Keeping Scores: Audited Self-Monitoring of High-Stakes Testing Environments

Abstract

To address a public relations problem faced by a large urban public school district in Texas, we conducted action research that resulted in an audited self-monitoring system for high-stakes testing environments. The system monitors violations of testing protocols while identifying and disseminating best practices to improve the education of students in the district. The system provides the district with a systematic and empirically based means of answering media and other public allegation of wrongdoing. We employ a series of concept models to describe the process of developing the monitoring system. We also discuss implications for social justice.