This thesis investigates the practice of high-stakes standardized testing in Nigeria. Examining its colonial histories, its philosophical incongruities with African indigenous education, and its neocolonial foundations, it argues that high-stakes testing in Nigeria facilitates the erosion of a critical African worldview. It demonstrates that through high-stakes testing’s reproduction of social and regional inequalities, the unethicality of its systems and practices as well as its exemplification of Freire’s concept of normative and non liberatory education as the “practice of domination”; high-stakes standardized testing in Nigeria seamlessly fits into the neo-colonial and neoliberal logic of education as a site of psychological colonization and the material exploitation of the people by the ruling elite.

This thesis investigates the practice of high-stakes standardized testing in Nigeria. Examining its colonial histories, its philosophical incongruities with African indigenous education, and its neocolonial foundations, it argues that high-stakes testing in Nigeria facilitates the erosion of a critical African worldview. It demonstrates that through high-stakes testing’s reproduction of social and regional inequalities, the unethicality of its systems and practices as well as its exemplification of Freire’s concept of normative and non liberatory education as the “practice of domination”; high-stakes standardized testing in Nigeria seamlessly fits into the neo-colonial and neoliberal logic of education as a site of psychological colonization and the material exploitation of the people by the ruling elite.

This research explores literacy as a medium for deepening student's awareness of their world and the impact of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). Standardized testing is analyzed as a fundamental paradigm to our school culture. Ethnography is explored as a method for describing one group of students and their teacher as they prepare for the OSSLT. The findings conclude that the test occupies time, dominates definitions of literacy and undermines student and teacher agency. The conclusion considers reasons for why we seem to accept a testing paradigm that may be a direct affront to democratic practice in schools.

abstract: The most recent reauthorizations of No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act served to usher in an age of results and accountability within American education. States were charged with developing more rigorous systems to specifically address areas such as critical academic skill proficiency, empirically validated instruction and intervention, and overall student performance as measured on annual statewide achievement tests. Educational practice has shown that foundational math ability can be easily assessed through student performance on Curriculum-Based Measurements of Math Computational Fluency (CBM-M). Research on the application of CBM-M's predictive validity across specific academic math abilities as measured by state standardized tests is currently limited. In addition, little research is available on the differential effects of ethnic subgroups and gender in this area. This study investigated the effectiveness of using CBM-M measures to predict achievement on high stakes tests, as well as whether or not there are significant differential effects of ethnic subgroups and gender. Study participants included 358 students across six elementary schools in a large suburban school district in Arizona that utilizes the Response to Intervention (RTI) model. Participants' CBM-M scores from the first through third grade years and their third grade standardized achievement test scores were collected. Pearson product-moment and Spearman correlations were used to determine how well CBM-M scores and specific math skills are related. The predictive validity of CBM-M scores from the third-grade school year was also assessed to determine whether the fall, winter, or spring screening was most related to third-grade high-stakes test scores. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Psychology 2014

This research explores literacy as a medium for deepening student's awareness of their world and the impact of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). Standardized testing is analyzed as a fundamental paradigm to our school culture. Ethnography is explored as a method for describing one group of students and their teacher as they prepare for the OSSLT. The findings conclude that the test occupies time, dominates definitions of literacy and undermines student and teacher agency. The conclusion considers reasons for why we seem to accept a testing paradigm that may be a direct affront to democratic practice in schools.

The purpose of this study was to determine the predictive value of selected input variables on the accountability rating of Texas high schools with student populations greater than or equal to 900. Specifically, this study analyzed the effect of student, staff and fiscal input variables in determining the odds of a high school in this study receiving a Low Performing, an Academically Acceptable, or a Recognized rating in the Texas public education accountability system - a system which is based in student performance on state standardized testing. Identifying a set of variables that helps predict campus accountability ratings provides campus administrators and teachers with information to improve student performance on standardized testing. Using statistical methods to determine the odds of campus ratings based on selected input variables, this study revealed that successful student remediation in mathematics is the most consistent, positive indicator of campus accountability rating out of 60 student, staff and fiscal inputs analyzed. However, the most telling aspect of this study is that inputs such as, teacher experience, teacher campus tenure, teacher degree level, student SAT performance, Advanced Placement testing performance and the percentage of low socioeconomic students were not statistically significant. The wider implications of these findings warrant further research into why these variables seem to have no affect on campus accountability rating.

No description available.

A major consideration in this study has been given to the establishment of the criteria by which the soundness of a testing program could be evaluated as its role in the secondary school. This problem was limited to the planning and administering of a progressive and comprehensive long-range testing program designed to meet the needs and problems common to most school administrators within the economic limits of a small high school. It was not the purpose of this study to anticipate the problems peculiar to particular teachers, high schools, or localities. However, the testing program if properly directed will result in the formation of subsidiary testing programs undertaken by particular teachers or groups of teachers for the purpose of throwing light on the specific problems raised by a large general testing program.

This dissertation is comprised of three stand-alone articles, two of them co-authored, and one solo. The solo article, "Increases in Victim Mortality Rates in the Aftermath of Mandatory Arrest Laws: A Study in Unintended Effects" is in Part I. The first co-authored article "Teachers' Strikes and Standardized Test Scores: Impact on Performance & Participation", is in Part II. The last chapter, Part III, is already published in the journal "Information Economics and Policy" (ISSN: 0167-6245), accessible under the title "The Value of Online Scarcity Signals". / Graduate / 2022-08-24

The purpose of this study was to determine if a significant difference exists in the TNReady scores of Tennessee students who attend a kindergarten through eighth grade school (K-8) as compared to students who attend a middle school (6-8 grades). The results of the 2018-2019 TNReady, the state adopted standardized achievement test for Tennessee, were used as the data for the study. The relationship between grade configuration and the percent of students who scored on track or mastered in English language arts and math was analyzed using an independent samples t-test. Further disaggregating by specific grade levels, grade configuration and TNReady achievement data was analyzed to note the impact in English language arts and math in each grade. When a significant difference was discovered, the data was further analyzed with an analysis of variance to determine if a significant difference existed in gender and grade configuration.