Era Of High-stakes Testing Research Articles

Research Directions: Mobile Texts and Migrant Audiences: Rethinking Literacy and Assessment in a New Media Age

This article highlights the importance of rethinking literacy assessment in a digital and global world. Although pressures currently abound to narrow conceptions and practices of literacy, especially in an era of high stakes testing, digital multimodality and connectivity offer the potential for new ways of thinking, representing, and communicating, as well as new avenues for participating in relationships across social, geographic, and cultural difference. We explore the challenges of redesigning assessments so that they better take into account children’s multiliterate capabilities. In so doing, we offer examples from our work in afterschool contexts that demonstrate how we have grappled with the complexities of assessment in new times.

Through the nominations of principals: Effective teachers of African American students share limitations of high-stakes testing

This study examines how elementary school teachers, nominated by their principals as effective teachers of African American students, perceive their effectiveness in an era of high-stakes testing that is influenced and constrained by policy dominance. The implications in this study might be useful in preparing prospective and practicing teachers to examine their instructional practices as they pursue successful outcomes with culturally diverse students.

Making Room for the Middle Grades: High-Stakes Teaching in an Era of High-Stakes Testing

This case study describes a middle school language arts teacher attempting to maintain high standards of instruction while attending to the increasing demands of high-stakes assessments. Understanding how this teacher, Lisa, maintained effective pedagogy while attending to the external demands of standardized assessments offers ideas for maintaining responsive pedagogy in an era where assessment is moving toward uniform expectations for all middle school students. The tensions that emerged between Lisa’s professional beliefs and the opportunity to enact these in her daily practice raise questions about the current trend in assessment procedures in middle school language arts classrooms.

Selecting High-Quality Mathematics Textbooks

In this era of high-stakes testing and public accountability, school personnel are scrambling for ways to improve mathematics learning opportunities for all students. Although there is no single silver-bullet solution, Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM 2000) provides guidelines for designing high-quality school mathematics programs. One avenue for strengthening programs is through selecting and implementing high-quality curricular materials (textbooks).

The Challenge of Curricular and Instructional Improvement in an Era of High Stakes Testing

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsSally N. ClarkSally N. Clark is a Professor Emeritus of Teaching and Teacher Education at the University of Arizon, Tucson. E-mail: sclark@u.arizona.eduDonald C. ClarkDonald C. Clark is a Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership at the University of Arizona, Tucson. E-mail: donaldc@u.arizona.edu