High-stakes Testing and the Decline of Teaching and Learning
Title | High-stakes Testing and the Decline of Teaching and Learning PDF eBook |
Author | David W. Hursh |
Publisher | Rowman & Littlefield |
Pages | 190 |
Release | 2008 |
Genre | Education |
ISBN | 9780742561496 |
Argues that education in the States and Britain has been radically transformed, through efforts to create curricular standards, and through an emphasis on accountability measured by standardized tests, and efforts to introduce market competition and private services into educational systems.
The Paradoxes of High Stakes Testing
Title | The Paradoxes of High Stakes Testing PDF eBook |
Author | Michael Russell |
Publisher | IAP |
Pages | 264 |
Release | 2009-02-01 |
Genre | Education |
ISBN | 1607529831 |
As a nation, we spend more than $1 billion a year on federally mandated educational tests that 30 million students must take each year. The country spends an additional $1.2 billion on test preparation materials designed to help students pass these tests. While test mandates were put in place with good intentions, increasingly educational leaders and policy makers are questioning these test based reform efforts. Some question whether these programs are doing more harm than good. Others call for the development of more and better tests. Given the vast amount of resources our nation pours into testing, is it time we pay closer attention to these testing programs? Is it time we hold the testing industry and policy makers accountable for the tests they make and use? Is it time we invest resources to develop new ways of testing our students? The Paradoxes of High-Stakes Testing explores these and other questions, as it helps parents, teachers, educational leaders, and policy makers better understand the complexities of educational policies that use tests as a lever for improving the quality of education. The book explores: >> how testing is used to enable teachers and schools to be more effective and improve student learning, >> why testing is so ingrained in the American psyche and why policy makers rely on testing policies to reform our educational system, >> what we can learn from a long history of test-based reform efforts that have occurred over centuries and across continents, >> what effects testing has on teaching and learning in our schools when it is used to solve political, social, or economic problems. Most importantly, the book describes several ways in which testing can be improved to provide more accurate and more useful measures of student learning. Many of these improvements capitalize on technology to provide teachers with more detailed, diagnostic information about student learning and measure skills that some leaders argue are essential for the 21st century work force. Exploring what is within reach is critical because current testing policies are hindering these improvements. Finally, given that testing is and will continue to be an integral part of our educational system, the book concludes that, like other sectors of our society, educational testing must be more closely monitored to ensure that high quality tests are used to measure student achievement and to minimize the negative effects that testing has on students, schools, and our society. Given the opportunity our nation has to rethink and redesign its testing policies, The Paradoxes of High-Stakes Testing presents a clear strategy to maximize the positive effects of educational testing.
The Unintended Consequences of High-stakes Testing
Title | The Unintended Consequences of High-stakes Testing PDF eBook |
Author | M. Gail Jones |
Publisher | Rowman & Littlefield |
Pages | 198 |
Release | 2003 |
Genre | Education |
ISBN | 9780742526273 |
To understand how high-stakes accountability has influenced teaching and learning, this book looks at the consequences that high-stakes tests hold for students, teachers, administrators, and the public, and demonstrates the negative effects of such testing on nontested subjects, minority students, and students with special needs.
Pencils Down
Title | Pencils Down PDF eBook |
Author | Wayne Au |
Publisher | Rethinking Schools |
Pages | 324 |
Release | 2012 |
Genre | Education |
ISBN | 094296151X |
This powerful collection from the groundbreaking Rethinking Schools magazine takes high-stakes standardized tests to task. Despite overwhelming evidence that the tests are invalid ways to measure teaching and learning -- and continuing signs of their unjust effects on students and teachers -- "reformers" and policymakers continue to force high-stakes tests into the public schools. Through articles that provide thoughtful and emotional critiques from the frontlines of education, Pencils Down deconstructs the damage that standardized tests wreak on our education system and the human beings that populate it. Better yet, it offers visionary forms of assessment that are not only more authentic, but also more democratic, fair, and accurate.
Making Sense of Test-Based Accountability in Education
Title | Making Sense of Test-Based Accountability in Education PDF eBook |
Author | Laura S. Hamilton |
Publisher | Rand Corporation |
Pages | 193 |
Release | 2002-07-31 |
Genre | Education |
ISBN | 0833033980 |
Test-based accountability systems that attach high stakes to standardized test results have raised a number of issues on educational assessment and accountability. Do these high-stakes tests measure student achievement accurately? How can policymakers and educators attach the right consequences to the results of these tests? And what kinds of tradeoffs do these testing policies introduce? This book responds to the growing emphasis on high-stakes testing and offers recommendations for more-effective test-based accountability systems.
The Pedagogy of Standardized Testing
Title | The Pedagogy of Standardized Testing PDF eBook |
Author | Arlo Kempf |
Publisher | Springer |
Pages | 250 |
Release | 2016-04-29 |
Genre | Education |
ISBN | 1137486651 |
Based on a large-scale international study of teachers in Los Angeles, Chicago, Ontario, and New York, this book illustrates the ways increased use of high-stakes standardized testing is fundamentally changing education in the US and Canada with a negative overall impact on the way teachers teach and students learn. Standardized testing makes understanding students' strengths and weaknesses more difficult, and class time spent on testing consumes scarce time and attention needed to support the success of all students—further disadvantaging ELLs, students with exceptionalities, low income, and racially minoritized students.
High Stakes
Title | High Stakes PDF eBook |
Author | National Research Council |
Publisher | National Academies Press |
Pages | 351 |
Release | 1999-01-16 |
Genre | Education |
ISBN | 0309062802 |
Everyone is in favor of "high education standards" and "fair testing" of student achievement, but there is little agreement as to what these terms actually mean. High Stakes looks at how testing affects critical decisions for American students. As more and more tests are introduced into the country's schools, it becomes increasingly important to know how those tests are usedâ€"and misusedâ€"in assessing children's performance and achievements. High Stakes focuses on how testing is used in schools to make decisions about tracking and placement, promotion and retention, and awarding or withholding high school diplomas. This book sorts out the controversies that emerge when a test score can open or close gates on a student's educational pathway. The expert panel: Proposes how to judge the appropriateness of a test. Explores how to make tests reliable, valid, and fair. Puts forward strategies and practices to promote proper test use. Recommends how decisionmakers in education shouldâ€"and should notâ€"use test results. The book discusses common misuses of testing, their political and social context, what happens when test issues are taken to court, special student populations, social promotion, and more. High Stakes will be of interest to anyone concerned about the long-term implications for individual students of picking up that Number 2 pencil: policymakers, education administrators, test designers, teachers, and parents.