakes testing, fear of failure, parent pressure, and large impersonal schools. To combat the effects of a large school, Venice High School in Florida grouped 9th-graders into 5 teams of about 90 students each to go through school as a team. Descriptors: Anxiety, Educational Environment, Elementary Secondary Education, Failure
(2008). Teaching Literacy in Fourth Grade, Guilford Publications. Fourth grade is an important year for literacy learning. Having left the primary grades behind, students must grapple with more demanding texts and content material. Effective, motivating instruction can help them succeed. This book helps teachers create an energized and organized learning environment in which all students can improve their reading and writing strategies. Taking readers into the classroom of an exemplary fourth-grade teacher, the book includes assessment tools, differentiation techniques, mini-lessons, unit plans, reproducibles, and examples of student work. Special attention is given to meeting the challenges of high-stakes testing without sacrificing instructional quality. Eight chapters include: (1) What Is the Fourth-Grade Child Like?; (2) Knowing What to Teach in Fourth Grade; (3) Setting Up the Classroom Environment for Literacy Learning; (4) Getting to Know Your Students; (5) Differentiating Instruction for Diverse Learners; (6) A Week in a Fourth-Grade Classroom; (7) Developing Home-School Partnerships That Help Children Learn; and (8) Resources and More. [More] Descriptors: Student Evaluation, Writing Strategies, High Stakes Tests, Grade 4
(2008). Listening to Students, Negotiating Beliefs: Preparing Teachers for Urban Classrooms, Curriculum Inquiry. Learning to teach in urban schools is difficult, particularly when prospective teachers come from different racial, ethnic and/or class backgrounds than their students. The task of urban-focused teacher education programs is to prepare prospective teachers to learn and enact practices that enable them to teach successfully in under-resourced districts that offer both opportunities and constraints. In this article, we report on a 2-year ethnographic study designed to investigate how new teachers enacted a listening stance in teaching that was introduced in their preparation program. Taking a listening stance implies entering a classroom with questions as well as answers, knowledge as well as a clear sense of the limitations of that knowledge (e.g., Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999; Lytle & Cochran-Smith, 1992; Schultz, 2003). The article focuses on how four teachers attempted to adopt a listening stance in their classroom practice, while also responding to the constraints of the standardized curriculum of their district. We conclude that the process of negotiating among teachers' beliefs, practices introduced in a teacher preparation program and district mandates is a critical practice for teachers to learn. We further suggest that in the current climate of high-stakes testing and mandated curriculum, explicit teaching of negotiation skills is likely to support more teachers to enter into and remain in classrooms. [More] Descriptors: Preservice Teacher Education, Urban Schools, Teacher Education Programs, Ethnography
(2003). Bridging the Gaps: Children in a Changing Society, Childhood Education. Notes societal weaknesses in children's care/education and highlights ways to reach children's hearts and minds. Highlights problems, including childhood obesity, high stakes testing, increasing use of psychiatric drugs for children, exposure to crime and violence, increasing child aggression, and increasing willingness to cheat and lie. Urges parents and teachers to reconnect with children and make a commitment to teach children to strive for a healthier and more peaceful world. Descriptors: Child Rearing, Children, Drug Use, Ethics
(2008). High Stakes: Assessing Numeracy for Nursing, Adult Learning. The importance of numeracy for professional practice in nursing is increasingly recognized in the USA, UK and elsewhere, but there is no consensus on what is meant by numeracy for nursing, nor on how it should be taught, learned and assessed. Meanwhile, studies in various countries indicate a lack of proficiency in numeracy of some students and qualified nurses. Against this background, the authors undertake an exploratory interdisciplinary (nursing and education) study to evaluate the teaching, learning and assessment of numeracy for nursing in a large pre-qualification program at a school of nursing in England and draw out implications for the teaching, learning and assessment of numeracy for nursing in the school and elsewhere. The authors' analysis points up the dangers of high stakes testing with a 100% pass mark in the absence of a reliable and valid assessment instrument set to an agreed standard and reflecting the scope of numeracy for nursing. While this is intended to indicate mastery of a safety-critical aspect of nursing practice, the analysis shows that the test in the study does not warrant this. The test is neither reliable nor valid; it does not consistently test what it is intended to test. [More] Descriptors: Nursing Education, Nurses, Numeracy, Nursing
(2008). The Effects of Stereotypes on the Achievement Gap: Reexamining the Academic Performance of African American High School Students, Journal of Black Psychology. This study investigated whether African American high school freshman students experience stereotype threat when taking a test that is seen as a predictor of their success on a high-stakes test. The authors conceptually replicated a previous study by Kellow and Jones (2005) using a true experimental design, as opposed to a quasi-experimental design. White students scored statistically significantly higher than African American students when told that their test performance would be predictive of their performance on a statewide, high-stakes standardized test. The following potential mediators of stereotype threat were included in the study and the effects of each are discussed: (a) perceptions of ability and expectancy for success, (b) achievement goal orientation, (c) anxiety, and (d) perceptions of stereotype threat. The results suggest that African American students are at a disadvantage compared to White students when their knowledge and skills are measured using a high-stakes standardized test. Implications for high-stakes testing of African American students are discussed. [More] Descriptors: African American Students, Quasiexperimental Design, Standardized Tests, Academic Achievement
(2008). Testing of English in India: A Developing Concept, Language Testing. English is the associate official language in India and serves as a unifying force in this multilingual country. The teaching of English in K-12 settings focuses on the skills of reading and writing. Listening and speaking skills are not awarded much time, if any, in most classrooms or test settings; only two Boards of Examinations mandate their inclusion. This status is sustained by factors such as large classes, teachers' inadequate command of English, and the lack of easy access to support materials and facilities. Most exams are summative; very few private schools offer and use formative tests for diagnostic and instructional purposes. The Boards of Education to which the schools are affiliated involve teachers in the setting and grading of exams at all levels. Issues that need attention prior to instituting large-scale testing reform are teacher competency in English, grade inflation, and securing conditions for internal assessment in a high-stakes testing environment. A major fall-out of these changes may be the legitimization of Indian English. [More] Descriptors: Private Schools, Grade Inflation, Elementary Secondary Education, Official Languages
(2008). Resisting "Crash Diet" Staff Development, Kappa Delta Pi Record. People often respond to the pressure of attending a high school reunion or their child's wedding by going on a crash diet to get quick results. In response, friends may marvel about how good they look on the outside. But what folks don't acknowledge is that, in the name of getting results, crash dieters have done some very unhealthy things to their bodies. Efforts to quickly respond to the pressures of high-stakes testing resulting from the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) often abandon much of what is known about job-embedded staff development, such as teacher research, to seek quick fixes in hopes of raising test scores. To provide insights into how to avoid the "crash diet of professional development" (Brandenburg 2007), the authors have examined one particularly powerful form of staff development used by districts across the nation–teacher research. They discuss how teacher research can help shape the era of NCLB, rather than be shaped by it. [More] Descriptors: Federal Legislation, Faculty Development, Educational Legislation, Educational Methods
(2008). Deconstructing Test Anxiety, Emotional & Behavioural Difficulties. Recent changes to educational policy which have focused attention on the use of high stakes testing as performance and accountability measures have renewed interest in test anxiety both in the UK and the USA. The aim of this paper is to provide a critical examination of the test anxiety construct, and explore the ways in which test anxiety is written about and conceptualised in the existing literature. It is intended that this paper would provide a companion to the comprehensive reviews that already exist, to provoke scholarly thought and debate around the existing literature, than to provide an additional review. Discussion is based around five themes: (1) how test anxiety is differentiated from the anxiety construct in general; (2) the differing conceptions of test anxiety in the literature; (3) the relationship between test anxiety and other, related constructs; (4) how measurement concerns have driven development of the test anxiety construct; and (5) the focus on worry and performance deficits leading to definitional problems. Two directions for future work are highlighted: first, to continue the exploration of test anxiety with other related constructs; and second, to develop qualitative approaches to the study of test anxiety. [More] Descriptors: Accountability, Educational Policy, Test Anxiety, High Stakes Tests