This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include P. L. Thomas, Okhee Lee, Alexandra Santau, Wayne E. Wright, Brent Duckor, Cory Buxton, Michele Acker-Hocevar, Debra Touchton, Lori Assaf, and Alia R. Tyner-Mullings.
(2002). How Principals Level the Playing Field of Accountability in Florida's High-Poverty/Low-Performing Schools-Part II: Building Organizational Capacity under the Auspices of the A+ Plan, International Journal of Educational Reform. The second in three-part series on how the principals in 10 low-performing/high-poverty schools met the challenge of Florida's 1999 high-stakes testing and accountability initiative. Examines the challenges principals faced in trying to build organizational capacity from three perspectives: principals' beliefs and values, "it takes a whole school" concept, and changing instructional practices. Descriptors: Accountability, Administrator Attitudes, Elementary Secondary Education, High Stakes Tests
(2002). Making the Global City, Making Inequality: The Political Economy and Cultural Politics of Chicago School Policy, American Educational Research Journal. Discusses current Chicago, Illinois, school reform in the context of economic restructuring, the drive to become a "global city," and the cultural politics of race. Focuses on high stakes testing and accountability. Suggests that education policies are part of a cultural politics of race aimed at the control and regulation of African American and Latino youth and their communities and proposes approaches for the democratic reconstruction of urban education policy. Descriptors: Case Studies, Economic Factors, Elementary Education, Equal Education
(2008). High-Stakes Math Tests: How "No Child Left Behind" Leaves Newcomer English Language Learners behind, Language Policy. The "No Child Left Behind Act" establishes federal education policy for the United States, with a heavy focus on accountability through high-stakes testing. Provisions specific to English language learners (ELLs) include the mandate for their inclusion in state math tests, even for newcomer students enrolled for less than one year. Most ELLs take their state math tests in English with few, if any, accommodations. This study provides an analysis of this policy through the case of fifth grade newcomer Cambodian students in a Texas middle school. A linguistic analysis reveals that the language demands of the state math test far exceeds the language demand of the math work the students were able to do in school (with assistance). A content analysis of the fourth grade math textbooks used in Cambodia and the Texas school district reveals the American textbook had a much higher degree of alignment with Texas math standards, and far exceeded the Cambodian textbook in terms of depth and breadth of mathematical concepts and math problems for students to practice newly learned concepts. We argue that these analyses provide strong evidence that the Cambodian newcomer students were not afforded an opportunity to learn grade-level content before the test, and that the language demands of the test are beyond reasonable for newcomer students. We conclude with a discussion of implications for needed changes to U.S. federal policy which account for the linguistic demands posed by math tests, and which provide students opportunities to learn expected math content before taking high-stakes tests. [More] Descriptors: Cambodians, Textbooks, Federal Legislation, Language Proficiency
(2002). Does External Accountability Affect Student Outcomes? A Cross-State Analysis, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. Developed a zero-to-five index of the strength of accountability in 50 states based on the use of high stakes testing to sanction and reward schools and analyzed whether that index is related to student gains on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics test in 1996-2000. Findings show that students in high accountability states averaged greater NAEP gains. Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Accountability, Achievement Gains, Elementary Secondary Education
(2008). Promoting Science among English Language Learners: Professional Development for Today's Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classrooms, Journal of Science Teacher Education. We describe a model professional development intervention currently being implemented to support 3rd- through 5th-grade teachers' science instruction in 9 urban elementary schools with high numbers of English language learners. The intervention consists of curriculum materials for students and teachers, as well as teacher workshops throughout the school year. The curriculum materials and workshops are designed to complement and reinforce each other in improving teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and practices in science instruction and English language development for ELL students. In addition to these primary goals, secondary goals of the intervention included supporting mathematical understanding, improving scientific reasoning, capitalizing on students' home language and culture, and preparing students for high-stakes science testing and accountability through hands-on, inquiry-based learning experiences. [More] Descriptors: Intervention, Inquiry, Second Language Learning, Active Learning
(2014). Assessing Habits of Mind: Teaching to the Test at Central Park East Secondary School, Teachers College Record. Background/Context: Educational researchers and policymakers have often lamented the failure of teachers to implement what they consider to be technically sound assessment procedures. In recent years, the belief that teachers are unwilling or unable to implement appropriate assessment procedures has contributed to the rapid expansion of high stakes, standardized testing in schools. Supporters of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) have contrasted teachers' assessment practices with standardized testing, arguing that teacher-created classroom assessments lack the technical characteristics required to produce trustworthy measures of student learning or compare large populations of students. Research Question/Focus of Study: Through a case study of New York City's Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS), in the years when it served as a model for progressive American school reform, Duckor and Perlstein demonstrate the usefulness of an alternative to reliance on the technical characteristics of standardized tests for constructing and judging assessments: teachers' self-conscious and reasoned articulation of their approaches to learning and assessment. Research Design: In order to determine CPESS teachers' assessment practices and the process through which they were developed, Duckor and Perlstein conducted semi-structured oral history interviews with a sample of CPESS teachers. They triangulated teachers' recollections through a content analysis of course assignments, rubrics, grading reports, and other artifacts of assessment at CPESS. The sources of this data included published accounts of CPESS and primary sources provided by teachers or uncovered in archival research. Conclusions/Recommendations: Duckor and Perlstein conclude that when teachers are given opportunities for genuine, shared reflection on teaching and learning and classroom practices are tied to this understanding, fidelity to what they call the logic of assessment offers a more promising framework for the improvement of schooling than current forms of high-stakes, standardized accountability. Thus, instead of expecting teachers to rely on data from standardized assessments or replicate features of standardized testing in their own assessment practices, researchers, policymakers and teacher educators should promote fidelity to the broader logic of assessment. [More] Descriptors: Educational Legislation, Federal Legislation, High Stakes Tests, Standardized Tests
(2006). One Reading Specialist's Response to High-Stakes Testing Pressures, Reading Teacher. Pressures to help students pass high-stakes tests affect teachers' reading instruction, their responsiveness to students' learning needs, and their professional effectiveness. This article reports on how one reading specialist responded to testing pressures in her urban elementary school. She believed that what was "right" for her students was to nurture them as real readers and give them opportunities to engage in authentic book discussions, but she felt pushed to consider test scores over all other literacy practices and found herself neglecting long-term goals for short-term test success. The author considers the difficulties this reading specialist experienced and provides insights on ways teachers can push back against pressures to teach to the test in order to stay true to their own educational values and professional knowledge. [More] Descriptors: Standardized Tests, Reading Consultants, Literacy, High Stakes Tests
(2012). Critical Small Schools: Beyond Privatization in New York City Urban Educational Reform, IAP – Information Age Publishing, Inc.. Critical Small Schools: Beyond Privatization in New York City Urban Educational Reform features the most current empirical research about the successes and challenges of the small schools movement and the implications of such for urban public educational policy. Situated in a climate of hierarchical reform, many of the principles of the original small schools movement–which are rooted in community participation, innovative pedagogies and assessment, and equity and social justice–have become obscured by an educational agenda that emphasizes top-down mandates and standards-based reform. With the increased popularity and the rapid proliferation of small schools, the emphasis on "size only" has resulted in a bifurcation of the small schools movement; on one end are the small schools which have embraced the democratic, participatory, and self-governing nature of the original movement, while on the other end are schools that have simply reduced their size without rethinking school structures and practices. This book distinguishes the small schools featured and researched in this volume from schools that are simply small and labels them "critical small schools." By documenting the practices that take place in various critical small schools in New York City, we show how these schools have narrowed the achievement gap and increased graduation and college acceptance rates. Although smallness is an essential feature in the design of these schools, it is certainly not the only one and this volume illuminates the other elements that contribute to these schools' successes and shortcomings. Critical Small Schools also challenges the recent emphasis on charter schools as a panacea for urban educational reform. By featuring research about the inner workings of public schools, this volume challenges this new direction that steers successful school development away from public education. Moreover, as every site is fraught with some tension, Critical Small Schools not only offers glimpses into intellectually vibrant and democratic learning communities, but also acknowledges that these concepts are not static and necessitate continual reflection and renewal. At this pivotal moment in educational reform, this volume provides keen insight into the challenges and possibilities of the small schools movement and is indispensable for anyone interested in comprehensive public school reform. This book is divided into two parts. Part I, Creating and Maintaining the Vision of Critical Small Schools: Challenges and Possibilities, contains the following: (1) City Prep: A Culture of Care in an Era of Data-Driven Reform (Jessica T. Shiller); (2) Considering Context: Exploring a Small School's Struggle to Maintain its Educational Vision (Rosa L. Rivera-McCutchen); (2) A Close Look at Small School Creation: Lessons Learned From the First Years of a Critical Small School (Jay Feldman and Anne O'Dwyer); (3) Authentic Caring and Community Driven School Reform: The Case of El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice (Anthony De Jesus); (4) Additive Schooling: A Critical Small School for Latino Immigrant Youth (Lesley Bartlett and Jill P. Koyama); (5) Learning From Our Students: Recovering the Purpose of Small Schools in an Era Beholden to Standardization (Liza Bearman and Nora Ahmed); (6) Freedom From High-Stakes Testing: A Formula for Small School Success (Martha Foote). Part II, Beyond the Sphere of Schooling: Students Negotiating Postsecondary Transitions, contains the following: (7) Redefining Success: How CPESS Students Reached The Goals That Mattered (Alia R. Tyner-Mullings); (8) Willie Rivera Thoughts: Critical Small Schools and the Transition to Higher Education (Janice Bloom); (9) When Cultures Collide: Students' Successes and Challenges as Transformative Change Agents Within and Beyond a Democratic School (Maria Hantzopoulos). [Foreword by Michelle Fine.] [More] Descriptors: Caring, Achievement Gap, Social Justice, Small Schools
(2006). De-Stressing High-Stakes Testing for NCLB, Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review. It is readily apparent that testing raises academic standards at both the state and the federal levels. The three Rs currently touted as aims for school improvement–rigor, relevance, and relationships–can be applied to testing as well. The connection between standardized testing and rigor can be easily made, while the relevance of testing is more difficult to see, however, because testing usually involves imposing an outside influence over student performance. But the relationships between staff members and students can be the most influential element in bringing out the best in them. In this article, the author comments on standardized testing in schools. [More] Descriptors: Testing, Standardized Tests, High Stakes Tests, Accountability
(2001). The Authentic Standards Movement and Its Evil Twin, Phi Delta Kappan. Public education could be significantly improved if proponents of standards-based reform could join with critics of high-stakes testing (the "evil twin") and outlaw using such tests as sole indicators of student success. Authentic, standards-based reform is concerned with equity and quality, demands teacher collaboration, and addresses demands for public accountability. (Contains 18 references.) Descriptors: Academic Standards, Educational Benefits, Educational Improvement, Elementary Secondary Education
(2012). Mississippi Public High School Counselors' and Principals' Perceptions of the Subject Area Testing Program (SATP2) and Its Impact on Counselors' Job Performance, ProQuest LLC. The purpose of this study was to examine Mississippi Delta area public high school counselors' and principals' perception of the impact of SATP2 testing on counselors' services to students in order to determine whether or not testing responsibilities have an adverse effect on counselors' delivery of services to students. This study was similar to research conducted in North Carolina. The original study, conducted by Brown, Galassi, and Akos (2004), was entitled, "School Counselors' Perceptions of the Impact of High-Stakes Testing." Written permission was granted from the authors to include aspects of their study. A modified version of their survey was sent to high school counselors and principals in 19 counties located in the Mississippi Delta. In this study, the Mississippi Delta region consisted of the following counties: Bolivar, Carroll, Coahoma, DeSoto, Grenada, Holmes, Humphreys, Leflore, Madison, Montgomery, Panola, Quitman, Sharkey, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Tunica, Warren, Washington, and Yazoo. The survey consisted of 26 questions and took approximately 10 minutes to complete. Counselors and principals were asked to respond to questions by using a Liken scale with the following ratings: 5-strongly agree; 4-agree; 3-neither agree nor disagree; 2-disagree; and 1-strongly disagree. A total of 65 surveys were sent to counselors and 53 were sent to principals. A total of 47 surveys were returned from counselors (72%) and 40 surveys were returned from principals (75%). Some high schools had more than one counselor. Therefore, more surveys were sent to counselors than principals. Data received from the participants were analyzed using the following statistical analysis: Independent t-test for hypothesis one, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for hypothesis two, and "Pearson r" for hypothesis three. The following hypotheses were studied: H1[subscript 1]: High school counselors will perceive more adverse effects than principals as to whether the SATP2 has an unfavorable result on counselors' ability to deliver individual and group services to students. H1[subscript 2]: High school counselors' and principals' combined perceptions of the SATP2 will be a function of school performance ratings. H1[subscript 3]: High school counselors will perceive more adverse effects than principals as a function of their years of experience as to whether the SATP2 has an unfavorable result on counselors' ability to deliver individual and group services to students. Findings supported hypothesis one. Results indicated differences in counselors' and principals' perceptions. Results from hypothesis two indicated that combined perceptions were not a function of school performance ratings. Results from hypothesis three were mixed and indicated that perceptions were not a function of counselors' and principals' years of experience. [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: Public Schools, High Schools, School Counselors, Principals
(2001). How Do You Test Your Students' Knowledge of What You Teach?, English Journal. Considers special needs students' interactions with high stakes testing and ways in which teachers try to improve the testing environment. Makes a suggestion for different types of evaluations including a semester-ending project that permits choice and engages students in interdisciplinary lessons. Descriptors: English Instruction, High Stakes Tests, Secondary Education, Special Needs Students
(2008). Scapegoating Public Schools, School Administrator. In their popular explanation of No Child Left Behind, journalists and other public voices claim that unruly and inefficient public schools are being brought under the control of effective central authorities by scientific, test-driven accountability. Other popular themes of reform in media include mayoral control of schools, non-educators as superintendents, and the standards and high-stakes testing movements. At the same time, states have experimented in teacher licensure, inviting a wide range of alternative forms subject to varying quality control and featuring standardized testing over student teaching or university studies. For-profit ventures have been invited to operate public schools in the interest of quality and free-market competition. The U.S. Department of Education has launched efforts to define and legitimize the forms of educational research by limiting funding to projects emanating from certain paradigms for inquiry, specifically scientifically based research. American educators and their organizations have responded to these many initiatives and the cumulative climate of change in a rational fashion. However, according to these authors, the pitting of political advocacy versus professional authority has drowned out the crucial voices of educators. They state that the reform movement has been hijacked by self-interested parties intent on blaming schools for unruliness and inefficiency. In this article, the authors discuss how educators can respond effectively to the current debate and help restore education to a position of civic and moral leadership in the society. They assert that educators need to force their voices into the new media discussion of education, withhold support from politicians who betray the legacy of public education, pressure their organizations to "fight the good fight," and recognize the alternative identity they wear with pride as teachers and education leaders. [More] Descriptors: Public Schools, Advocacy, Educational Research, Federal Legislation
(2001). Standards, Standards Everywhere, and Not a Spot To Think, English Journal. Considers how standards and high-stakes testing corrupts instruction. Notes that the cyclic nature of scope-and-sequence standards, isolated instructional practices, and isolated items on tests is a closed system that has no authentic purpose beyond the academic hallways of schools. Concludes that reading and writing are individual acts at the most intimate level of evolving understanding and learning. Descriptors: Creativity, Elementary Secondary Education, English Instruction, High Stakes Tests
(2001). The Wrath of High-Stakes Tests, Urban Review. Provides a qualitative narrative on the importance of the preparation of three minority students for their high stakes mathematics test. Examines unintended deleterious repercussions of high stakes testing, noting advantages and disadvantages of this type of testing, and critiquing high stakes tests, particularly for minority students as a requirement for high school graduation in public school districts. Descriptors: High School Students, High Schools, High Stakes Tests, Mathematics Education