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Author: William A. Firestone Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1135624216 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 112
Book Description
Testing is one of the most controversial of all state and federal educational policies. The effects of testing are quite ambiguous. The same test may lead to different consequences in different circumstances, and teachers may use very different strategies to prepare students for tests. Although most experts agree that mandatory testing leads to teaching to the test, they disagree about whether it leads to meaningless drill, wasted time, de-professionalizing teachers, and demotivating students, or to more challenging and thoughtful curricula, more engaging teaching, increased student motivation, and increased accountability. To help sort through this ambiguity and provide a firmer basis for decisions, The Ambiguity of Teaching to the Test: Standards, Assessment, and Educational Reform offers a hard look at the effects of state testing, and thoroughly examines the ambiguity of test preparation and how test preparation practices are influenced by what teachers know and the leadership coming from the school and district. Drawing on data from a three-year study of New Jersey's testing policy in elementary mathematics and science, it helps to explain the variety of ways that teachers modify their teaching in response to state tests, raises important questions, and offers useful guidance on how state policymakers and local and district school administrators can implement policies that will improve educational equity and performance for all students. It also offers an in-depth analysis of classroom practices that should inform teachers and teacher educators whose goal is to meaningfully implement conceptually based teaching practices. This comprehensive look at the statewide variation in testing practice features: *a data-based, non-ideological treatment of how testing affects teachers, in a field characterized by ideologically driven beliefs and by anecdotes; *an extensive and well-integrated combination of qualitative and quantitative data sources that provide a statewide overview, as well as an in-depth analysis of teachers and classrooms; *a careful analysis of the variety of forms of teaching to the test; and *a multilevel exploration of how a variety of personal and leadership factors can influence teaching to the test. This is an important book for researchers, professionals, and students in educational testing, educational policy, educational administration, mathematics and science education, educational reform, and the politics and sociology of education. It will also prove useful for state policymakers, school and district leaders, and teacher educators and curriculum specialists who are making decisions about how to design and respond to new testing systems.
Author: William A. Firestone Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1135624216 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 112
Book Description
Testing is one of the most controversial of all state and federal educational policies. The effects of testing are quite ambiguous. The same test may lead to different consequences in different circumstances, and teachers may use very different strategies to prepare students for tests. Although most experts agree that mandatory testing leads to teaching to the test, they disagree about whether it leads to meaningless drill, wasted time, de-professionalizing teachers, and demotivating students, or to more challenging and thoughtful curricula, more engaging teaching, increased student motivation, and increased accountability. To help sort through this ambiguity and provide a firmer basis for decisions, The Ambiguity of Teaching to the Test: Standards, Assessment, and Educational Reform offers a hard look at the effects of state testing, and thoroughly examines the ambiguity of test preparation and how test preparation practices are influenced by what teachers know and the leadership coming from the school and district. Drawing on data from a three-year study of New Jersey's testing policy in elementary mathematics and science, it helps to explain the variety of ways that teachers modify their teaching in response to state tests, raises important questions, and offers useful guidance on how state policymakers and local and district school administrators can implement policies that will improve educational equity and performance for all students. It also offers an in-depth analysis of classroom practices that should inform teachers and teacher educators whose goal is to meaningfully implement conceptually based teaching practices. This comprehensive look at the statewide variation in testing practice features: *a data-based, non-ideological treatment of how testing affects teachers, in a field characterized by ideologically driven beliefs and by anecdotes; *an extensive and well-integrated combination of qualitative and quantitative data sources that provide a statewide overview, as well as an in-depth analysis of teachers and classrooms; *a careful analysis of the variety of forms of teaching to the test; and *a multilevel exploration of how a variety of personal and leadership factors can influence teaching to the test. This is an important book for researchers, professionals, and students in educational testing, educational policy, educational administration, mathematics and science education, educational reform, and the politics and sociology of education. It will also prove useful for state policymakers, school and district leaders, and teacher educators and curriculum specialists who are making decisions about how to design and respond to new testing systems.
Author: W. James Popham Publisher: Corwin Press ISBN: 1506351530 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 177
Book Description
Amplify your assessment literacy. Formative, data-driven, high-stakes—we all know the buzzwords surrounding educational testing. But we often shelve our understanding of these because they are overwhelmingly complex. Those who care about our schools and students—teachers, administrators, policymakers, parents, citizens—will discover how and why testing should be taken upon ourselves to advance. Using a nontechnical approach, this book offers fundamental knowledge to free you from testing fogginess—all framed around practical actions you can take to strengthen your assessment literacy. Inappropriate tests are leading to mistaken decisions, and this book provides everything you need to know to change that, including Reasons for tests Reliability/validity Fairness Test-building
Author: W. James Popham Publisher: ASCD ISBN: 1416601325 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 175
Book Description
With public and political demand for educational accountability never higher, educators are under enormous pressure to raise students' scores on standardized achievement tests. Policymakers are backing large-scale, high-stakes testing programs as the best way to determine which schools are failing and which schools are succeeding, and the only way to ensure the quality of students' schooling. Nonsense, says distinguished educator and author W. James Popham. In The Truth About Testing: An Educator's Call to Action, Popham explores both the absurdity and the serious destructive consequences of today's testing programs. He uses actual items drawn from current standardized achievement tests to show what these tests really measure and why they should never be used to evaluate school quality or teacher ability. But, Popham insists, there's a way out of this measurement mess. And it's up to educators to take the first steps. Throughout this commonsense and conversational resource, the author appeals to educators to build their own assessment literacy, spread the word about harmful testing, and reexamine how they use test data in the classroom. He provides * Advice for distinguishing between sound and unsound large-scale tests. * Guidelines to help teachers maximize the instructional benefits properly constructed classroom tests can bring. * Evidence-gathering strategies for teachers and administrators trying to survive and thrive in an accountability-driven environment. The book closes with a series of action items for educators interested in ending the score-boosting game, halting the erosion of educational quality, and establishing the kind of testing that can improve student learning. Note: This product listing is for the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of the book.
Author: Arlo Kempf Publisher: Springer ISBN: 1137486651 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 250
Book Description
Based on a large-scale international study of teachers in Los Angeles, Chicago, Ontario, and New York, this book illustrates the ways increased use of high-stakes standardized testing is fundamentally changing education in the US and Canada with a negative overall impact on the way teachers teach and students learn. Standardized testing makes understanding students' strengths and weaknesses more difficult, and class time spent on testing consumes scarce time and attention needed to support the success of all students—further disadvantaging ELLs, students with exceptionalities, low income, and racially minoritized students.
Author: Gail M. Jones Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers ISBN: 1461715474 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 189
Book Description
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.
Author: Gavin T. L. Brown Publisher: ISBN: 9781604563221 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 198
Book Description
The purpose of this book is to open a new approach to the design and implementation of classroom assessment and large scale assessment by examining how the participants (ie: teachers and students) actually understand what they are doing in assessment and make recommendations as to how improvements can be made to training, policy, and assessment innovations in the light of those insights. By marrying large-scale surveys, in-depth qualitative analyses, and sophisticated measurement techniques, new insights into teacher and student experience and use of assessment can be determined. These new insights will permit the design and delivery of more effective assessments. Further, it provides us an opportunity to examine whether conceiving of assessment in a certain way (eg: assessment improves quality or assessment is bad or deep learning cannot be assessed) actually contributes to higher or better educational outcomes.
Author: Alfie Kohn Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books ISBN: Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 112
Book Description
Kohn's central message is that standardized tests are "not a force of nature but a force of politics--and political decisions can be questioned, challenged, and ultimately reversed."
Author: Robert J. Wright Publisher: SAGE ISBN: 1412949173 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 665
Book Description
Educational Tests and Measurements in the Age of Accountability is a core text for use in a first level graduate course in educational measurement and testing. In addition to covering the topics traditionally found in core textbooks for this course, this text also provides coverage of contemporary topics (including national testing programs, international achievement comparisons, the value added assessment of schools and teachers, and the public policy debate on selective admissions vs. affirmative minority enrollment).
Author: Jill Jeffery Publisher: Taylor & Francis ISBN: 1000396630 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 252
Book Description
This book contributes to the innovation of writing education and research globally by providing crucial insights into how the structures and aims of literacy curricula vary internationally. It examines how nine education systems across five continents represent ‘good writing’ in curricula that shape students’ experiences learning to write in school. The book presents curricular analyses aimed at providing insight into how writing development can be better supported through innovative policy and research. The findings regarding international variation are presented under three broad dimensions: social and contextual factors that shape writing curricula; the discourses of writing reflected in curricula and official documents; and hallmarks of classroom practice, including the relationship with official discourse. Case study chapters present integrated inductive and deductive document analyses, findings of which are compared in a concluding, cross-case analysis chapter. Offering a detailed comparative analysis of writing research, International Perspectives on Writing Curricula and Development will be of great interest to academics, researchers and students in the fields of education, literacy and curriculum studies. It will also be relevant reading for policymakers and curriculum designers. Chapters 1, 7, 9, 10, and 11 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
Author: Linda Valli Publisher: ISBN: Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 216
Book Description
“I don’t always know (students) by face; I know them by data,” an elementary curriculum specialist explains ruefully in this broad examination of how No Child Left Behind impacts schools and shapes teaching practice. Capturing the changes teachers are experiencing, especially in the areas of mathematics and reading, the authors compare and contrast three schools with diverse student populations, examining how they differ in school norms and structures, professional roles and responsibilities, curriculum, staff development, and teaching and learning. Including rich observational data and personal accounts from educators, this inside look at school reform: Analyzes the effects of policies from multiple levels, examining relationships among initiatives at the federal, state, district, and local school levels. Focuses on the impact that high-stakes testing policies have on reading and mathematics instruction in 4th and 5th grades Provides teacher and principal perspectives on factors that influence how practitioners make sense of, mediate, and construct school policy.
Author: William A. Firestone
Author: William A. Firestone
Author: W. James Popham
Author: W. James Popham
Author: Arlo Kempf
Author: Gail M. Jones
Author: Gavin T. L. Brown
Author: Alfie Kohn
Author: Robert J. Wright
Author: Jill Jeffery
Author: Linda Valli