High-stakes Literacy Research Articles

Cutting the Gordian knot of the education ‘crisis’ with teacher testing. A blunt instrument that crushes marginalised pre-service teachers

ABSTRACT This paper offers a brief yet evocative glimpse into marginalised pre-service teachers’ (PST) experiences of teacher testing in Australia’s High-stakes Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students (LANTITE). Utilising Critical Disability Theory (CDT)in particular, Goodley’s (2016) concept of neoliberal-ableism, we problematise teacher testing as a gatekeeping tool for students undertaking teacher education. The article highlights how neoliberal education policies in Australia have disempowered and turned away talented and empathetic future teachers. By illuminating their embodied experiences of stress and anxiety, we interrogate neoliberal discourses of power and how teacher testing is used as a blunt instrument to solve complex problems and funnel public funding to private corporations. As part of a larger longitudinal research project, we offer four narrative portraits giving voice to vulnerable PSTs who have become unwitting victims of the high-stakes test juggernaut. This article focuses on five emergent themes from the research: (a) the embodied impact of stress and anxiety on test-takers, (b) withholding of information regarding testing processes and support, (c) the lack of differentiation available to PSTs (d) impacts of edu-businesses and the business of education on vulnerable participants and (e) a passion for differentiation.

Supporting English Language Learners in High-Stakes Literacy Testing

In Ontario, a mandatory high-stakes standardized literacy test called the OSSLT is administered in the tenth grade. With notable failure rates and acknowledged test anxiety, students are in need of better test preparatory methods. In this article, we examine some of the challenges and analyze ways that online multimedia learning tools can be designed in order to support diverse student needs. The online tool developed in this study features learning principles and practices based on research in literacy testing and online education. Our discussion contributes new ideas and future directions for task designers and online test preparatory tools.

A Natural Experiment in Expanding the Scope of High Stakes Testing in Schools

High stakes testing regimes for the purpose of school accountability carry the risk of narrowing of the curriculum to tested subjects, typically numeracy and literacy. As such, some education systems also include standardized tests in science as part of their high stakes testing regime. Exploiting a natural experiment in primary school testing in England, this study estimates the causal effect of taking an additional standardized test in science on the performance in high stakes literacy and numeracy tests. Results suggest that pupils who were required to take the science test performed worse in their mathematics test, but not in their English test. No long term effects on science attainment are found. The results imply that at the primary level at least, restricting high stakes testing to literacy and numeracy would appear optimal. More generally it demonstrates how increasing the scope of performance measures may be detrimental to overall performance in public sector organizations.

Emotions and activism: English language teachers’ emotion labor as responses to institutional power

ABSTRACTThis article explores the relationship between teachers’ emotions and possibilities for their activism. Using the lens of emotion labor and grounded in a discursive approach to emotions, it examines English language teachers’ responses to institutional power. High-stakes literacy testing is used as an example of top-down institutional policies that may conflict with English language teachers’ training and/or pedagogical preferences thereby producing emotion labor. However, rather than viewing emotion labor as a psychological impediment, the article proposes that it be honored, in the service of teacher activism. Suggestions for recruiting emotion labor for transformational purposes are offered.

“In LANTITE, No One Can Hear You Scream!” Student Voices of High-Stakes Testing in Teacher Education.

This article investigates pre-service teachers’ experiences of undertaking LANTITE, a high-stakes literacy and numeracy test for initial teacher education students. In this mixed methods study, 189 initial teacher education students from 28 Australian universities participated in an online questionnaire, with 27 students going on to take part in semi-structured telephone interviews. Indicative findings give voice to those most impacted by the implementation of LANTITE in 2017, revealing student concerns about the processing and return of results, and test anxiety. This study provides a unique insight into the experiences of completing this high-stakes test.

How do librarians in schools support struggling readers?

ABSTRACTWhile librarians in schools often face significant budgetary cuts, they can play an important role in supporting learning in literacy and literature. However, little is known about the practices that they may employ to this end. Of particular interest is the role of librarians in schools in supporting struggling readers, as these students may be increasingly disadvantaged as they move through the years of schooling. Semi-structured interview data were collected from teacher librarians at 30 schools and analysed to identify practices exercised by teacher librarians that aligned with extant research around supporting struggling readers. Teacher librarians provided support by identifying struggling readers, providing them with age and skill-appropriate materials, undertaking skill scaffolding supporting choice, supporting students with special needs, providing one-to-one matching, promoting access to books, enhancing the social position of books and reading, reading aloud to students, facilitating silent reading, and preparing students for high-stakes literacy testing.

High-stakes literacy tests and local effects in a rural school

High-stakes literacy testing is now a ubiquitous educational phenomenon. However, it remains a relatively recent phenomenon in Australia. Hence it is possible to study the ways in which such tests are reorganising educators' work during this period of change. This paper draws upon Dorothy Smith's Institutional Ethnography and critical policy analysis to consider this problem and reports on interview data from teachers and the principal in small rural school in a poor area of South Australia. In this context high-stakes testing and the associated diagnostic school review unleashes a chain of actions within the school which ultimately results in educators doubting their professional judgments, increasing the investment in testing, narrowing their teaching of literacy and purchasing levelled reading schemes. The effects of high-stakes testing in disadvantaged schools are identified and discussed.

A preliminary analysis of teacher perceptions of the effects of NAPLAN on pedagogy and curriculum

This paper reports preliminary survey findings of Western Australian and South Australian teacher perceptions of the impact of NAPLAN on curriculum and pedagogy in their classroom and school. The paper examines how teachers perceive the effects of NAPLAN on curriculum and pedagogy and whether these perceptions mediated by the teacher’s gender, the socioeconomics of the school, the State and the school system in which the teacher works. Teachers report that they are either choosing or being instructed to teach to the test, that this results in less time being spent on other curriculum areas and that these effects contribute in a negative way to the class environment and the engagement of students. This largely agrees with a body of international research that suggests that high-stakes literacy and numeracy tests often results in unintended consequences such as a narrow curriculum focus, a return to teacher-centred instruction and a decrease in motivation. Analysis suggests there is a relationship between participant responses to the effect of NAPLAN on curriculum based on the characteristics of which State the teacher taught in, the socioeconomic status of the school and the school system in which they were employed (State, Catholic, and Independent).

Literacy as a tool of civic education and resistance to power

Abstract This paper discusses literacy as a socio-political phenomenon from the perspective of several relatively independent educational discourses. The first is critical education theory and research revealing the hidden mechanisms by which education policies act in the interests of a global market economy. The second is the perspective of critical pedagogy scholars on contemporary educational challenges, who offer responses similar to those discussed in current discourse on informal civic education. The third is the heated discussion of high-stakes literacy testing (related to OECD literacy studies such as PISA, IALS, etc.) the results of which are used as a source of argumentation for diverse attitudes and educational consequences. Based on an analysis of literacy theory, research on active citizenship and civic education, the term “civic literacy” is proposed and argued as a relevant conceptual frame for conceptualizing school as an institution which can be involved in resistance to all forms of power politics or ideological indoctrination and manipulation, while at the same time, respecting the traditional values and aims of general education.

Tracking the Success of English Language Learners within the Context of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test

The study tracked 8 high school English Language Learners (ELLs) from 2 Ontario secondary schools located in small Ontario cities for 3 years and closely documented their linguistic, cognitive, and socio-cultural learning experiences. Each student was visited 2-4 times per year and face-to-face interviews were used on each visit. It was found that these students‘ difficulties in academic English were the major challenge to their success in their high school subject-area courses and in the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). These challenges, in turn, affected their educational goals. The findings of this study provide a rich understanding of these students‘ educational achievement as they concurrently learned English and their subject-area courses within the context of the OSSLT—a large-scale high-stakes literacy test. Cette étude recense trois années d‘expériences d‘apprentissage linguistiques, cognitives et socio culturelles de huit allophones d‘anglais langue seconde (ALS) issus de deux écoles secondaires situées dans des petites villes de l‘Ontario. Chaque étudiant a été interviewé en face à face deux à quatre fois par an. Les résultats montrent que la difficulté majeure de ces étudiants est l‘apprentissage de l‘anglais académique et que cet apprentissage détermine leur succès dans tous les autres cours au niveau du lycée et au Test Provincial des Compétences Linguistiques (TPCL) de l‘Ontario. Ce défi affecte également leurs objectifs éducatifs. Les résultats de cette étude montrent non seulement les performances éducatives de ces étudiants en ALS mais aussi dans leurs autres cours dans le cadre du TPCL, un test à enjeux élevés.

Walking in Their Shoes: Students’ Perceptions of Large-Scale High-Stakes Testing

Abstract: With the implementation of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) in 2002, Ontario became the first province in Canada requiring successful completion of a large-scale high-stakes literacy test for high school graduation. We began to explore and analyze students’ perceptions of this testing program in terms of their preparation for the test, the test’s impact and value, and the potential influence of such a testing program on the students’ views about literacy. Our study used qualitative data obtained through focus groups and interviews with students who were either successful or unsuccessful on the OSSLT. The students recalled specific test preparation for the OSSLT, often at the expense of their regular schooling. Following test instructions was a clear message to the students, leading to formulaic test responses and a narrowly expressed view of literacy. Potentially important differences were also found between the successful and unsuccessful students.

Language testing

06–103Gamliel, Eyal (Ruppin Academic Center, Israel) & Liema Davidovitz, Online versus traditional teaching evaluation: Mode can matter. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education (Routledge/Taylor&Francis) 30.6 (2005), 581–592.06–104Lorenzo-Dus, Nuria & Paul Meara (U Wales, UK), Examiner support strategies and test-taker vocabulary. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (Mouton de Gruyter) 43.3 (2005), 239–258.06–105Luce-Kapler, Rebecca & Don Klinger (Queen's U, Kingston, Canada; rebecca.lucekapler@queensu.ca). Uneasy writing: The defining moments of high-stakes literacy testing. Assessing Writing (Elsevier) 10.3 (2005), 157–173.06–106McClure, James E. (Ball State U, USA) & Lee C. Spector,Plus/minusgrading and motivation: An empirical study of student choice and performance. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education (Routledge/Taylor&Francis) 30.6 (2005), 571–579.06–107Ricketts, Chris (U Portsmouth, UK) & Stan Zakrzewski, A risk-analysis approach to implementing web-based assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education (Routledge/Taylor&Francis) 30.6 (2005), 603–620.

Uneasy writing: The defining moments of high-stakes literacy testing

Abstract The authors report on an exploratory study that investigated Grade 10 students’ responses to a large-scale, high-stakes literacy test, the results of which determine high school graduation in Ontario, Canada. Through focus-group and individual interviews, the authors found that students perceived the test as evaluating their English skills rather than their cross-curricular literacy as is the stated purpose by the test administrators. Furthermore, the test contributed to students’ narrow definition of writing. Rather than promoting writing as a powerful tool for thinking and expressing ideas, students understood writing to be a fill-in-the-blanks response to particular genres. The authors conclude by pointing out the power of such tests to define unintended learning in schools.