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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-3146 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Denny, III, Davis McCall |
| Contributors | Hoyle, John R. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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