This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Elaine L. Zanutto, Phillip Allen Herring, Jason W. Osborne, Jennifer L. Ashton, Jesus Garcia Laborda, Catherine H. Glascock, Teresa Magal Royo, George F. Madaus, Larry Krumenaker, and Austin Harding.
(2006). Measuring History: Cases of State-Level Testing across the United States. Research in Curriculum and Instruction, IAP – Information Age Publishing, Inc.. Measuring History complements the cases presented in Wise Social Studies Practices (Yeager & Davis, 2005). Yeager and Davis highlight the rich and ambitious teaching that can occur in the broad context of state-level testing. In this book, the chapter authors and I bring the particular state history tests more to the fore and examine how teachers are responding to them. At the heart of Measuring History are cases of classroom teachers in seven states (Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia) where new social studies standards and new, and generally high-stakes, state-level history tests are prominent. In these chapters, the authors describe and analyze the state's testing efforts and how those efforts are being interpreted in the context of classroom practice. The results both support and challenge prevailing views on the efficacy of testing as a vehicle for educational reform. Catherine Horn (University of Houston) and I lay the groundwork for the case studies through a set of introductory chapters that examine the current environment, the research literature, and the technical qualities of history tests. Contents of this book include: (1) Introduction: Measuring History (S. G. Grant); (2) The State of State-Level History Tests (S. G. Grant and Catherine Horn); (3) Research on History Tests (S. G. Grant); (4) The Technical Realities of Measuring History (Catherine Horn); (5) Paradox of Practice: Expanding and Contracting Curriculum in a High-Stakes Climate (Letitia Fickel); (6) Teaching History in the Age of Accountability: Measuring, History or Measuring Up to It? (Avner Segal); (7) Using Primary Documents With Fourth-Grade Students: Talking About Racism While Preparing for State-Level Tests (Jane Bolgatz); (8) Teaching in Spite of, Rather than Because of, the Test: A Case of Ambitious History Teaching in New York State (Jill Gradwell); (9) Teaching in a High-Stakes Testing Setting: What Becomes of Teacher Knowledge? (Cinthia Salinas); (10) Teaching History in the Old Dominon: The Impact of Virginia's Accountability Reform on Seven Secondary Beginning History Teachers (Stephanie van Hover); (11) Negotiating Control and Protecting the Private: Accountability, History Teachers and the Virginia Standards of Learning (Ann Marie Smith); (12) "Does Anybody Really Understand This Test?" Florida History School Social Studies Teachers' Efforts to Make Sense of the FCAT (Elizabeth Anne Yeager and Matthew Pinder); (13) The Impact of a High School Graduation Examination on Mississippi Social Studies Teachers' Instructional Practices (Kenneth Vogler); (14) Measuring History Through State-Level Tests: Patterns and Themes (S. G. Grant); and (15) The Future of High-Stakes History Assessment: Possible Scenarios, Potential Outcomes (William Gaudelli). [Foreword by O. L. Davis, Jr.] [More] Descriptors: Teacher Characteristics, High Stakes Tests, Program Effectiveness, Educational Change
(2003). The Principal as Instructional Leader: A Position for Enhancing Mathematics Learning in Rural Schools. Working Paper. This position paper examines the important role of the principal in instruction, the importance of community to learning in rural settings, and a model of learning that engages the child and teacher in an experiential mathematical mode. The principal's influence on student achievement is indirect and proceeds from the principal's roles as resource provider, as curriculum and instructional initiator and supporter, and as a catalyst in the political arena for expanding opportunities to explore different methods of learning. In rural schools, the principal can link a generic curriculum to the local community's values and concerns. When a school privileges the concerns of its community in the way it operates and in its curriculum, local people recognize the school as an institution belonging to and serving the community. Such connections contrast with the nationalization of curricula and practices, enforced by high-stakes testing, which, in poor rural schools, often leads to unimaginative, repetitive instruction. In the context of rural mathematics instruction, principal-teacher partnerships can seek resources and develop approaches to contextualize mathematics teaching and learning to the rural context. Expeditionary learning helps teachers create an intellectually challenging, integrated curriculum that allows students to study a topic in depth, forge connections with and be of use to their community, and collaborate to transform themselves into a learning community. Strategies by which principals can support such approaches to rural mathematics teaching and learning are outlined, and potential related research questions are listed. [More] Descriptors: Administrator Role, Educational Environment, Elementary Secondary Education, Experiential Learning
(2004). A Public School Cued Speech Program for Children with Hearing Loss and Special Learning Needs, Volta Review. The difficulties encountered by students with hearing loss and special learning needs are often attributed exclusively to hearing loss, particularly when there are no other obvious physical or sensory handicaps. A Louisiana public school system has addressed this issue for the past 9 years and has included both regular and special education instructors in the children's programming. As a team, individualized goals and accommodations are designed similar to those of their peers with normal hearing with similar learning needs. The programming includes Cued Speech; intensive speech, language, and listening training; use of assistive listening devices; early intervention for the development of reading, writing, and general knowledge; annual assessment; identification of specific learning styles; and mainstreaming. As a result, the students with hearing loss who have special learning needs were able to achieve passing scores on the state's "high stakes" testing. [More] Descriptors: Public Schools, Early Intervention, Cued Speech, Hearing Impairments
(2009). Training Senior Teachers in Compulsory Computer Based Language Tests, Online Submission. The IBT TOEFL has become the principal example of online high stakes language testing since 2005. Most instructors who do the preparation for IBT TOEFL face two main realities: first, students are eager and highly motivated to take the test because of the prospective implications; and, second, specific studies would be necessary to see if instructors may be familiarized with the use of computers in teaching and/or language testing for other high stakes tests. Now, many standardized tests are going online as well such as IELTS, BULATS and others (Garcia Laborda, 2007). National Boards of Education are also considering this possibility for the national university entrance examination (PAU) (Garcia Laborda & Magal Royo, 2007; Garcia Laborda, 2006). However, in this case, teachers may not be willing or well prepared to face the challenge due to factors such as ICT familiarity. To date, many papers have explored the role of teacher training in their adaptation to the inclusion or implementation of ICT in the foreign language classroom (Zepp, 2005; Tan et al., 2003; Rehbein et al., 2003). However, it is necessary to consider the differences between the use of ICT for language testing (as opposed to general teaching) and the profile of senior high school foreign language teachers who may not be as flexible as their younger colleagues. This paper describes the trainees' final attitudes of a six-month course held in Valencia (Spain). 26 teachers from private schools who teach many of the students who take the test every year participated in an in-service teacher training course in Valencia. Instructional methods principally included training in ICT strategy and use through face-to-face instruction and also autonomous learning, group work, synchronous and asynchronous communication, and computer based test design. The teachers' responses to long discussions in a control session and to a questionnaire, along with the observations of a 20-hour course and the results of the familiarization with different tools show that for this type of training it is not only necessary to familiarize teachers with the testing tool but also with the process of creating online tests and with the testing process itself (Chapelle & Douglas, 2006; Stoynoff & Chapelle, 2005). Results from the platform use and the final questionnaire indicated that the majority of trainees reacted positively to the training and were eager to let the research team work with their students. However, they still felt they would not be able to use ICT for testing in their classes. Questionnaire is appended. [More] Descriptors: Private Schools, Second Language Learning, Familiarity, Testing
(2003). TESOL Position Paper on High-Stakes Testing for K-12 English Language Learners in the United States of America. High stakes assessments cannot reliably provide an accurate assessment of English language learners' (ELLs)' abilities in content areas. Cultural differences and limitations concerning opportunity to learn can lead to unfair interpretations of low test scores and assessment discrimination. ELLs cannot demonstrate content mastery without having already attained a high degree of English fluency. While most states allow ELLs certain accommodations during testing, application of these accommodations is limited. Accommodations cannot be applied to groups of ELLs without careful consideration of each student's ability to make use of them. Some states offer ELLs a grace period before taking standardized state tests, though research maintains that ELLs need 5-7 years of assisted English instruction before being ready for the decontextualized academic English needed to pass most tests. For many ELLs, the tests contradict their own academic traditions and expectations and contain culturally dependent, unfamiliar references. While all children are entitled to an equal opportunity to achieve, many court cases involving ELLs center on lack of opportunity to learn. Alternatives to high stakes testing include multiple assessments of content area skills that are not dependent on linguistic capability and comprise visuals and demonstrations of knowledge. Research indicates that when given a chance to develop academic English, child ELLs can be more successful than their native-English-speaking peers. Descriptors: Access to Education, Cultural Differences, Elementary Secondary Education, English (Second Language)
(2006). Value-Added Assessment of Teacher Preparation: An Illustration of Emerging Technology, Journal of Teacher Education. Broad-based empirical outcomes assessment is an increasingly evident part of governmental services and this trend is particularly apparent in education. The clearest manifestation of this trend in education has been the advent of high-stakes broad-based testing and accountability programs in K-12 education. Although this assessment regime has not yet been used to assess the efficacy of teacher preparation programs, the data management capacity and statistical technology is now emerging to make this possible. This article presents data from the 1st year of a pilot study examining the methodological and practical issues involved in implementing a value-added assessment of teacher preparation based on a massive multivariate longitudinal database. The pilot data are discussed in relation to the literature pertaining to value-added assessments in K-12 education. Selected research needs and practical concerns related to the use of value-added models for the assessment of teacher preparation are discussed. [More] Descriptors: Research Needs, Accountability, Teacher Education, Multivariate Analysis
(2004). The Mathematics Assessment Collaborative: Performance Testing to Improve Instruction, Phi Delta Kappan. In this article, the authors describe a collaborative effort involving 30 school districts in California's Silicon Valley that are seeking to overcome the ill effects of mandatory high-stakes standardized testing in mathematics. These districts administer, score, and analyze a common set of performance assessments in mathematics in a way that guides professional development and leads to changes in teaching strategies. The assessment tasks place particular value on student understanding and knowledge transfer to new problems. Growth in students' test scores on statewide standardized tests occurs almost as an incidental effect of this approach. The authors report that the districts participating in the Mathematics Assessment Collaborative have seen improved mathematical understanding on the part of both their students and their teachers. [More] Descriptors: Testing, Standardized Tests, Academic Achievement, Teaching Methods
(2005). Wise Social Studies in an Age of High-Stakes Testing: Essays on Classroom Practices and Possibilities. Research in Curriculum and Instruction, IAP – Information Age Publishing, Inc.. The chapters in this volume illustrate how teachers are bringing creativity, higher-order thinking, and meaningful learning activities into particular school settings despite pressures of standards and testing. The editors chose the word wise for the title of this book, and they use it frequently to describe the pedagogical practices they have identified. The words powerful and ambitious are used as well. The larger point, as Keith C. Barton makes in his chapter, is that there is no necessary connection between content standards and high-stakes tests on the one hand, and low-level, rote instruction on the other. He reminds everyone, as Thornton (1991) and Wiggins (1987) previously have argued, that "teachers play a crucial role in mediating educational policy, and their intentions and interpretations have at least as much influence on classroom practice as does the content of standards and high-stakes tests." Barton also asserts that "this makes it all the more crucial to identify the wisdom of practice that enables teachers… to engage students in powerful educational experiences." This book contains: (1) Introduction: The "Wisdom of Practice" in the Challenging Context of Standards and High-Stakes Testing (Elizabeth Anne Yeager); (2) "I'm Not Saying These Are Going To Be Easy": Wise Practice in an Urban Elementary School (Keith C. Barton); (3) How She Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Test… Sort Of (Andrea S. Libresco); (4) Voices of Florida Elementary School Teachers: Their Conceptions of Wise Social Studies Practice (Diane Yendol-Hoppey, Jennifer Jacobs, and Keith Tilford); (5) A Good Teacher in Texas: Conversations about Wisdom in Middle School Social Studies Practice (Mary Lee Webeck, Cinthia S. Salinas, and Sherry L. Field); (6) The Impact of Accountability Reform on the "Wise Practice" of Secondary History Teachers: The Virginia Experience (Stephanie D. van Hover and Walter F. Heinecke); (7) More Journey Than End: A Case Study of Ambitious Teaching (S.G. Grant); (8) Wise Practice in an Innovative Public School (Diana Hess); (9) Wise Practice in High School Social Studies: The Case of Joe Gotchy (Bruce Larson); and (10) Engaging Pedagogy in an Advanced Placement European History Classroom (John K. Lee). [More] Descriptors: European History, Teacher Effectiveness, Educational Testing, High Stakes Tests
(2002). Level Descriptions and Teacher Assessment in England: Towards a Community of Assessment Practice, Educational Research. Interviews with 48 British elementary teachers and assessment coordinators about level descriptions to evaluate students (summary statements of performance on the National Curriculum) found that communities of assessment practice have developed within schools but not more widely. Factors inhibiting growth include lesser status of teacher assessment versus test scores and the high-stakes nature of testing. (Contains 21 references.) Descriptors: British National Curriculum, Criterion Referenced Tests, Elementary Education, Elementary School Teachers
(2004). A Potential Outcomes View of Value-Added Assessment in Education, Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics. There has been substantial interest in recent years in the performance and accountability of teachers and schools, partially due to the No Child Left Behind legislation, which requires states to develop a system of sanctions and rewards to hold districts and schools accountable for academic achievement. This focus has lead to an increase in "high-stakes" testing with publicized school rankings and test results. The articles by Ballou et al. (2004), McCaffrey et al. (2004) and Tekwe et al. (2004) approach the estimation of school and teacher effects through a variety of statistical models, known as "value-added" models in the education literature. There are many complex issues involved, and we applaud the authors for addressing this challenging topic. [More] Descriptors: Federal Legislation, Test Results, Rewards, Sanctions
(2009). No Child Left Behind and High School Astronomy, Science Educator. Astronomy was a required subject in the first American secondary level schools, the academies of the 18th century. When these were supplanted a century later by public high schools, astronomy still was often required, subsumed into courses of Natural Philosophy. Reasons given at that time to support astronomy as a part of general education include "training of minds," "mental discipline," and the practical aspects of geography, commerce, navigation and the refinement of a civilized person. The "Committee of Ten" changed this situation in 1892 by changing college admission standards to no longer consider the study of astronomy as favorable. By 1930, only 0.06% of all students in the whole country would take an astronomy class. The launch of Sputnik I in 1957 created a brief renaissance of astronomy education, but eventually enrollment slipped back down to 1% in the 1980s, which was when the last significant nationwide examination of high school astronomy was done through Philip Sadler's 1986 survey. After Sadler, an era of budget cutbacks and increases in high stakes standardized testing began, and this became a dominating influence in 2001 with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and its emphasis on reading and mathematics. Today astronomy is taken by about 4% of all high school students. Despite the meager growth that this enrollment represents, it remains important to re-examine the subject of high school astronomy as well as the effects that NCLB has had on the availability and quality of these courses. This mixed-methods study looks at fully independent, self-contained astronomy courses available to students in grades 9-12. The data came from high school astronomy teachers via a survey available to them on a Webpage and as a Word file. The results indicate that high school astronomy courses are far more affected by NCLB indirectly than directly. Enrollments drop often, not because of a shift of student interest, but because students are channeled increasingly into the main three sciences (shades of the Committee of Ten effect) and state mandated/tested courses, leaving fewer students (or schedule time) available for students to take an astronomy course. As a result, fewer sections are offered, and this can lead to outright elimination of the course. Because NCLB does not mandate that Earth/Space Science classes be tested, funding for these courses is reduced, which in turn makes teachers unable to bring in outside resources or obtain professional development related to astronomy. [More] [More] Descriptors: High Schools, Space Sciences, Federal Legislation, Student Interests
(2003). Views from the Classroom: Teachers' Opinions of Statewide Testing Programs, Theory into Practice. Discusses teachers' views on state-mandated testing. Data from a literature review and teacher surveys indicate that high stakes, state-mandated testing can lead to instruction that contradicts teachers' views of sound educational practice. Teachers feel that pressure to raise test scores encourages them to emphasize instructional and assessment strategies mirroring the content and format of the state test, and to devote large amounts of classroom time to test preparation. Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Accountability, Elementary Secondary Education, Evaluation Methods
(2010). Surviving Inclusion: A Critical Discourse Analysis of a Middle School Co-Teaching Relationship, ProQuest LLC. Since the passage of PL 94-142, also known as the Education of All Handicapped Children Act, in 1975, special and general educators have been urged to work together to improve the education of children with disabilities through increased access to the general education curriculum. Over the years, the evolution of a collaborative approach to educating students with disabilities has resulted in the increased implementation of co-teaching as a service delivery model and a significant change in the role of the special educator. Co-teaching in inclusive education has been a topic of interest in academic research for more than 10 years and much of the existing research has been limited to exploring programmatic conditions for success or failure in collaboration and co-teaching and developing models of exemplary co-teaching practice. Despite the prevalence of these models and the research evaluating their efficacy, implementation of effective co-teaching in inclusive classrooms, particularly secondary level remains largely elusive. In this dissertation, I use critical theory and critical discourse analysis to theorize my research, as it allows for the examination of aspects of co-teaching that go unnoticed in traditional models and evaluations of co-teaching. In looking at co-teaching through this critical lens, I hope to begin a conversation about the importance of considering discursive aspects of teacher practice as a way to complement current models of practicing and evaluating co-teaching practice. In conducting a study of this nature, I sought to explore the discursive aspects of co-teaching that were immanent in the co-teachers' language and actions. Foucault's critical theories on discourse, power, dominance, and construction of the subject formed the theoretical basis for this study. Derived significantly from Foucault's conceptual work, Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis provided a complementary methodology to structure the majority of the analysis. Specifically, in the first phase of this study I studied their interactions at the local level of the classroom, the institutional level of the school district, and the societal level of governmental policy and legislation. The next phase of analysis extended on the first by exploring the patterns of dominance in the power relations between the two teachers. Finally, this study examined seven critical theoretical concepts that were prominent in the data-discourse, the institution, identity, inequality, ideology, agency, and historicity. Taken together, the three phases of analysis in this dissertation represent an in-depth examination of the co-teachers' professional relationship from a critical discursive perspective unlike any other study of co-teaching currently published. The participants in this qualitative case study included a New York State certified special education teacher and a New York State certified secondary math teacher who were assigned as co-teachers for a class of students with and without special education needs. Data for this study came from field notes and a series of videotaped interviews and observations involving the co-teachers, which were subsequently transcribed and coded for analysis. Extensive qualitative coding was used to locate patterns and themes in the data. The three phases of critical analysis presented in this study revealed that what superficially appeared to be a successful inclusive co-teaching relationship was in fact a marginalizing and exclusive arrangement for the teachers and students alike. However, this marginalization was not a conscious attempt to exclude Val or the students with IEPs from the educational benefits of Keith's general education math class. Rather, Val and Keith both resorted to traditional special education practices of segregation in an attempt to ensure their own survival as well as that of the students with IEPs in an educational environment that prioritized uniformity, high-stakes testing, and traditional conceptions of normalcy. [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: Critical Theory, Inclusion, Disabilities, Discourse Analysis
(2009). An Assessment of the Impact of a Science Outreach Program, Science In Motion, on Student Achievement, Teacher Efficacy, and Teacher Perception, ProQuest LLC. The purpose of the study was to analyze the science outreach program, Science In Motion (SIM), located in Mobile, Alabama. This research investigated what impact the SIM program has on student cognitive functioning and teacher efficacy and also investigated teacher perceptions and attitudes regarding the program. To investigate student cognitive functioning, data were collected from the Mobile County Public School System based upon student performance on Criterion Referenced Tests (CRT's), consisting of the students' average score, percent of students passing the test (students scoring 60 percent or above), and the percent of students who were considered proficient, (students scoring 70 percent or above). The researcher hypothesized that (1) the students of teachers who participate in the SIM program would have statistically significant higher scores on their science CRT's than students of the same teacher prior to the teacher's participation in the SIM program, (2) students of science teachers who participate in the SIM program would have statistically significant higher scores on their science CRT's than students of science teachers who do not participate in the SIM program, and (3) teachers who participate in the SIM program would have a higher efficacy, as measured on the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale developed by Tschnnen-Moran & Hoy (2001), than science teachers who do not participate in the SIM program. Statistical significant differences at the p less than 0.05 level were found for all research hypotheses except for hypothesis 3. No statistical significant differences were found between the efficacy of teachers who participate in the SIM program and those who do not participate. The researcher also investigated whether or not being involved in the SIM program affected the participating teachers' perspectives towards teaching science, funding of the science laboratory, and high stakes science testing and accountability. A phenomenological qualitative study was performed. The analysis consisted of coding the data and describing the associated themes. The themes were: SIM laboratory exposure Increases student success; SIM reduces teacher stress; SIM provides high quality laboratories for the science classroom; SIM needs to develop and provide more labs for advanced science programs; and, SIM increases teacher effectiveness. [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: Teacher Effectiveness, Science Programs, Outreach Programs, Criterion Referenced Tests
(2006). Gender, Stereotype Threat, and Anxiety: Psychophysiological and Cognitive Evidence, Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology. Introduction: Claude Steele's stereotype threat hypothesis proposed that negative group stereotypes increase individual anxiety levels, hurting performance. However, the role of anxiety in stereotype threat has not been fully explored. This study examined the hypothesis that experimental manipulation of stereotype threat would influence real-time measures of physiological arousal and cognitive efficiency in girls and boys taking mathematics tests. Method: Participants were students at a large public university in the USA. Girls and boys were randomly assigned to either high or low stereotype threat conditions, and following an adaptation period, were presented a challenging mathematics task while physiological measures were recorded. Cognitive processing time was recorded for each test item. Results: Results showed significant physiological reactance (skin conductance, skin temperature, blood pressure) as a function of a stereotype threat manipulation. Results also showed significant differences in cognitive efficiency as a function of stereotype threat. Conclusion: These findings are consistent with the argument that stereotype threat manipulations either increase or decrease situationally-specific anxiety. These findings hold significant implications for high-stakes academic testing and other situations. [More] Descriptors: Test Items, Stereotypes, Females, Mathematics Tests