This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Kenneth E. Vogler, Fran Marchette, Margaret Goertz, Monty Neill, Dolores Y. Straker, Saba Rizavi, Cheyenne. Wyoming Community Coll. Commission, Leslie S. Kaplan, Harvard Education Press, and Read M. Diket.
(2003). High Stakes Testing in Texas: Does the TAAS Tell the Whole Story?. This study was conducted to determine whether norm-referenced test data and Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) data from 1995 and 1999 showed similar gains in reading and mathematics achievement. TAAS data were collected from all students in Texas who were in the accountability subset of scores used for rating schools, approximately 200,000 students per grade level. Scores from the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT-7) were available for approximately 12,500 students for each grade level and each subject area. Effect size comparisons show that TAAS gains were much larger than gains on the MAT-7. The TAAS tests were never designed to measure general academic achievement, but rather whether or not students can perform satisfactorily on a series of objectives measuring basic reading and mathematics skills selected by the Texas Education Agency. Interpretation of TAAS results as a measure of general academic achievement goes well beyond the intended purpose and the psychometric design of the test. (Contains 6 tables, 2 figures, and 11 references.) Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Achievement Gains, Achievement Tests, High Stakes Tests
(2002). Tolerable Variation in Item Parameter Estimates. The purpose of this study was to investigate and to quantify the tolerable error in item parameter estimates for different sets of items used in computer-based testing. The study examined items that were administered repeatedly to different examinee samples over time, examining items that were administered linearly in a fixed order each time they were used and items that appeared in different adaptive item testing pools each time they were used. In the first study, two sets of items from a high-stakes test, one set from the verbal test and one set from the quantitative test, were chosen, with sample sizes varying from 627 to 2,305 for the quantitative measure and 2,284 for the verbal measure. The second part of the study used items from another high stakes admissions test using 30 items with sample sizes larger than 500. Linearly administered items in a high-stakes testing program exhibited remarkably small variation in parameter estimates over repeated calibrations. Results also indicated that context effects played a more significant role in adaptive item parameters when comparisons were made to the parameters that were obtained from paper-and-pencil testing. This suggests that, whenever feasible, the parameter estimates obtained from paper-and-pencil administrations be replaced with computer-based testing calibrated parameters. Two appendixes contain the tables and figures that show sample sizes and parameter estimates. (Contains 4 tables, 18 figures, and 25 references.) [More] Descriptors: Adaptive Testing, Estimation (Mathematics), High Stakes Tests, Test Items
(2003). Spotlight on High-Stakes Testing. No. 1 in the Harvard Education Letter Spotlight Series. This inaugural volume of our Spotlight Series features recent "Harvard Education Letter" articles on testing and new reports never before published on this important topic. Contributors address such issues as how educators can manage the "avalanche" of tests; whether the benefits of high-stakes tests justify the risks to students; what "real accountability" means for educators; and how teaching and learning can suffer when schools focus too heavily on test preparation. The Spotlight Series combines classic "Harvard Education Letter" articles with all-new reports on the latest education research and practice that you won't find anywhere else. [From the Editors of the Harvard Education Letter.] [More] Descriptors: Testing, Student Evaluation, Evaluation Methods, High Stakes Tests
(2003). Where Does Social Studies Fit in a High-Stakes Testing Environment?, Social Studies. A request for increasing instructional time on subjects that have a mandated passing-score requirement and decreasing instructional time on subjects like social studies that are either not tested or do not require a passing score for high school graduation is not intended to improve the overall quality or cohesiveness of an educational program. Instead, it is a measure designed to protect students against failing the high-stakes test and suffering the state-mandated consequence. In this article, the author first discusses the effect of test-based and standards-based reforms on curriculum and instruction. Next, he explains why his team deemed it necessary to move from a mostly discipline-based curriculum to a completely integrated curriculum, using social studies as the focal point. Finally, he describes the experience of working with students to develop this curriculum, the pleasure of teaching it, and the assessment of work done within it. [More] Descriptors: Social Studies, Integrated Curriculum, High Stakes Tests, Curriculum Development
(2008). Affirming Students' Right to Their Own Language: Bridging Language Policies and Pedagogical Practices, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. How can teachers make sound pedagogical decisions and advocate for educational policies that best serve the needs of students in today's diverse classrooms? What is the pedagogical value of providing culturally and linguistically diverse students greater access to their own language and cultural orientations? This landmark volume responds to the call to attend to the unfinished pedagogical business of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Conference on College Composition and Communication 1974 Students' Right to Their Own Language resolution. Chronicling the interplay between legislated/litigated education policies and language and literacy teaching in diverse classrooms, it presents exemplary research-based practices that maximize students' learning by utilizing their home-based cultural, language, and literacy practices to help them meet school expectations. Pre-service teachers, practicing teachers, and teacher educators need both resources and knowledge, including global perspectives, about language variation in PreK-12 classrooms and hands-on strategies that enable teachers to promote students' use of their own language in the classroom while also addressing mandated content and performance standards. This book meets that need. This book contains four parts. Part I, Setting the Context, includes: (1) Cross-Currents in Language Policies and Pedagogical Practices (Jerrie Cobb Scott, Dolores Y. Straker, and Laurie Katz); and (2) Perspectives on Language Policies and Pedagogical Practices, includes: Interview 1: Issues in Global and Local Language Policies (Joel Spring); Interview 2: An Insider's View of African American Language Policies and Pedagogies (Geneva Smitherman); Interview 3: The Law of Language in the United States (Cristina M. Rodriguez); and Interview 4: What Teachers Need to Know to Educate English Language Learners (Mary Carol Combs). Part II, Educational Policies, Attitudes, and Unfulfilled Promises, contains: (3) The Hidden Linguistic Legacies of Brown v. Board and No Child Left Behind (John Baugh and Aaron Welborn); (4) Portraits Counterportraits, and the Lives of Children: Language, Culture, and Possibilities (Rick Meyer); (5) Restore My Language and Treat Me Justly: Indigenous Students' Rights to Their Tribal Languages (Dorothy Aguilera and Margaret D. LeCompte); (6) Power, Politics, and Pedagogies: Re-Imagining Students' Right to Their Own Language Through Democratic Engagement (Valeri Kinloch); (7) Exploring Attitudes Toward Language Differences: Implications for Teacher Education Programs (Laurie Katz, Jerrie Cobb Scott, and Xenia Hadjioannou); (8) Positionality: Using Self-Discovery to Enhance Pre-Service Teachers' Understanding of Language Differences (Nancy Rankie Shelton); and (9) Beyond the Silence: Instructional Approaches and Students' Attitudes (David E. Kirkland and Austin Jackson). Part III, Toward a Pedagogy of Success in Classrooms, contains: (10) "We Have Our Own Language as Well as the Languages We Bring": Constructing Opportunities for Learning Through a Language of the Classroom (Beth V. Yeager and Judith L. Green); (11) "Taylor Cat is Black": Code-Switch to Add Standard English to Students' Linguistic Repertoires (Rebecca S. Wheeler); (12) There's No "1" Way to Tell a Story (Laurie Katz and Tempii Champion); (13) Culturally Responsive Read-Alouds in First Grade: Drawing Upon Children's Languages and Cultures to Facilitate Literary and Social Understandings (Jeane Copenhaver-Johnson, Joy Bowman, and Angela Johnson Rietschlin); (14) Developing Culturally Responsive Teacher Practitioners Through Multicultural Literature (Tamara L. Jetton, Emma Savage-Davis, and Marianne Baker); (15) Educating the Whole Child: English Language Learners in a Middle School (Mari Haneda); (16) New Chinese Immigrant Students' Literacy Development: From Heritage Language to Bilingualism (Danling Fu); and (17) High Stakes Testing and the Social Languages of Literature and Literate Achievement in Urban Classrooms (Dorothea Anagnostopoulos). Part IV, Global Perspectives on Language Diversity and Learning, contains: (18) Possibilities for Non-Standard Dialects in American Classrooms: Lessons from a Greek Cypriot Class (Xenia Hadjioannou); (19) The Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and Other Community School Practices in Brazil (Ana Christina Dasilva Iddings); (20) The Social Construction of Literacy in a Mexican Community: Coming Soon to Your School? (Patrick H. Smith, Luz A. Murillo, and Robert T. Jimenez); (21) Multilingualism in Classrooms: The Paritetic School System of the Ladin Valleys in South Tyrol (Italy) (Gerda Videsott); (22) Educational Policies and Practices in Post-Apartheid South Africa: The Case for Indigenous African Languages (Nkonko M. Kamwangamalu); (23) Meaningful Early Literacy Learning Experiences: Lessons from South Africa (Carole Bloch); and (24) India's Multilingualism: Paradigm and Paradox (Zarina Manawwar Hock). "3/5 of a Language?", a foreword by David Bloome, and "Reflections on Language Policies and Pedagogical Practices", an afterword by Jacqueline Jones Royster, Jerrie Cobb Scott, and Dolores Y. Straker, are included. An author index and a subject index are also included. [More] Descriptors: Multilingualism, Teaching Methods, Language Planning, Language of Instruction
(2003). An Integrated Curriculum Using State Standards in a High-Stakes Testing Environment, Middle School Journal. Focuses on the impact of both test-based and standards-based reforms on middle level curriculum and instruction. Describes one team's move from a discipline-based curriculum to an integrated curriculum using state standards. Details the experiences of working with students to develop this curriculum and the pleasure of teaching it. Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Academic Standards, Curriculum Development, High Stakes Tests
(2003). Accountability and Access to Opportunity: Mutually Exclusive Tenets under a High-Stakes Testing Mandate, Preventing School Failure. This article examines the undesirable social and vocational ramifications associated with the use of a single high-stakes test to assess the academic proficiencies of students with disabilities and the present discriminatory nature of the required performance on one standardized exam. Alternative assessments are discussed. (Contains references.) Descriptors: Accountability, Alternative Assessment, Disabilities, Disability Discrimination
(2003). The Effects of High-Stakes Testing on Student Motivation and Learning, Educational Leadership. Report on research from 18 states that concludes that high-stakes tests do not lead to higher student achievement. In addition, such tests can decrease student motivation to learn and lead to higher student retention and dropout rates. (Contains 2 figures and 21 references.) Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Academic Aspiration, Academic Failure, Achievement Tests
(2002). Wyoming Community Colleges Partnership Report, July 1, 2001-June 30, 2002. This document offers individual institution reports for partnership programs in Wyoming's seven community colleges. The colleges are: (1) Casper College; (2) Central Wyoming College; (3) Eastern Wyoming College; (4) Laramie County Community College; (5) Northwest College; (6) Sheridan College; and (7) Western Wyoming Community College. Wyoming community colleges establish and maintain numerous partnerships and agreements in recognition of the need for collaboration, diversity, and dedication. The partnerships differ from college to college, just as the communities in Wyoming differ from one another. Laramie County Community College, for example, offers brief descriptions of the following partnership programs: (1) Concurrent Enrollment; (2) Education Program Practicums, which provide classroom experience for education majors; (3) Government Internship Program, which collaborates with the State of Wyoming Legislative Services Office to place student interns with legislators; (4) Dental Hygiene Program; (5) Nursing Program; and (6) Collaborations with various universities and colleges regarding articulation agreements. Casper College offers brief descriptions of programs which include the following: (1) ACT Center, which provides workforce development and advanced skills courses, as well as high stakes testing; and (2) North Casper Elementary School, which offers Adult Basic Education/GED courses partially funded by Casper College. [More] Descriptors: Academic Education, Adult Literacy, Community Colleges, Cooperative Planning
(2003). The Arts Contribution to Adolescent Learning, Kappa Delta Pi Record. The importance of arts education has long been recognized. Years ago, John Dewey (1934, vii) argued that, in arts education, "learning is controlled by two great principles: one that participation is something inherently worth while, or undertaken on its own account; the other is perception of the relation of means to consequences… A third consideration [focuses on] skill and technique." Today, the arts are taught in schools as disciplines providing unique cores of understandings, and fostered as curricular enhancements for learning through other school subjects. The skills and techniques that Dewey considered integral to the arts offer to engaged learners alternative languages and innovative strategies. The arts are among core academic subjects under the No Child Left Behind initiative, which provides assistance for arts education as an integral part of elementary and secondary school curricula. The legislation also includes provisions for increasing student competency in the arts. Appropriately, the arts under this initiative, are expected to contribute to student learning in general–through artistic experience and specific content taught by field specialists in distinct disciplines, and also as contributory artistic strategies posed by teachers in other core subject areas. Though the "No Child" legislation's emphasis on high-stakes testing in reading and math could work counter to arts education in schools, it can work positively if teachers in other subject areas recognize the value of artistic understandings and seek to incorporate the arts into classroom learning plans. Within the design of education, the arts communicate ideas, captivate the imagination, contextualize information, provide open frames for viewing the world, and widen perspectives. [More] [More] Descriptors: Federal Legislation, Art Education, Adolescents, Secondary School Students
(2003). High Stakes, High Risk: The Dangerous Consequences of High-stakes Testing, American School Board Journal. This article argues that standardized tests mandated by No Child Left Behind Act will not produce improved learning opportunities and outcomes. It offers three recommendations for changing educational practices and the law: Districts and states must emphasize assessment for learning; districts should implement new forms of accountability; people must organize. Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Academic Standards, Accountability, Educational Assessment
(2003). Best Practices, Best Thinking, and Emerging Issues in School Leadership. This collection of writings presents leading research and key considerations to assist educational leaders in making decisions about new programs and new directions for their schools. Twenty-six chapters make up the book: (1) "Changing Demographics: A Call for Leadership" (Bud Hodgkinson); (2) "Media and Political Misrepresentation of Public Education" (Gerald W. Bracey); (3) "Implementing Change at the Building Level" (Michael Fullan); (4) "Challenges to Leading and Sustaining School Change" (William Patterson); (5) "The New Effective Schools" (Gordon Cawelti); (6) "Politics and Education: A Conundrum for School Leadership" (Gerald N. Tirozzi); (7) "Curriculum and Instruction: Critical and Emerging Issues for Educational Leadership" (Robert J. Marzano); (8) "Enhancing Teaching" (Linda Darling-Hammond); (9) "Teacher Quality" (Thomas S. Mawhinney and Laura L. Sagan); (10) "Using Technology to Change School Learning Culture" (Alan November); (11) "Integrating Technology into Instructional Design" (Frank M. Betts); (12) "Professional Development in Instructional Technology" (Richard W. Shelly); (13) "What Instructional Leaders Need to Know About Special Education" (Chriss Walther-Thomas and Michael F. DiPaola); (14) "Making Inclusion Work" (Patricia Jordan Rea); (15) "Talent Development with English Language Learners" (Nora G. Friedman); (16) "Connecting Authentic Knowledge and Academic Accountability" (Kelly Clark/Keefe, Patricia Morgan, and Susan Brody Hasazi); (17) "Severely and Profoundly Disabled Students in the School Community" (Phyllis Milne); (18) "Working with Special Education Advocates" (Marguerite A. Pittman); (19) "Technology and Gifted Learners" (Sandra L. Berger); (20) "High-Stakes Testing" (Ronald S. Brandt); (21) "Are Standards the Answer?" (Linda Nathan); (22) "Critical Issues in School Law" (Jennifer A. Sughrue and M. David Alexander); (23) "Emerging Issues in Special Education Law" (Kathleen S. Mehfoud); (24) "Sustaining the Investment: Technology or Teachers?" (Kenneth A. Engebretson); (25) "Changes in Educational Practice" (Gene R. Carter); and (26) "Changes in the Educational Landscape" (Paul D. Houston). The book concludes with an epilogue by Leslie S. Kaplan and William A. Owings. Descriptors: Curriculum Development, Educational Change, Educational Methods, Educational Technology
(2002). Testing and Standards: A Brief Encyclopedia. This reference guide contains clear and concise explanations of concepts related to educational testing and standards. The book may be read straight through as a primer on educational assessment or may be used as a reference for particular topics. The sections are: (1) Accountability (Consumers, Taxpayers, and Citizens); (2) Authenticity in Assessment; (3) Carrot and Stick (Standards, Testing, and Motivation); (4) Criterion- and Norm-Referenced Tests; (5) Curriculum Alignment; (6) Emotional Aspects of Testing; (7) Equity; (8) Essential Readings; (9) Ethics; (10) Gain Scores and Value Added; (11) Grade Level; (12) Group versus Individual Assessment; (13) High Stakes; (14) How Much Do Tests Cost?; (15) Internet Resources; (16) Knowing Something versus Answering Test Questions; (17) Lake Wobegon Effect; (18) The National Assessment of Educational Progress; (19) Passing (Cutoff) Scores; (20) Percentiles and Stanines; (21) Politics of Testing; (22) Professional Organizations; (23) Reading Comprehension Assessment; (24) Reliability; (25) SAT Tests; (26) Spelling Assessment as an Exemplar of Broader Issues; (27) Standard Deviation; (28) Standardized; (29) Standards; (30) Test Security; (31) Test Specifications; (32) Testing Teachers; (33) Validity; (34) What Should an Educated Person Know?; and (35) Where Do We Go from Here? An appendix contains the statement of the American Educational Research Association on high stakes testing. (Contains 83 references.) Descriptors: Academic Standards, Accountability, Achievement Tests, Educational Testing
(2003). Impacts of Scheduling Configurations on Mississippi Biology Subject Area Testing. A mixed modal study was conducted that compared the results of Mississippi Biology subject area mean scores of students that used 4X4 block, A/B block, and traditional year-long schedules in large, medium, and small-sized schools. This research also explored data about whether schedule configurations allow sufficient time for students to construct knowledge. Interviews were conducted with secondary administrators and teachers concerning the type of schedule configuration used and the influence that the schedule has on student academic performance on the Biology subject area test. The study used a quasi-comparative method for the quantitative portion of the study and a constant comparative method for the qualitative portion to explore the relationship of schedule configuration on student academic achievement on the Biology subject area test. The selected student scores indicated that the Mississippi Biology Subject Area test when used as a measure of student performance revealed no significant different on student achievement for the three school schedule configurations. Adjustment for initial differences of gender, minority status, and school size on each schedule configuration were made. Results suggest that schools may use various schedule configurations and still expect student performance on the Biology subject area test to be unaffected. However, many areas of concern were identified in the interviews that might have an impact on school learning environments. These relate to classroom management, the active involvement of students in learning, the adequacy of teacher education programs, and the stress of testing on everyone involved in high stakes testing. (Contains 31 references.) Descriptors: Biology, High School Students, High Schools, School Schedules
(2003). Mapping the Landscape of High-Stakes Testing and Accountability Programs, Theory into Practice. Describes the types of state assessment and accountability policies in place when Congress enacted the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, noting how districts in eight states responded to these policies and identifying four challenges facing states and districts as they implement the NCLB (e.g., the need to expand the size and scope of state assessment programs and the system's capacity to support change in practice). Descriptors: Access to Education, Accountability, Educational Legislation, Educational Policy