This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Mary Frances Litzler, Terrance R. Carson, Jesus Garcia Laborda, Nuria Otero de Juan, Lettie K. Albright, Kevin G. Welner, Luis G. Bejarano, Manuel Megias Rosa, Charles D. Chieppo, and George Viche Akom.
(2009). Teacher Self-Efficacy and the Civic Knowledge of Secondary Social Studies Teachers in a Large Urban School District: A Policy Study, ProQuest LLC. This policy study contributed to an understanding of the types of professional growth activities that improve teacher self-confidence to teach challenging subjects and helped determine the future allocation of resources relative to teaching secondary social studies in Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS), the eighth largest school district in the United States. An important implication and result of this study consisted of a change in HCPS secondary social studies professional development policy from an emphasis on promoting literacy strategies, or reading in the content area, to a focus on improving social studies teacher content knowledge. Additionally, the study describes the culture of change in the district in an era of high-stakes testing and accountability. Research determined whether secondary social studies teachers increased their self-efficacy after participating in civic knowledge and engagement activities. Secondary social studies teachers were administered a version of Gibson & Dembo's (1984) Teacher Efficacy Scale (TES) at the beginning and end of summer institutes in civics and government. A one-way analysis of variance of the TES results revealed no significant difference in teacher pre- and post-test scores. However, teacher perception of their efficacy was high and scores from a Summer Institute Satisfaction Survey clearly indicated that high school teachers welcomed the new innovative professional development opportunities afforded to them through the summer institutes. The study was conducted under the Project Educating Learners to Engage in Civics Today (ELECT) grant, the goal of which was to expand the civic knowledge of the district's students and teachers. [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: Urban Schools, Teacher Effectiveness, Self Efficacy, Statistical Analysis
(2009). Accountability Overboard, Education Next. This article reports that special interest groups opposed to charter schools and high-stakes testing have hijacked Massachusetts's once-independent board of education and stand poised to water down the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests and the accountability system they support. President Barack Obama and Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick are both brilliant orators who espouse the "politics of hope." Both know about hope firsthand, having overcome less-than-privileged backgrounds to achieve great success. Patrick calls education his "singular pursuit." Yet after winning election in a 2006 landslide fueled by strong support from the Bay State's powerful teachers unions–including $3 million in contributions–he has pursued the systematic dismantling of reforms that have made Massachusetts the national leader in public education. The Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 dramatically increased school funding in return for high academic standards, accountability, and enhanced school choice. In the years following, the Commonwealth's independent board of education, founded in 1837 with Horace Mann at the helm, implemented a set of reforms that have unquestionably been the nation's most successful. In 2005, Massachusetts became the first state ever to finish first in four categories of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Despite the clear success of more than a decade of education reform in Massachusetts, Governor Patrick's administration has turned its back on the very forces behind that success: it is wavering on standards, choice is under continual fire, and the board of education has been stripped of the independence that for 170 years was Mann's legacy and had allowed the board to implement reform with a singular focus on improving student achievement. [More] Descriptors: Charter Schools, School Choice, Mathematics Achievement, Reading Achievement
(2009). Internationalizing Curriculum: Globalization and the Worldliness of Curriculum Studies, Curriculum Inquiry. This article presents a review of three chapters in "Part II, Section E: Internationalizing Curriculum" of "The SAGE Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction" (F. M. Connelly, M. F. He, J. I. Phillion, Eds.; Sage Publications, 2008). These chapters ["Indigenous Resistance and Renewal: From Colonizing Practices to Self-Determination" (Donna Deyhle, Karen Swisher, Tracy Stevens, Ruth Trinidad Galvan. Chapter 16, pp. 329-348); "Globalization and Curriculum" (Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt. Chapter 17, pp. 349-368); and "Community Education in Developing Countries: The Quiet Revolution in Schooling" (Joseph P. Farrell. Chapter 18, pp. 369-389)] speak in various ways to the critical and creative possibilities within the worldly circumstances of the curriculum field. Chapter 16 discusses the significance of a transnational dialogue that is both for and by the widely scattered indigenous peoples of the world, pointing out that while indigenous peoples have faced common historical experiences of colonization and assimilation, they have experienced these common histories in isolation from one another as they were caught up and absorbed in the projects of modern nation building in the Americas and elsewhere. Chapter 17 provides a critical examination of the uses of international high-stakes testing, challenging claims that competitive excellence in education can be measured on the basis of testing regimes. Chapter 18 returns the reader to the theme of creative possibilities in the internationalization of curriculum inquiry. Carson concludes that these three chapters offer needed critique and chart promising new directions within the internationalization of curriculum studies. [More] Descriptors: Indigenous Populations, Testing, Global Approach, High Stakes Tests
(2014). A Comparison of Pre-Service towards Testing: The Spanish Baccalaureate General Test and the American OPI, Online Submission. Problem Statement: One of the most frequently neglected aspects of testing is teachers' attitudes. Overall, in-service teachers may have a preconception of what testing means and what its implications are both in high and low stakes testing. However, very few studies have addressed the realities or opinions of pre-service teachers. Methods: Two groups of pre-service teachers in the second and fourth year of college in the United State and Spain participated in a pilot study and took a questionnaire about testing styles, exam implications, format and attitudes towards the task of assessment. The study is funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness in Spain and Valdosta State University in the United States. Findings and Results: The study suggests that pre-service training is necessary to get adapted to a high stakes test based educational system. It also shows that pre-service teachers shape more their ideas as test candidates than as educators. Conclusions and Recommendations: American pre-service teachers are better prepared for test delivery and organization. Besides, the distorted ideas and ideological distance between the testing concepts and the candidates' internal opinions should possibly be revised and more time should be devoted to the process of testing, which is commonly forgotten in language courses. [More] Descriptors: Preservice Teachers, Teacher Attitudes, Foreign Countries, Pilot Projects
(2000). Educational Reform through High Stakes Testing–Don't Go There, Science Educator. Argues that high-stakes testing is inconsistent with the National Science Education Standards' goals regarding what students are taught about the nature and purposes of science. (Contains 23 references.) Descriptors: Academic Standards, Educational Change, Educational Practices, Elementary Secondary Education
(2014). Longitudinal Academic Achievement Outcomes: Modeling the Growth Trajectories of Montessori Elementary Public School Students, ProQuest LLC. Elementary education has theoretical underpinnings based on cognitive psychology. Ideas from cognitive psychologists such as James, Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky coalesce to form constructivism (Cooper, 1993; Yager, 2000; Yilmaz, 2011). Among others, the Montessori Method (1912/1964) is an exemplar of constructivism. Currently, public education in the United States is heavily impacted by the No Child Left Behind legislation (Paige, 2006) which emphasizes high stakes academic achievement testing. Absent from the literature is an examination of the academic achievement of Montessori students in public education. This study explores the academic achievement outcomes of public school students who completed varying numbers of years in Montessori elementary education. Singer and Willett's (2003) multilevel model of change serves as the statistical tool utilized to explore the academic achievement outcomes of a first grade cohort through their elementary and secondary school careers. Accrued years in Montessori did not account for significant variance amongst the trajectories, and gender and ethnicity, when considered without the interactions with accrued years, had minimal impact. Socioeconomic status, when the variable of accrued years in Montessori was removed from the equation, was a significant predictor of reading and math achievement. [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, Montessori Schools, Montessori Method, Elementary School Students
(2014). The Lost Opportunity of the Common Core State Standards, Phi Delta Kappan. This article offers a commentary on the Common Core State Standards, which were developed by a talented and well-resourced team, and are purported to be of higher quality than many former or existing state standards. However, according to this author, Common Core has become much more than the standards themselves; they are the foundational element to further entrenchment of a system that also includes new assessments, augmented accountability regimes, and marketplaces of new materials, testing supports, and professional development. It is almost impossible to disentangle the Common Core from the larger apparatus of high-stakes, standards-based testing and accountability policies that dominate American schooling. The Common Core effort is the equivalent of fixing and further developing a harmful apparatus. Standards can be beneficial elements of a high-functioning educational system; so can assessments. Many well-intentioned and smart people are working to advance the Common Core and make it successful, but unless and until politicians reverse course and focus on closing opportunity gaps, the Common Core will be part of the problem, and its potential benefits will never be realized. [More] Descriptors: Academic Standards, State Standards, Accountability, Educational Assessment
(2013). Norm-Referenced Cognitive and Achievement Scores as Predictors of State-Wide High-Stakes Test Scores with Students Referred for Special Education, ProQuest LLC. Relatively recent federal education initiatives, such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB; 2001), have focused on school accountability for student achievement including achievement of traditionally at-risk populations, such as students in special education, students from low-income or high poverty areas, and students who speak English as a new second language. Additionally, these federal initiatives also mandate that all students take the same test measuring grade level standards despite research that has demonstrated that students from at-risk populations are sometimes at a disadvantage on high-stakes tests. Furthermore, initiatives such as NCLB are often at odds with other education initiatives such as IDEA, which states that students in special education should be tested at their respective level. Therefore, the current study proposed to examine the relationship between Cattell-Horn-Carroll cognitive abilities and performance on a state-wide high-stakes achievement test. There currently are no studies examining such a relationship. This study used Multivariate Regression Analysis, in order to investigate the relationship between CHC cognitive and achievement abilities and performance on a state-wide high-stakes achievement test, namely the ISTEP+, with 45 children who had been referred for a psychoeducational evaluation to determine special education eligibility and who had also taken the ISTEP+. No statistically significant result was found between the WJ-III-COG broad CHC abilities and performance on the English/Language Arts and Math performance of the ISTEP+. Furthermore, no statistically significant result was found between the WJ-III-ACH and Math performance on the ISTEP+. However, a statistically significant result was found between the WJ-III-ACH Passage Comprehension subtest and the English/Language Arts portion of the ISTEP+. The results indicated that students who had higher scores on the Passage Comprehension subtest also had higher scores on the English/Language Arts portion of the ISTEP+. The current study took a step forward in the area of the relationship between CHC and academic achievement, particularly state-mandated high-stakes testing given the dearth of research in this area. Given the data from the current study indicating a statistically significant relationship between Passage Comprehension and English/Language Arts from the ISTEP+, the current study has practical implications for school psychologists, especially when school psychologists are being asked to make predictions regarding a student's academic achievement. Results of the current study might help elucidate reading problems and recommended interventions for those reading problems. [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: Norm Referenced Tests, Cognitive Tests, Achievement Tests, Scores
(2009). A Correlational Study of the Tennessee Formative Assessment Program (TFAP) to the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) on Fifth Grade Reading/Language Arts, ProQuest LLC. The approach of high-stakes testing and accountability of student learning has resulted in an increase of ongoing assessments and continual instructional adjustments by teachers to achieve maximum student performance on standardized tests. According to Black and Wiliam (1998a), formative assessments can produce significant learning gains by offering specific feedback on desired learning targets and an understanding of specific steps to improve. To equip educators with data to drive instruction, many state departments of education across the United States have purchased formative assessment programs. Similarly, the Tennessee State Department of Education implemented a scientifically-based formative assessment program through the Princeton Review K-12 Services (The Princeton Review, 2005). The purpose of this study was to determine the predictability of fifth grade student proficiency on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) Reading/Language Arts scores based on the Tennessee Formative Assessment Program (TFAP) Reading/Language Arts scores. The sample consisted of 375 student Tennessee Formative Assessment Program (TFAP) scores paralleled with their Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) tests scores. A multiple linear regression revealed that TFAP is a predictor of TCAP (R square value = 0.523). Secondly, 22 teachers completed a seven question survey on how TFAP data was utilized to adapt instruction. Teacher surveys revealed that 77.3% of educators vi used TFAP data to adapt classroom instruction. Finally, implications of the research and recommendations are discussed. [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: Formative Evaluation, Standardized Tests, Grade 5, Achievement Tests
(2007). Keeping the Love of Literature Alive in This High-Stakes Testing Environment, Journal of Children's Literature. Teachers have the privilege and responsibility of helping children discover the joy of reading. This principle underlies the mission of The Children's Literature Assembly (CLA) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Unfortunately, as teachers and librarians in this country face the demands of the "No Child Left Behind Act" and of their own states, they increasingly find that time spent with mandated curricular programs and test preparation replaces children's extended time with literature. Concerned with this trend, CLA sponsored the "Resolution on the Essential Roles and Value of Literature in the Curriculum," which was adopted as a position statement by the NCTE Board of Directors, and decided to focus its annual Master Class on this essential issue. This article describes four speakers who shared their professional and personal insights into "Keeping the Love of Literature Alive in this High-Stakes Testing Environment" with an audience of professors of children's literature as well as teachers whose instruction and examples directly influence young readers. Award-winning authors Candace Fleming and Jim Murphy provided perspectives on the writing of fiction and nonfiction, while Nancy Roser and Kathy Short addressed the use of literature in classrooms dominated by state standards. [More] Descriptors: Childrens Literature, Federal Legislation, State Standards, Testing
(2004). Voices from the Frontlines: Teachers' Perceptions of High-Stakes Testing, Education Policy Analysis Archives. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether teachers perceived Florida's high-stakes testing program to be taking public schools in the right direction. More importantly, we sought to understand "why" teachers perceived the tests to be taking schools in the right or wrong direction. Based on the survey results of 708 teachers, we categorized their concerns and praises of high-stakes testing into ten themes. Most of the teachers believed that the testing program was not taking schools in the right direction. They commented that the test was used improperly and that the one-time test scores were not an accurate assessment of students' learning and development. In addition, they cited negative effects on the curriculum, teaching and learning, and student and teacher motivation. The positive effects cited were much fewer in number and included the fact that the testing held students, educators, and parents accountable for their actions. Interestingly, teachers were not opposed to accountability, but rather, opposed the manner in which it was currently implemented. Only by understanding these positive and negative effects of the testing program can policymakers hope to improve upon it. To this end, we discuss several implications of these findings, including: limiting the use of test scores, changing the school grading criteria, using alternative assessments, modifying the curriculum, and taking steps to reduce teaching to the test. [More] Descriptors: Testing Programs, Alternative Assessment, High Stakes Tests, Teacher Motivation
(2010). Using Formative Assessment Despite the Constraints of High Stakes Testing and Limited Resources: A Case Study of Chemistry Teachers in Anglophone Cameroon, ProQuest LLC. Formative assessment, as a strategy used to improve student learning, encounters several obstacles in its implementation. This study explores changes in teachers' views and practices as they are introduced to formative assessment in a high stakes testing and limited resource environment. The study examines the extent to which teachers use the technique of formative assessment to engage students in authentic learning even while not sacrificing high test scores on summative assessments. A case study methodology was employed to address the research topic. Science teachers in the West African country of Cameroon were engaged in a process of lesson planning and implementation to collaboratively build lessons with large amounts of formative assessment. Qualitative data from written surveys, group discussions, classroom and workshop observations, and from teacher reflections reveal the extent to which lesson fidelity is preserved from views to planning to implementation. The findings revealed that though the teachers possess knowledge of a variety of assessment methods they do not systematically use these methods to collect information which could help in improving student learning. Oral questioning remained the dominant method of student assessment. The study also showed that the teachers made minimal to big changes depending on the particular aspect of formative assessment being considered. For aspects which needed just behavioral adaptations, the changes were significant but for those which needed acquisition of more pedagogic knowledge and skills the changes were minimal. In terms of constraints in the practice of formative assessment, the teachers cited large class size and lack of teaching materials as common ones. When provided with the opportunity to acquire teaching materials, however, they did not effectively utilize the opportunity. The study revealed a need for the acquisition of inquiry skills by the teachers which can serve as a platform for the implementation of formative assessment. Another implication of the findings is for teacher professional development to be on-going and classroom-based providing opportunities for teachers to experience and try new teaching methods. [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: Class Size, Student Evaluation, Formative Evaluation, Testing
(2013). An Analysis of the Causes of Shadow Education in the Era of the Schooled Society, ProQuest LLC. The aim of this study is to examine whether the expansion of higher education across countries is associated with the growth of shadow education as a function of families' efforts to ensure attainment of educational opportunities. To address this research objective, this study samples approximately 163,000 students, nested in 21 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, who took the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). This study employs multilevel logistic regression in order to investigate the research question. An analysis of whether the relationship between the expansion of higher education and the use of shadow education is substantial after controlling for national- and individual-level variables follows. The current study found a significant, positive relationship between the expansion of higher education and shadow education use in academic subjects for 21 countries in terms of the average growth rate of the population with higher education between 1955 and 2005 (AGR). The relationship was substantial even after controlling for national- and individual-level variables. This means that a student in a country with a high AGR was more likely to participate in shadow education than a student in a country with low AGR. When higher education was institutionalized in terms of AGR, shadow education use increased as a supplementary tool to achieve academic success in public education. This study also supports previous findings that a female student from a family with high socioeconomic status (SES) was more likely to participate in shadow education than a male student from a family with low SES. The findings show that while high-stakes testing did not have a substantial relationship with shadow education use in analyses with 21 and 20 countries, public education expenditure was negatively associated with shadow education use in the analysis with 20 countries. Further, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and the relative income between high school and college graduates did not have significant relationships with shadow education use in the analyses with 21 and 20 countries, respectively. Public social expenditure was negatively associated with shadow education use for 20 countries. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that economic and social benefits are not likely to be determinants of shadow education, while the institutionalization of higher education in terms of AGR is related with shadow education use. In other words, the findings support the assertion that neo-institutionalism can explain the growth of shadow education use in parallel with the expansion of higher education across 21 OECD countries, although the functionalism, human capitalism, and competitive theory perspectives seemed to explain the relationship. This study contributes to the research literature by expanding the empirical understanding and body of evidence for the relationship between shadow education use and the expansion of higher education and the characteristics of shadow education. In the present era of mass shadow education, shadow education is rapidly becoming a salient focus of education policy around the globe. This research can help policymakers better prepare relevant policy measures for increasing shadow education use in order to supplement academic deficits, particularly for low-achieving students from families with low SES. [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: Higher Education, Comparative Education, Tutoring, Supplementary Education
(2009). Developing the Sixth Sense: Play, Educational Horizons. Traditional ways of teaching–working from a textbook, designing quizzes, and assigning seat work–are predicated on the idea of students' ability and desire to self-regulate. However, these sedentary techniques are ineffective with unmotivated students and poor readers. Teachers commonly invoke fear of failure in an attempt to engage students in the activity at hand. "This will be on the test!" has become a modern-day mantra. But such an appeal does not work with students who do not fear failing grades. Student apathy is one reason "traditional" approaches to teaching have yielded such mediocre results in recent years, at least according to national and international benchmarks. The OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development) conducted an exhaustive study of achievement in the K-12 schools of thirty countries and found no correlation between the amount of homework and student achievement levels. Similarly, no correlation has been found between achievement and high-stakes testing, measured by various international and national exams (Baker and LeTendre 2005). The relentless emphasis on test scores in K-12 schools has resulted in an erosion of play and an active skepticism about fun, even among the youngest children. Play, an essential component of healthy human development, has been shown to affect creativity, cooperation, openness, and intelligence positively. When a teacher turns learning into play, students no longer need to be coerced: they are intrinsically motivated to participate and they become eager to engage in the activity again in the future. In this article, the authors discuss the importance of developing and amalgamating play to learning to direct the focus and energy of students toward academic goals. [More] Descriptors: Homework, Play, Classroom Environment, Academic Achievement
(2009). Worth the WAIT: Engaging Social Studies Students with Art in a Digital Age, Social Education. If the mission of the social studies is to educate global citizens for the twenty-first century, then students must learn how to engage in the type of systematic and sophisticated literacy work that recognizes the power of images as well as texts. In an era of high stakes testing, it is not easy for teachers to find time to locate appropriate art, never mind organize field trips to art museums. Yet educators in both museums and schools are starting to see that some of the most powerful collaborations are those that harness the promise of technology. This paper introduces one such collaboration–one that leverages Web 2.0 technologies to scaffold inquiry and interpretation. Through this collaboration, the authors developed a scaffold to support the interpretation of works of art (REED-LO) and an accompanying freely available Web-based Art Interactive Tool (WAIT). REED-LO is an acronym for the supporting stages students move through as they formulate an interpretation of a work of art. The initial step, Reacting, is followed by Embracing, Exploring, Deciphering, and then Locating the work in its historical context. The process culminates with Opining, or putting forth an opinion as to the work's meaning. Together REED-LO and WAIT allow students to virtually visit with selected works of art from the museum's collection and, more importantly, move beyond the "sit and get" experience normally associated with Web 1.0 technologies (or just visiting a museum for that matter) toward a "sit and give" experience where students have the opportunity to publish their own interpretations and perspectives on works of art online. [More] Descriptors: Artists, Cooperation, Museums, Art