High-Stakes Reform
High-Stakes Reform

Author: Kathryn A. McDermott

Publisher: Georgetown University Press

Published: 2011-07-13

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1589017889

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Performance accountability has been the dominant trend in education policy reform since the 1970s. State and federal policies set standards for what students should learn; require students to take “high-stakes” tests to measure what they have learned; and then hold students, schools, and school districts accountable for their performance. The goal of these policies is to push public school districts to ensure that all students reach a common threshold of knowledge and skills. High-Stakes Reform analyzes the political processes and historical context that led to the enactment of state-level education accountability policies across the country. It also situates the education accountability movement in the broader context of public administration research, emphasizing the relationships among equity, accountability, and intergovernmental relations. The book then focuses on three in-depth case studies of policy development in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Kathryn McDermott zeroes in on the most controversial and politically charged forms of state performance accountability sanctions, including graduation tests, direct state intervention in or closing of schools, and state takeovers of school districts. Public debate casts performance accountability as either a cure for the problems of US public education or a destructive mistake. Kathryn McDermott expertly navigates both sides of the debate detailing why particular policies became popular, how the assumptions behind the policies influenced the forms they took, and what practitioners and scholars can learn from the successes and failures of education accountability policies.

High Stakes Education
High Stakes Education

Author: Pauline Lipman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-02-29

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1135951535

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This book analyses the ways in which schools in urban areas are shaped and influenced by social, economic and political forces within the social environment. Utilizing research from schools in Chicago, the book will show how schools attempt to.

High-Stakes Schooling
High-Stakes Schooling

Author: Christopher Bjork

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 022630941X

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Drawing on Japan's experiences with testing, overtesting, and recent reforms to relax educational pressures, Christopher Bjork sheds light on the best path forward for US schools. He asks a variety of questions related to testing and reform, and each draws direct parallels to issues that the schools currently face.

High Stakes Accountability
High Stakes Accountability

Author: Jennifer King Rice

Publisher: IAP

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1607528762

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In this third volume of Research in Education Fiscal Policy and Practice, editors Jennifer King Rice and Christopher Roellke have assembled a diversity of research studies focused on the current policy environment of high stakes accountability and how this context has impacted educators and students at multiple levels of the system. This effort to leverage student performance through high stakes reform has accelerated and intensified considerably since the 2002 reauthorization of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, commonly referred to as No Child Left Behind (NCLB).In order for high stakes accountability reforms to realize their stated aims, targeted schools must have or acquire the resources and capacity to meet prescribed performance standards (Hess, 1999; Malen & Rice, 2005; Mintrop, 2003, 2004; Wong, et al., 1999), yet little systematic research has been assembled to document the implications of high stakes accountability systems on the resources and capacity of schools and school systems. This book aims to fill that gap. With this in mind, authors were asked to pay specific attention to challenges school systems confront as a result of NCLB and other high stakes reforms. The contributing authors were asked to think of policymakers and practitioners at local, state, and national levels as the intended audiences for their work. Our contributors responded with a collection of studies examining the relationship between high stakes reform and school district staffing, the recruitment and distribution of high quality teachers, curriculum making, and the provision of supplemental educational services to children. Our book is organized into three sections. The first provides a framework for assessing the impact of high stakes accountability policy on school capacity and also addresses implementation challenges at both state and local levels. The second section focuses on the impact of federal and state policymaking on teacher staffing and workplace conditions. The final section includes three chapters that provide a range of critiques on federal policymaking, including legal challenges to NCLB.

Understanding Dropouts
Understanding Dropouts

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2001-08-29

Total Pages: 66

ISBN-13: 0309170583

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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.

More Than a Score
More Than a Score

Author: Jesse Hagopian

Publisher: Haymarket Books

Published: 2014-11-10

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1608464369

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"Jesse Hagopian brought a rare moment of truth to the corporate-dominated Education Nation show when he spoke on behalf of his colleagues at Garfield High in Seattle. He instantly became the voice and face of the movement to stop pointless and punitive high-stakes testing."—Diane Ravitch, author of Reign of Terror In cities across the country, students are walking out, parents are opting their children out, and teachers are rallying against the abuses of high-stakes standardized testing. These are the stories—in their own words—of some of those who are defying the corporate education reformers and fueling a national movement to reclaim public education. Alongside the voices of students, parents, teachers, and grassroots education activists, the book features renowned education researchers and advocates, including Nancy Carrlson-Paige, Karen Lewis, and Monty Neill. Jesse Hagopian teaches history and is the Black Student Union adviser at Garfield High School, the site of the historic boycott of the MAP test in 2013. He is an associate editor of Rethinking Schools, and winner of the 2013 "Secondary School Teacher of Year" award from the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences. He is a contributing author to Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation and 101 Changemakers: Rebels and Radicals Who Changed US History, and writes regularly for Truthout, Black Agenda Report, and the Seattle Times Op-Ed page.

The Mismeasure of Education
The Mismeasure of Education

Author: Jim Horn

Publisher: IAP

Published: 2013-07-01

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 1623963931

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With new student assessments and teacher evaluation schemes in the planning or early implementation phases, this book takes a step back to examine the ideological and historical grounding, potential benefits, scholarly evidence, and ethical basis for the new generation of test based accountability measures. After providing the political and cultural contexts for the rise of the testing accountability movement in the 1960s that culminated almost forty years later in No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, this book then moves on to provide a policy history and social policy analysis of value-added testing in Tennessee that is framed around questions of power relations, winners, and losers. In examining the issues and exercise of power that are sustained in the long-standing policy of standardized testing in schools, this work provides a big picture perspective on assessment practices over time in the U. S.; by examining the rise of value-added assessment in Tennessee, a fine-grained and contemporary case is provided within that larger context. The last half of the book provides a detailed survey of the research based critiques of value-added methodology, while detailing an aggressive marketing campaign to make value-added modeling (VAM) a central component of reform strategies following NCLB. The last chapter and epilogue place the continuation of test-based accountability practices within the context of an emerging pushback against privatization, high stakes testing, and other education reforms. This book will be useful to a wide audience, including teachers, parents, school leaders, policymakers, researchers, and students of educational history, policy, and politics.

The Unintended Consequences of High-Stakes Testing
The Unintended Consequences of High-Stakes Testing

Author: Gail M. Jones

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 2003-04-09

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 1461715474

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To better understand how high-stakes accountability has influenced teaching and learning, this book takes an in-depth look at the myriad consequences that high-stakes tests hold for students, teachers, administrators, and the public. By focusing on these tests and spending large amounts of time on test preparation and driving teachers to teach low-level, rote memorization, schools are essentially wiping out non-tested subjects such as science, social studies, physical education, and the arts. Although testing is promoted as a strategy for improving education for all, research shows that testing has differential effects on students with special needs, minority students, students living in poverty, and those for whom English is a second language. The Unintended Consequences of High Stakes Testing unpacks the assumptions and philosophical foundations on which testing policies are based. The authors' arguments are grounded in extensive interviews and research. Through an examination of research, these authors show that high-stakes testing promotes students' dependence on extrinsic motivation at the cost of intrinsic motivation and the associated love of learning—which has tangible impacts on their education and lives. Features: -Examines how high stakes testing from the perspectives of teachers, students, and adminstrators. -Considers how testing impacts the curriculum including tested subjects such as reading, writing, and mathematics as well as non-tested subjects such as science, social studies, physical education, and the arts. -Documents how teachers and administrators engage in test preparation and discusses ethical and unethical test preparation practices. -Reviews the evolution of testing through history and how it mpacts the curriculum. -Examines the differential effects of testing on students with special needs, minority students, students living in poverty, and those for whom English is a second language.

Collateral Damage
Collateral Damage

Author: Sharon L. Nichols

Publisher: Harvard Education Press

Published: 2007-03-01

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1612500803

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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.

A Guide to High-Stakes Standardized Testing in the United States
A Guide to High-Stakes Standardized Testing in the United States

Author: Amy L. Kelly

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-11-29

Total Pages: 108

ISBN-13: 9004511733

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High-stakes standardized testing has a long history of exclusion, oppression, power, and control with deep roots in the landscape of American education. In this text, the events and circumstances that have forged the way of high-stakes testing are presented in a straightforward and accessible manner.