High Stakes Testing
“Educators tend to be against high stakes testing…Students may worry much about passing their exams” (Edridge, p. 2, 5), rings true in my ears. As I prepare for my PRAXIS, a step towards my teaching license, my life has become totally absorbed with high stakes testing. The expense, the worry, the time consuming nature of studying for multiple choice general knowledge tests, has given me a empathy for students around the world who are being subjected to high stakes testing.
Academic research has shown that high stakes testing is not the best measure of student achievement or ability(Edridge, 2001). However, these types of assessments prevail as they are easy to administer and gather tidy scores that quickly assess if a student is a success of failure. At its core high stakes testing aims to help keep teachers, students and school districts accountable and improve achievement (Huang, Han and Schnapp, 2012). In this blog post I will be comparing two schools; Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) and a public school in Florida (USA) and the way that they go about high stakes testing. I will also explore if indeed these tests make their school more accountable and improve achievement. Furthermore I will discuss the implication that these types of assessments have on the students and the teachers.
Michele Longo, a school counselor/testing administrator at DoDEA, gave an overview of three different types of testing that happen at the Middle and High school; PSAT, SAT, and Advanced Placement (AP), with more detailed insights into the PARCC test. With the AP tests, the teachers do teach to the test as there are a certain number of items that the students need to know to pass the test to receive their eligibility for college credit.
The PARCC test is a computer based test which assesses Language Arts and Math. The students test in three separate sessions for 90 minutes. In the past the testing that the school administered took a much longer time and covered more subjects. PARCC is testing based on new college and career readiness standards that align with the teaching standards, thus the teachers only teach to the test in as much as they are teaching to the standards.
For all the high stakes testing at DoDEA the teachers are not given a reward for students who score high scores, the scores are not used on teacher evaluations and students are allowed to move to the next grade even if they do not pass. Longo also stated that she believes there is an increase in students who suffer from test anxiety even though the students have been doing some sort of high stakes testing since elementary school.
Jeremy Salove, a former classroom teacher gave insights into testing in Florida (USA). In his school district high stakes testing happened in the Spring. He stated that three to four hours a day (starting in February) were devoted to test prep. In the month before half the day was devoted to preparing the students for testing. The teachers felt that it was integral to spent time on test preparation since the administors desired high scores. Spending more time on test preparation than actually teaching to standards is a detriment to the students and shows what the school values; scores over the students (NPR, 2015).
In the school districts that Salove worked for, teachers were given bonus for high student performance however, students were able to move forward in their grade even if they did not pass the testing. Salove stated that the test scores of his students was never used in an evaluation. However, the results were published so everyone at the school knew which departments were doing well and which weren’t. He thought that this ultimately must have some effect on how administrators approach each school year, department and teacher. He stated that the test scores always came back after the students had progressed to the next grade. Salove went on to say that way the teacher approached test preparation impacted the students’ ability to handle the pressure. “Teachers who approach test prep in a relaxed manner are far less likely to place undue pressure on students. Putting undue pressure on students cannot have a positive effect” (Salove interview)
As I am going to become an ESL teacher I asked about ESL students and if they take part of the testing. Longo stated that yes, ESL students do take part in all the high stakes testing . Depending on their proficiency level they are put in certain categories and are labeled to possibly receive accommodations accordingly. Salove had a similar answer. In most cases ESL students take the same tests. They also have to take a separate test that is designed for language learners. He made an interesting side note that in Florida the secretary of education made a federal request that ELLs be exempted from high stakes testing, due to the large number of ELLs and the effects this has on the state’s overall scores. The request rings true with research I have found on ELL students and high stakes testing. In their research paper Huang, Han and Schnapp, 2012 stated:
Assessment professionals need to take into account more than the ELLs’ scores on these HSTs. For example, they need to aware of the fact that the ELLs are not on the same page as their NE speaking classmates. Many factors affect their performance on the HSTs including the number of years they have lived in the United States and the curriculum they are learning at schools. The ELLs are not taught the same information as their NE peers, which could have a major impact on their HSTs scores
From these two interviews I can see that high stakes testing are used by administration to give assurance that their students are progressing. However, not all schools use the data to give rewards (give teachers bonuses or exceptional performance reviews) or punishments (hold students back). It seems that administration should be able to train their teachers in adequate formative and small scale summative assessments and achieve the same results.
References
Edridge, Marlow. (20010). Assessment and High Stakes Testing. Retrieved on February 9, 2018
Huang,J., Han, T., and Schnapp, K. (2012 March 3). Do High-Stakes Test Really Address
English Language Learners’ Learning Needs? Retrieved February 8, 2018 from http://www.macrothink.org/journal/index.php/ijld/article/viewFile/1472/1188/
NPR. (2015, January 22). The Past, Present and Future of High Stakes Testing. Retrieved on
Feburary 10, 2018 from https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/01/22/377438689/the-past-present-and-future-of-high-stakes-testing
TESOL. (2003). Position Paper on High-Stakes Testing for K-12 English-Language Learners in
the United States of America . Retrieved on February 8, 2018 from http://www.tesol.org/docs/pdf/375.pdf?sfvrsn=2
Comments
Post a Comment