Use Of High-stakes Testing Research Articles

Interpretation Evidence for the Multidimensional Test Anxiety Scale: A Brief Report

Standardized testing is an integral part of the English and American education systems. However, the use of high-stakes testing has unintended consequences, one of which is test anxiety. Over the last 50 years, increased attention has been directed to developing tools to identify students experiencing test anxiety. However, many test anxiety instruments have been created for research purposes rather than use within school decision-making and lack evidence for interpretation. The purpose of the current study was to support the use of the Multidimensional Test Anxiety Scale (MTAS) in applied settings by using a latent profile analysis to identify respondent groups to support score interpretation. Participants included 918 secondary students in England.

Researching the prospects for change that COVID disruption has brought to high stakes testing and accountability systems

This paper explores the disruption that COVID has brought to the normal functioning of performance-based accountability systems and asks whether this has created new possibilities for those organising against the use of high stakes testing in education. Drawing on a sequence of research projects exploring primary schools’ responses to the pandemic in England during 2020-21, this article considers the ways in which the pandemic creates new conditions for dismantling high stakes testing and accountability regimes, and the role of research in making the case for change.

National High-Stakes Testing, Gender, and School Stress in Europe: A Difference-in-Differences Analysis

Abstract In this study, we ask if high-stakes testing affects school-related stress among students and if there are gender differences in these effects. Students’ results on high-stakes tests can have long-term consequences for their future educational trajectories and life chances. For girls, who tend to have higher educational aspirations and tend to gain more from higher education, the stakes involved may be even higher. The use of high-stakes testing has increased across Europe, but little is known about their consequences for stress or wellbeing. We combine macro-level data on high-stakes testing with survey data on more than 300,000 students aged 11–15 years in 31 European countries from three waves (2002, 2006, and 2010) of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. With variation in high-stakes testing across countries, years, and grade levels, we use a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences design for the identification of causal effects. We find that high-stakes testing increases the risk of moving from low to high levels of self-reported school stress by 4 percentage points, or by 12 per cent relative to baseline values. This effect is somewhat larger for girls, though not significantly so. The results are robust to a range of sensitivity analyses.

The washback effect of TOEFL iBT and a local English Proficiency Exam on students' motivation, autonomy and language learning strategies

This study aimed to investigate the washback effect of two high stakes tests, a global language proficiency test (i.e., TOEFL iBT) and a local English Proficiency Exam (developed and administered by a state university) on students' motivation and their autonomy. The study also examined whether proficiency level moderated the potential washback effect among the two groups of test takers. Additionally, the study tried to find out the language leaning strategies used by both groups and explore the reasons behind their preferences. The study was conducted with two English language preparatory programs offered at a state university in Turkey: University Preparatory Program (UPP) and Dual Degree Program (DDP). At the end of the UPP program, the students are required to take the university's proficiency test while as for the UPP, they need to take a valid TOEFL iBT. Data were collected from 152 preparatory students (N = 65 for DDP; N = 87 for UPP) whose proficiency levels were based on the CEFR Framework ranging from A2 (upper elementary) to B1 (pre-intermediate) to B2 (intermediate). In addition to the above proficiency tests, data were gathered via motivation questionnaire, autonomous learning scale and student interviews. The results revealed no washback of TOEFL iBT exam on students' motivation regardless of their proficiency level. No washback was also observed on students' autonomy except for A2 level DDP students who had higher level of autonomy than the A2 level UPP students. Finally, the two groups used more similar than different language learning strategies while practicing the four language skills. The findings afford pedagogical implications for the use of high-stakes tests in English preparatory programs.

Understanding and Addressing the Deficiencies in UK Mathematics Education: Taking an International Perspective

This paper reflects on UK mathematics education following the poor performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) metric, which compares reading, science, and mathematics across 27 countries. We compared a range of features within secondary school mathematics in the UK with the countries outperforming the UK. We note disparities in the depth of the curriculum and the use of high-stakes testing which could be disadvantaging UK students. We also reflect on key factors that may underpin teacher effectiveness in the UK, including teacher expectations, in part driven by early use of ability sets, a lack of teacher autonomy, and poor continuous professional development. On this basis, we make several recommendations to strengthen UK mathematics education.

Ritualisation of testing: problematising high-stakes English-language testing in Bangladesh

ABSTRACTAlthough use of high-stakes tests is common across developing societies, very little is known about how these tests are designed, what principles and criteria guide test construction, and what factors influence this process. The present study investigates the development of the English Paper-1 test for the Higher Secondary Certificate examination in Bangladesh, drawing on curriculum policy and test documents, and particularly on the perspectives of test writers and moderators. The findings reveal a range of conservative, compliant and context-responsive approaches that ensure the perpetuation of problematic test design practices and processes. The authors argue that these responses encourage ‘ritualistic’ design practices which negate concerns about test reliability and validity, and which obscure the basis by which winners and losers are created through the education system. Importantly, social celebration of this ritual does not seem to question the test architecture itself. The article contributes to our understanding of testing across societies.

Marketisation, managerialism and high-stake testing

PurposeUsing a South African district of education as a case study, the purpose of this paper is to explore how high-stake assessments informed by marketisation and managerialism have been embedded in the South African education system.Design/methodology/approachThis papers draws on data that were collected through a mixed method approach in the secondary schools of the uMgungundlovu District, which is in Kwazulu-Natal province (KZN) in the eastern part of South Africa. This paper emerged from multiple sources of data, that is, from documents, interviews, questionnaires, and observation as well as secondary sources.FindingsThe paper demonstrates how the pincer movement of markets and managerialism have used high-stake testing as a mechanism of performativity. It illustrates how test scores are published in newspapers to provide consumers with information that is needed for full participation in the marketised education system.Practical implicationsThe insights from this paper have profound implications for school managers and policy makers. While high-stake tests are logically consistent and theoretically defensible, overdependence on them portends the replacement of traditional values of schools by the market value of the education.Originality/valueThe study contributes profound insights into how the high-stake testing serves the purpose of social control and subjugation mechanisms for students, schools, and teachers by the state and the invisible arm of the markets. The problem with the use of high-stakes testing as performativity mechanisms is not just that they hinders learning and teaching, but it changes the work of schools and teachers who are at the chalkface of education system.

Market-Based Measurement for School Achievement

Over the last thirty years state governments have paid ever-increasing attention to the results of standardized testing to identify successful schools, rewarding those with better performance by allocating to them a greater share of resources. Although traditional, high-stakes, standardized testing has been shown to be effective at measuring discrete skills or a predetermined list of facts, the overwhelming majority of research into its effectiveness shows not only that these tests fail to measure educational quality but also that their use tends to negatively affect the intellectual development of students in the classroom. This paper argues for an alternative mechanism to evaluating school achievement. We claim that a free-market approach to education, one that includes central features of market systems—profits, market entry, price changes, product differentiation, and competition—not only provides a better mechanism than the use of high-stakes testing by which to allocate limited financial resources and motivate academic achievement, but also serves as a more accurate tool to measure the quality of school programs.

A move away from high-stakes testing toward comprehensive competency

The topic of high-stakes testing has received much attention over the last several years. High-stakes testing in many nursing programs has been linked to progression, graduation, and National Council Licensure Examination-Registered Nurse pass rates. Although the argument can be made that the use of high-stakes testing is successful in identifying students who are most likely to pass National Council Licensure Examination-Registered Nurse, the added stress and pressure on nursing students can affect performance, and high-stakes testing may not be a true indicator of a student's ability. Nursing programs should identify ways through curriculum improvements and faculty development to maintain pass rates without the added stress and pressure on students of high-stakes testing. This article will discuss the processes utilized by an associate degree nursing program in a metropolitan university to move away from high-stakes testing to a model of comprehensive competency, while still utilizing standardized testing in a senior capstone course.

Discovery With Models

In recent years, an increasing number of analyses in learning analytics and educational data mining (EDM) have adopted a “discovery with models” approach, where an existing model is used as a key component in a new EDM or analytics analysis. This article presents a theoretical discussion on the emergence of discovery with models, its potential to enhance research on learning and learners, and key lessons learned in how discovery with models can be conducted validly and effectively. We illustrate these issues through discussion of a case study where discovery with models was used to investigate a form of disengaged behavior (i.e., carelessness) in the context of middle school computer-based science inquiry. This behavior was acknowledged as a problem in education as early as the 1920s. With the increasing use of high-stakes testing, the cost of student carelessness can be higher. For instance, within computer-based learning environments, careless errors can result in reduced educational effectiveness, with students continuing to receive material they have already mastered. Despite the importance of this problem, it has received minimal research attention, in part because of difficulties in operationalizing carelessness as a construct. Building from theory on carelessness and a Bayesian framework for knowledge modeling, we use machine-learned detectors to predict carelessness within authentic use of a computer-based learning environment. We then use a discovery with models approach to link these validated carelessness measures to survey data to study the correlations between the prevalence of carelessness and student goal orientation.

Statewide low-stakes tests and a teaching to the test effect? An analysis of teacher survey data from two German states

Governments worldwide are changing their educational policies to improve student performance. Some of these reforms involve the introduction of high-stakes testing, which often creates negative effects such as ‘teaching to the test’. This article deals with the use of low-stakes testing in the German states of Hesse and Bremen, and analyses whether statewide low-stakes testing produces comparable results to the use of high-stakes tests from the perspective of teachers. Moreover, it seeks to identify the factors responsible for the observable teaching to the test effect, above and beyond the use of statewide exams. The data come from surveys carried out in the framework of a longitudinal study funded by the German Research Foundation. Hesse and Bremen introduced statewide exit exams in several subjects in 2007 and 2008 as low-stakes tests. Our quasi-experimental study has been evaluating these implementations since 2007.

Evidence, rhetoric and collateral damage: the problematic pursuit of ‘world class’ standards

Drawing initially on evidence assembled by the Cambridge Primary Review, and acknowledging Maurice Galton’s trenchant critiques of recent educational policy, this paper tracks the rise and decline of the flagship standards agenda which was launched by the Blair government in 1997 and came to dominate the work of England’s primary schools during the next 13 years. The official claims about educational standards are assessed against the evidence, as are contingent claims about the regime’s efficacy. The analysis finds both positive and negative outcomes from Labour’s reforms, but also methodological problems, collateral damage, a suspect definition of ‘standards’ and a corrosive political discourse that has frustrated the proper pursuit and application of evidence. England’s experience is then placed in an international context: first, by reference to the increasing use of high stakes testing in the United States and elsewhere; second, through the quest for ‘world class’ standards and schooling to which, prompted by the international surveys of student achievement, more and more governments are signing up, often copying each other’s policies in the hope of outperforming them. Not only is the phrase ‘world class’ almost meaningless in practice but it is also informed by a supremacist mindset which is at odds with twenty-first century global imperatives and sensibilities, and by international comparisons which make indefensibly selective use of such evidence as is available to explain why some countries outperform others. Although the initial focus is on the period 1997–2010, the paper ends by warning that the conditions exposed here are unlikely to be unique to the government that was defeated in the 2010 general election.

Attitudes of Teachers toward Teaching Creative Strategies

Given the recent national emphasis on standards and the use of high stakes tests, American teachersmay not have positive attitudes toward teaching creative strategies. It is possible for them to concludethat they will be held accountable primarily for how well students perform on summative tests that arebased either on state standards or the new national Core Standards being adopted by many states.With so much emphasis on standards, they may not be acquainted with the New Bloom’s Taxonomythat places creating at the top of learning hierarchy, nor are they likely to be aware of why that actionwas taken.

Deconstructing test anxiety

Recent changes to educational policy which have focused attention on the use of high stakes testing as performance and accountability measures have renewed interest in test anxiety both in the UK and the USA. The aim of this paper is to provide a critical examination of the test anxiety construct, and explore the ways in which test anxiety is written about and conceptualised in the existing literature. It is intended that this paper would provide a companion to the comprehensive reviews that already exist, to provoke scholarly thought and debate around the existing literature, than to provide an additional review. Discussion is based around five themes: (1) how test anxiety is differentiated from the anxiety construct in general; (2) the differing conceptions of test anxiety in the literature; (3) the relationship between test anxiety and other, related constructs; (4) how measurement concerns have driven development of the test anxiety construct; and (5) the focus on worry and performance deficits leading to definitional problems. Two directions for future work are highlighted: first, to continue the exploration of test anxiety with other related constructs; and second, to develop qualitative approaches to the study of test anxiety.

High-Stakes Testing and Students With Disabilities

The use of high-stakes testing has become an increasingly popular assessment for schools to use in demonstrating individual academic performance of students, and providingaccountability for school improvement. Given the potential negative consequences associated with mandatory testing (e.g., grade retention, withholding of high school diplomas, labeling failing schools), students, parents, and school districts all bear significant risks based upon student test scores. The historically poor performance of students with disabilities on these assessments has raised concerns over minimum standards, permissible test modifications, and alternate assessments. The authors provide a review of recent research literature, legislation, and court decisions pertaining to the use of high-stakes testing for students with special needs in support of : (a) federal legislation (i.e., No Child Left Behind and Individual With Disabilities Education Act), (b) Mandatory Competency Exams to determine grade promotion, and (c) Mandatory Exit Exams to meet graduation requirements.

High-Stakes Testing and Students With Disabilities

The use of high-stakes testing has become an increasingly popular assessment for schools to use in demonstrating individual academic performance of students, and providingaccountability for school improvement. Given the potential negative consequences associated with mandatory testing (e.g., grade retention, withholding of high school diplomas, labeling failing schools), students, parents, and school districts all bear significant risks based upon student test scores. The historically poor performance of students with disabilities on these assessments has raised concerns over minimum standards, permissible test modifications, and alternate assessments. The authors provide a review of recent research literature, legislation, and court decisions pertaining to the use of high-stakes testing for students with special needs in support of : (a) federal legislation (i.e., No Child Left Behind and Individual With Disabilities Education Act), (b) Mandatory Competency Exams to determine grade promotion, and (c) Mandatory Exit Exams to meet graduation requirements.

Getting it the Second Time Around: Student Classroom Experience in Chicago's Summer Bridge Program

Increased use of high-stakes testing has been accompanied by an expansion of summer school programming. Few investigations focus on student experience within these programs. Using multiple methods, we examined how low-performing students attending the Chicago Public Schools’ Summer Bridge program perceived their summer learning environments. Students reported substantial increases in academic press and personalism between the school year and summer. Qualitative analysis revealed that over half of the students characterized their experience as substantively better in the summer than in the school year. They particularly focused on exposure to new content, increased attention from teachers, and an improved classroom climate that helped in the mastery of material.

Getting it the Second Time Around: Student Classroom Experience in Chicago's Summer Bridge Program

Increased use of high-stakes testing has been accompanied by an expansion of summer school programming. Few investigations focus on student experience within these programs. Using multiple methods, we examined how low-performing students attending the Chicago Public Schools’ Summer Bridge program perceived their summer learning environments. Students reported substantial increases in academic press and personalism between the school year and summer. Qualitative analysis revealed that over half of the students characterized their experience as substantively better in the summer than in the school year. They particularly focused on exposure to new content, increased attention from teachers, and an improved classroom climate that helped in the mastery of material.

A Balanced School Accountability Model: An Alternative to High-Stakes Testing

The health of our public schools, Mr. Jones argues, depends on defining a new model of accountability -- one that is balanced and comprehensive. And it needs be one that involves much more than test scores. FOR SOME time now, it has been apparent to many in the education community that state and federal policies intended to develop greater school accountability for the learning of all students have been terribly counterproductive. The use of high-stakes testing of students has been fraught with flawed assumptions, oversimplified understandings of school realities, undemocratic concentration of power, undermining of the teaching profession, and predictably disastrous consequences for our most vulnerable students. Far from the noble ideal of leaving no child behind, current policies, if continued, are bound to increase existing inequities, trivialize schooling, and mislead the public about the quality and promise of public education. What is needed is a better means for evaluating schools, an alternative to the present system of using high-stakes testing for school accountability. A new model, based on a different set of assumptions and understandings about school realities and approaches to power, is required. It must be focused on the needs of learners and on the goals of having high expectations for all rather than on the prerequisites of a bureaucratic measurement system. Premises In the realm of student learning, the question of outcomes has often been considered primary: what do we want students to know and be able to do as a result of schooling? Once the desired outcomes have been specified, school reform efforts have proceeded to address the thorny questions of how to attain them. Starting from desired outcomes is an important shift in how to think about what does or does not make sense in classroom instruction. In the realm of school accountability, however, little attention has been paid to corresponding outcome-related questions. It has simply been assumed that schools should be accountable for improved student learning, as measured by external test scores. It has been largely assumed by policy makers that external tests do, in fact, adequately measure student learning. These and other assumptions about school accountability must be questioned if we are to develop a more successful accountability model. It would be well to start from basic questions about the purposes and audiences of schools. For what, to whom, and by what means should schools be held accountable? The following answers to these questions provide a set of premises on which a new school accountability system can be based. For what should schools be accountable? Schools should be held accountable for at least the following: * The physical and emotional well-being of students. The caring aspect of school is essential to high-quality education. Parents expect that their children will be safe in schools and that adults in schools will tend to their affective as well as cognitive needs. In addition, we know that learning depends on a caring school climate that nurtures positive relationships. * Student learning. Student learning is complex and multifaceted. It includes acquiring not only knowledge of disciplinary subject matter but also the thinking skills and dispositions needed in a modern democratic society. * Teacher learning. Having a knowledgeable and skilled teacher is the most significant factor in student learning and should be fostered in multiple ways, compatible with the principles of adult learning. Schools must have sufficient time and funding to enable teachers to improve their own performance, according to professional teaching standards. * Equity and access. Given the history of inequity with respect to minority and underserved student populations, schools must be accountable for placing a special emphasis on improving equity and access, providing fair opportunities for all to learn to high standards. …

Systemic Violence and High Stakes Testing

The use of high stakes testing as the primary tool of school reform is sweeping the nation. Proponents of standardized tests, including most state legislatures, the President, governors, boards of education and even the American Federation of Teachers, have embraced the rhetoric of higher and tougher standards.