The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of the high-stakes standardized test movement in Texas secondary schools. The method to accomplish this task was to compare the perceptions between Texas secondary school administrators and supporters, critics, and researchers of high-stakes testing. Out of 400 potential respondents randomly selected from 2005-2006 membership list of Texas Association of Secondary School Principals, 178 administrators participated in an electronic survey to rate the extent to which 31 statements derived from supporters, critics, and the unintended consequences of high-stakes testing as reported by researchers in current literature. Means, standard deviations, and frequencies were used to make assumptions about perceptions of secondary administrators. Independent t-tests were conducted to test for possible perception differences between groups identified in the study. Independent groups examined in this study included: Gender (Male and Female), Years of Administrative Experience (1-4 years vs. 15 or More Years), Campus Classification (Large vs. Small), and Current Campus Rating (Exemplary and Recognized vs. Academically Acceptable). Using an alpha level of .05 to establish significance, t-tests suggest that significant differences exist between large and small school administrators on statements 5 and 7. Further, significant differences exist between male and female administrators on statements 4 and 5. The findings of this study seem to suggest that Texas secondary principals strongly support the following statements: 1. No high-stakes decision such as grade retention or graduation should be based on the results of a single test. 2. Educators are making use of student performance data generated by highstakes tests to help them refine programs, channel funding, and identify roots of success. 3. High-stakes tests have helped focus public attention on schools with lowachieving students. 4. The public display of high-stakes test scores motivates administrators. 5. High-stakes testing has resulted in a loss of local control of curricula. 6. The implementation of high-stakes testing has been a catalyst for increased attention to students with special needs. 7. Doing poorly on high-stakes tests does not lead to increased student effort to learn.

Course grades, which often include non-achievement factors such as effort and behavior and are subject to individual teacher grading philosophies, suffer from issues of unreliability. Yet, course grades continue to be utilized as a primary tool for reporting academic achievement to students and parents and are used by most colleges and universities as an admissions measure. High-stakes assessment results are also used by schools to convey student achievement, and several states now require students to pass an exam to receive a diploma. What is less clear, however, is the relation between these two measures, GPA and high-stakes assessment results. One purpose of this study was to examine the predictive relation of mathematics GPA to student performance on high-stakes assessments. Multiple regression models were used to analyze the predictive relation between mathematics GPA and performance on the ACT and the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (OAKS), two high-stakes assessments. In addition, the regression analyses were used to examine the influence of other student-level variables such as talented and gifted status and math courses taken prior to testing on the relation between mathematics GPA and performance on the two high-stakes assessments. In all, 299 high school students from a single grade-level enrolled in one Oregon suburban school district participated in the study. Results indicate that GPA is a significant variable in a high-stakes assessment outcome. Additionally, results of the multiple regression reveal significant student-level effects on assessment outcomes that reduce explained common variance in both the ACT and OAKS models. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Students at an eastern United States high school have experienced low pass rates on the High School Assessment Program for English Language Arts (HSAP ELA) for the past 5 consecutive years. The HSAP ELA test is 1 of 2 exams that students must pass to receive a high school diploma. Students who failed the HSAP ELA were provided remedial content and test preparation courses and enrichment tutorials to pass the state's ELA high-stakes test. The purpose of this qualitative bounded case study was to explore the teaching practices used to improve student performance on the HSAP ELA test. The conceptual framework for this study was the ELA competency model, a framework that combines instructional-practice principles and assessment. A purposeful sampling of 8 high school ELA teachers (3 regular education teachers, 4 remedial teachers, and 1 teacher who taught both groups) who taught ELA content and test preparation courses volunteered to participate in semi-structured interviews and provided sample lesson plans for document review. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis with open coding to identify patterns and themes. Teachers used graphic organizers, vocabulary study, questioning, relevant texts, and writing to prepare students for success on the HSAP ELA test. It is recommended that the current ELA curriculum and professional learning opportunities include teaching practices which could increase student content knowledge and performance on the HSAP ELA. These endeavors may contribute to positive social change by providing ELA teachers with specific teaching practices to prepare students to pass the HSAP ELA test, thus increasing the number of students receiving high school diplomas and increasing employment opportunities after high school.

In Australia, traditionally a wide range of measures have been used to identify academically successful schools. The mix of these measures has varied from state to state. But recently, added to this mix, and perhaps becoming the most influential factor, has been the examination results of senior students. These have become far more available to the prospective parents and governing bodies. They are used to gauge the ranking of the school, and to whether parents can expect their children to gain entry into the more prestigious tertiary programs available. But these scores are also being used to rank staff, and in turn, the ‘quality’ of staff becomes yet another factor in identifying an academically successful school. In other words, the notion of high stakes testing is gaining wide spread use across all forms of schooling in Australia, including State, Independent and Catholic schools. This thesis is about teachers in academically successful Christian Brothers’ schools. It is an interpretive study that seeks to understand how these teachers respond to this form of assessment: high stakes testing. Their responses include emotional responses, how they change their teaching style and how they feel about teaching in Christian Brothers’ schools striving for academic success. In this research I interviewed teachers and administrators at three academically successful Christian Brothers’ schools in three different states in Australia. I developed three cases from these interviews and document searches, one drawn from each school, that indicate the range of issues that emerged, for them, as teachers in academically successful Christian Brothers’ schools. The specific use of high stakes testing was found to be very different in each of the schools. One school used high stakes testing as an accountability measure for staff, another used it as an accountability measure for students, and the third had no history of using high stakes testing. The study concludes that academic excellence can be achieved in Christian Brothers’ schools whilst remaining faithful to the ethos that underpins these schools: the Charism of Edmund Rice. Significant factors in the determination of the successful implementation of high stakes testing in these schools were found to be: the effect of senior management; influence of the media; the influence of culture; and changing culture and the nature of the schools. The thesis concludes with a blueprint for a hypothetical Christian Brothers’ school to follow that may lead to academic success.

The purpose of this study was to examine: (a) the methodological quality of current research on English Language Learners (ELL) in the areas of high-stakes testing and oral language as a component skill of reading performance, (b) the association between oral language and reading performance in third grade Hispanic ELLS, and (c) the impact of instructional program model on ELLs’ oral language development. Two parallel systematic reviews were conducted searching CSA, Ebsco and Wilson electronic databases for empirical studies conducted in the U.S. and published in peer-reviewed journals in English. In study one, ELLs and high-stakes testing, eleven reviewed studies (N=11) met the inclusion/exclusion criteria; while in study two, ELLs and oral language, twenty-three reviewed studies (N=23) met the inclusion/exclusion criteria. Abstracted studies were evaluated using a 10-criteria matrix, and a methodological quality score was assigned.

No description available.

Inquiry into fairness of a test has been recognized as an important research activity to direct efforts to reduce bias and discrimination against certain groups of test takers, create equal opportunities for test takers to demonstrate their knowledge and skills, and promote social justice. Given the importance of fairness in testing, my research examined the fairness of one large-scale high-stakes test in China—the Graduate School Entrance English Exam (GSEEE). To guide this doctoral research, I first drew on four sources of conceptual and empirical work to identify key issues encompassing test fairness. Informed by Willingham’s conceptual framework, I investigated the fairness of the GSEEE in two studies. In Study 1, I examined whether the GSEEE test items functioned differentially and brought potential bias towards test taker groups based on gender and academic background. In Study 2, I investigated perceptions of the fairness of the GSEEE as expressed by program administrators, teachers, and test takers. In conclusion, this research offers empirical information with regard to the fairness of the GSEEE from psychometric and stakeholder perspectives. The research also provides evidence that the conceptualization of test fairness is mediated by contextualized beliefs and traditions. Whether a test is perceived as fair or not is derived from considerations in both the testing process and the broad socio-cultural context. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2014-06-10 10:33:32.484

The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of the landmark educational reform legislation, No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) on four specific areas within the local educational setting: (1) local curriculum decisions (2) teaching decisions as they relate to daily instruction (3) potential narrowing of the curriculum and (4) teacher job satisfaction. All public schools in the United States are now subject to the mandates of NCLB. This legislation marked a profound change in the relationship between the federal government and state and local educational agencies. NCLB represents an expansion of the federal role in education where federal control of education has reached deeper than ever before into the heart of state and local educational operations. As a result, NCLB has direct implications for what takes place educationally in the individual classroom. The local educational setting and the individual classroom is where this study focused its efforts. This study suggests that NCLB has had, and will continue to have, a major impact on curriculum decisions at the local level as well as classroom instructional decisions made either by the teacher or enforced upon the classroom teacher by local administrative or local school district mandates. The study also suggests that this impact will be driven by the requirement that schools achieve a specified rate of progress in the areas of mathematics and reading as measured through the use of standardized tests. Under NCLB a school's performance on state reading and mathematics tests will determine if the school and its district make adequate yearly progress, commonly referred to as AYP. Schools that fail to meet the annual achievement goals are subjected to an escalating series of sanctions. This study sought to determine if curriculum decisions at the district and administrative level have been driven by NCLB and the AYP component. The study sought to determine if curriculum decisions and classroom practices on the part of teachers were influenced by NCLB. Additionally the study sought to determine if NCLB and the AYP component have caused a narrowing of the curriculum and if so, to what extent. Finally, this study sought to determine if NCLB and the AYP component had any impact on teacher job satisfaction as it pertains to classroom instructional decisions and teacher autonomy.

The continuing improvement in standards and the associated direct school accountability has been at the forefront of school policy since the introduction of the Education Reform Act of 1988. Its introduction brought both top down curriculum control and the opening up of primary schools in England to neo-liberal market reforms. To facilitate direct market competition and raise standards, measures of performance were introduced, in the form of annually published national assessments (SATs) and from 1992 inspection by Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education). These measures took on board the status of High Stakes Testing (HST), since their outcomes directly impacted upon the professional lives of all those working within primary schools. Prior to 1988, central government had started to address underachievement, for example, Better Schools (DfES 1985), but now, for the first time, individual schools and their leaders were to be directly responsible for the achievement, or otherwise, of their pupils through the publication of attainment data and regular inspection reports. The notion of performativity (Ball 2003) was introduced into English primary schools, where performance measures and judgements (HST) were used as a means of top-down regulation and policy enforcement. This study investigates current primary school headteachers’ perceptions of their own professional accountability. It further explores the continuing focus on standards and the constant pressures and conflicts heads currently face in terms of maximising pupil attainment outcomes. The fieldwork was carried out within thirty four state funded primary schools across the North of England. A questionnaire was used to survey headteachers’ current perceptions; this data located heads on to a conceptual framework (Figure 5.5). Heads are located into one of four positions regarding their perceptions of the Standards Driven Agenda (SDA) and HST. Heads from each of the positions were then interviewed, which formed the prime data collection tool. The research further examines the inter-relationship between socio-economic context and HST outcomes, addressing the question of the equality of the application of identical floor targets for all primary schools, regardless of circumstance. Schools falling within areas of high and low deprivation were identified, using the income deprivation affecting children index (IDACI); each area’s headteachers’ perceptions were then compared and contrasted, in order to identify any effects of context. Ranson’s (2003) typology and Ball’s (2003) conceptualisation of accountabilities were developed in order to explore the identified trend of heads resisting what they view as a ‘data dictatorship’, and seeking to reinstate a previous age of professionalism. A clear plea for a change was evident with a call for a shift away from the current focus on standards in English and maths to the adoption of a more balanced and creative curriculum, where both the academic and social needs of the children are being met. The desire to return to Grace’s (1995) notion of the cult of the ‘headmaster tradition’, with the reinstatement of higher levels of professional autonomy and trust, was evident within many of the participating heads, along with a strong sense of moral guardian and leadership. All heads are aware of the need to be accountable for the tax payers’ money used to fund their schools, accepting the need for accountability measures. However, both sets of heads acknowledge that when a school’s effectiveness is solely measured by means of HST, it fails to be a level playing field. Factors such as parental support and education, housing and income were all identified as significant contributing factors in pupil attainment, resulting in heads reporting that these factors were not taken into account when the performance of their school was judged. The study contributes to the knowledge of how serving heads balance the needs of their children, parents and staff, whilst ensuring that they continue to improve standards, as defined by successive governmental policy and thus meet the requirements of HST.

In South Africa the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination is the capping external examination taken at the culmination of twelve years of schooling. Levels of success in the examination offer examinees access to a variety of career options. High levels of success in the mathematics examination are a pre-requisite for entry into studies linked to so-called elite careers. However, performance of examinees in the NSC Mathematics examination is not of a requisite standard and only a few examinees achieve results that fall within the high levels of the achievement bands. In order to give mathematics teachers and others insight into performance in the NSC Mathematics examination, various forms of feedback are provided. One purpose in doing so is to provide teachers with an understanding of the examinees' ways of working in order for them to adjust their classroom practice to address mistakes displayed in the work of the examinees. The feedback provided is primarily of a superficial kind with the mere listing of such mistakes. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not it is possible to analyse the production of the responses of examinees in the NSC mathematics examinations more meaningfully.