Since the late 1800s, testing has been a part of education. Supporters claim testing encourages objectivity in assessments of learning. Critics argue testing creates bias, restricted teaching methodology, and restricted curriculum. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires school accountability that has increased the push for standardized testing. High school students present a unique challenge for administrators on the low-risk California Standards Tests (CSTs). The CSTs in mathematics are complex in reference to student composition, range of courses tested, and sequence of previous math courses taken by the student. This complex nature of the CSTs in mathematics makes test preparation decisions difficult for the site administrator. Schools have developed test preparation practices in the hopes of improving student performance on these standardized tests. Some of these practices require a great deal of time, energy, and money to create and execute. The administrator must use these precious resources judiciously. Therefore, there is a need for further investigation of the criteria used by site administrators for selection of test preparation practices for CSTs in mathematics. Using qualitative analysis, this study researched the criteria used by the high school site administrators to govern their decision of which test preparation practices for CSTs in mathematics to establish at their school. This study included 18 administrators at 15 schools in the southern San Joaquin Valley in California that met their Academic Performance Index growth targets for 2006.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pacific.edu/oai:scholarlycommons.pacific.edu:uop_etds-3372 |
| Date | 01 January 2008 |
| Creators | Frost, Carla J. |
| Publisher | Scholarly Commons |
| Source Sets | University of the Pacific |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations |
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