The Unintended Consequences Of High Stakes Testing

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.

The role played by testing in the nation's public school system has been increasing steadily-and growing more complicated-for more than 20 years. The Committee on Educational Excellence and Testing Equity (CEETE) was formed to monitor the effects of education reform, particularly testing, on students at risk for academic failure because of poverty, lack of proficiency in English, disability, or membership in population subgroups that have been educationally disadvantaged. The committee recognizes the important potential benefits of standards-based reforms and of test results in revealing the impact of reform efforts on these students. The committee also recognizes the valuable role graduation tests can potentially play in making requirements concrete, in increasing the value of a diploma, and in motivating students and educators alike to work to higher standards. At the same time, educational testing is a complicated endeavor, that reality can fall far short of the model, and that testing cannot by itself provide the desired benefits. If testing is improperly used, it can have negative effects, such as encouraging school leaving, that can hit disadvantaged students hardest. The committee was concerned that the recent proliferation of high school exit examinations could have the unintended effect of increasing dropout rates among students whose rates are already far higher than the average, and has taken a close look at what is known about influences on dropout behavior and at the available data on dropouts and school completion.

With the rapid proliferation of distance education and e-learning courses, the need is growing for a comprehensive, professional approach to evaluating their effectiveness. This indispensable book offers a road map to guide evaluation practice in these innovative learning environments. Providing practical, step-by-step guidelines and tools for conducting evaluation studies—including how to deal with stakeholders, develop surveys and interview protocols, collect other scientific evidence, and analyze and blend mixed-methods data—the work also features a template for writing high-quality reports. The "unfolding model" developed by the authors draws on Messick's influential assessment framework and applies it to program evaluation. Two case studies of actual programs (a distance learning course and an e-learning course) demonstrate the unfolding model in action.

Evaluation Strategies for Communicating and Reporting has been thoroughly revised and updated creating 75% new material and 34 new case examples. The Second Edition provides worksheets and instructions for creating a detailed communicating and reporting plan based on audience needs and characteristics. Authors Rosalie T. Torres, Hallie Preskill, and Mary E. Piontek cover advances in technology including Web site communications, Web and videoconferencing, and Internet chat rooms. Also mentioned are several additional topics for consideration, including communicating and reporting for diverse audiences and for multi-site evaluations.

Meet the challenges of high stakes testing in the practice of school psychology School psychologists can be a positive influence on how students, teachers, parents, schools, and communities cope with the challenges and opportunities associated with high stakes testing. Unfortunately, there has been a significant lack of literature to guide school psychologists and related school-based practitioners on this topic. High Stakes Testing: New Challenges and Opportunities for School Psychology is a timely groundbreaking book that provides useful and thought-provoking information to help psychologists meet the challenges of high stakes testing and create new roles for themselves in helping children succeed. This book discusses practical ways to help provide academic support to facilitate student success on high stakes tests, reduce the impact of stress associated with high stakes testing, assess the data from the tests to improve programs, and take a leadership role in the appropriate use of the tests. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001(NCLB) and its accountability provisions has helped create and sustain a climate where student performance on state-created achievement tests often has high stakes implications for students, families, and schools. High Stakes Testing: New Challenges and Opportunities for School Psychology provides important background information about high stakes testing, including the legal, historical, and political context of high stakes testing, pertinent psychometrics, and a review of research on academic and non-academic outcomes as it relates to high stakes testing. Using this information as a foundation, the book then identifies new roles and opportunities for school psychologists with respect to high stakes testing. This book is comprehensively referenced. Topics in High Stakes Testing: New Challenges and Opportunities for School Psychology include: advocating for the appropriate use of state-wide assessments the influence of item response theory (IRT) on the development of high stakes tests whether the accountability system of NCLB is truly improving student’s learning the impact of high stakes tests on classroom instruction and student motivation strategies for helping students succeed on high stakes tests available resources to cope with the stress of high stakes testing and more High Stakes Testing: New Challenges and Opportunities for School Psychology is a thought-provoking, horizon-expanding resource for school psychologists, public school educators, administrators, school counselors, curriculum coordinators, and special education teachers involved in organizing, administering, and preparing students to take high stakes tests.

Drawing on their extensive research, Nichols and Berliner document and categorize the ways that high-stakes testing threatens the purposes and ideals of the American education system. For more than a decade, the debate over high-stakes testing has dominated the field of education. This passionate and provocative book provides a fresh perspective on the issue and powerful ammunition for opponents of high-stakes tests. Their analysis is grounded in the application of Campbell’s Law, which posits that the greater the social consequences associated with a quantitative indicator (such as test scores), the more likely it is that the indicator itself will become corrupted—and the more likely it is that the use of the indicator will corrupt the social processes it was intended to monitor. Nichols and Berliner illustrate both aspects of this “corruption,” showing how the pressures of high-stakes testing erode the validity of test scores and distort the integrity of the education system. Their analysis provides a coherent and comprehensive intellectual framework for the wide-ranging arguments against high-stakes testing, while putting a compelling human face on the data marshalled in support of those arguments.

This book assesses the challenges within the Nigerian educational system and provides a concrete plan to revitalize the low-performing system by strengthening high-stakes testing at all levels. In Nigeria, many citizens believe that the solution to the country’s low performance in education is to eliminate high-stakes standardized testing. High-stakes testing refers to applying standardized student achievement tests as a primary mechanism to evaluate students, teachers, and their school’s performance. This book argues that the poor quality of education and low ranking of Nigeria’s educational system is not related to the negative consequences of high-stakes testing, but rather is due to many intrinsic factors. By conducting a comparative analysis of six high-performing education systems worldwide, the book offers a comparative summative evaluation of the educational system and offers recommendations. This book will be of interest to policymakers and scholars in the fields of African education, higher education, quality and global studies, African studies, management and administration, leadership, and professional development studies. Joseph Abiodun Balogun is former Dean and retired Distinguished University Professor at the College of Health Sciences, Chicago State University, USA, Visiting Professor/Program Consultant at the Centre of Excellence in Reproductive Health Innovation, University of Benin, Nigeria, and President/ CEO, Joseph Rehabilitation Center, Tinley Park, Illinois, USA.

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.