The Importance Of High-Stakes Testing In Schools

In the contemporary American education system high-stakes standardized testing has resulted in a focus on extensive test preparation, as well as a large increase in the numbers of teachers cheating by alternating their students' test scores. Both these phenomena are a direct consequence of the incentives and punishments directly linked to standardized test results.

High Stakes Testing has been overly integrated in the education systems. High-stakes testing are used to determine grade retention, school curriculum, and whether or not students will receive a high school diploma (Myers, 2015). Since the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, high stakes testing has become the norm and mandating that students must pass a standardized test before moving up in grade. As a special education director, the focus is to ensure the student’s accommodations are being followed. Accommodations help increase students’ academic performance. “Both the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004 and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) call for students with disabilities to participate in the general education curriculum and in testing programs to the maximum extent possible for each student (Luke and Schwartz, 2010).” Throughout the years, high stakes testing is becoming more common than ever before. The reality is high stakes testing is one indicator in evaluating children with specific needs. This paper will discuss, the violation of the statutory language regarding assessment based on IDEA, the strategies and goals of a remediation, staff training, common Core and PARCC assessment, and funding for the remediation plan under IDEA.

Inequality “Persistent school segregation does not only mean that children of different racial and ethnic backgrounds attend different schools, but their schools are also unequal in their performance” (Logan, Minca, and Adar, 2012, p. 40). Although segregation is not done intentionally, the negative effects of this are seen in urban school districts. This is evident in high stakes test scores and the graduation rates when compared to their suburban peers. This paper will argue that the schools themselves, including teachers, are a piece of the puzzle that continues to spread inequality in our urban educational system.

The first part of the chapter is about teachers that cheat, and the incentives that they have to cheat. In 1996, Chicago Public Schools started to require their schools to administer high-stakes testing every school year. A school with really low test scores would face

While America’s educational community is emerged in discussing the No Child Left Behind Act, high stakes testing, and what these new versions of old ideas actually mean for the larger society, the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) 2005 report shows that African-American males continue to spiral further down the achievement ladder. They are not thriving or surviving in many school settings. They have been flagged by Statistics as the highest rank among students who choose to leave school; are suspended, expelled, or kicked out of school. Unfortunately, the same is also true when it comes to poor test scores, low GPAs and high rates of referral and placement in special education. In stark contrast, African-American males are underrepresented in gifted education (NCES, 2005; Whiting, 2004; as cited in (Whiting, 2006, p. 222).

Testing Our Schools was discussing the controversial topic of the newly introduced state testing that President Bush was trying to pass. President Bush was calling for higher standards in the academic world and wanted to hold schools and teachers accountable for the materials they are teaching students. This act would be known as “No Child Left Behind.” These standards where called “standards of learning” or SOLs. The documentary went to schools in Virginia to ask teacher how they felt about the standards that would be implanted in their schools. Many of the teachers seemed in favor because it gave them a guide on what to teach and how to teach the subjects. However, other teachers at schools in low income neighborhoods were opposed to the testing because students faced certain obstacles that would hinder true test score results. Many of America’s business sector was in favor of having this program in place because it made sure students were learning the information that would be needed later on in life. Although, these standardize test came with some glaring issues that made standards of learning a controversial topic among American society. Many people believed that the test were not an accurate indicator of a students true intelligence and the margin of error on these tests left many students being misclassified. The belief was, students were not actually learning the material but rather the main focus was to teach these students how to pass a test. These test sometimes

In the contemporary American education system, high risk standardized testing has resulted in a monumental shift in the classroom to a focus on extensive test preparation, as well as a large influx of instructors cheating and alternating their students tests; both can be seen as a direct consequence of the heightened incentives and punishments placed upon teachers.

The NCLB’s testing policy has led to unethical behaviors from school administrators and teachers. One form of the behavior is cheating on standardized tests. “School administrators [are] erasing incorrect responses on students’ answer sheets and substituting correct answers; teachers [are ]allowing more time than test instructions require; [and ]teachers [are] supplying students with hints about which answers are correct; and test preparation sessions using test items” (Spring, 2010. 233). To give an example of eroding teacher professionalism, look at the recent cheating scandals in Georgia and Southern California. Because states reward their schools and teachers when their students score well on standardized tests, teachers in multiple states are being forced to alter test answers in order to keep their job or to receive a better bonus in their salary.

High stakes testing have been a part of public education in the United States since the passage of No Child Left Behind (2002), and more recently other countries like India are adopting similar high stakes test in the hopes to increase student learning and to be accountable to the larger public regarding the effectiveness of public education system. The paper utilizes the theories of John Hattie (2012) and visible learning outcomes to try and understand the effects of standardized testing in public schools from the perspectives of teachers. The research shall solely focus on public schools and the effects of standardized testing in curriculum and practice of day-to-day education. It shall use the various aspects of learning highlighted by Hattie (2012) in his work to discover how testing has affected education, especially in relation to children from lower income households. This research intends to uncover how teachers perceive standardized testing and how it impacts various groups of students. Through the interviews and focus groups with the teachers currently working in education, the hopes to find what teachers perceive are the most effective practices in the current model of testing. This cross case study will include one elementary school in Virginia and one in Andhra Pradesh. The analysis across the cases will showcases how teachers in two similar cases that shall differ on their perceptions of the influence of high stakes testing on students. The findings can help

Standardized testing is a horrible way to show the learning ability of a student. It takes away all the fun in education, because the teachers have to focus on certain things to teach, and that is what will be on test. Students should be able to go to school and learn about what their future will hold or go more in depth with what they want to do when they graduate high school. Not to mention that standardized testing can be really stressful on students. We do not know what will be on that test, and we have a whole semester to get ready for them.

With student learning and achievement being the priority in education, this era of accountability and high stakes testing puts a great deal of pressure on an educational leader. Therefore, learning about data driven decision-making (3D) added another valuable tool to my leadership repertoire. Because students need to be prepared for working in the 21st century, incorporating technology into the classroom as well as using it for data purposes is a must. As I strive to close the learning gaps for students, discussing and analyzing data will be the norm. One important note learned about 3D is that it is more than just numbers and test scores. Many variables affect student grades, and as educators, we must get to the root cause of the problem, and this can be accomplished by using 3D and collaborating with fellow teachers and leaders to assess instruction and provide feedback.

In this article, the authors tried to explore how rural elementary school administrators observe the effect of high-stakes testing in comparison to suburban and urban elementary administrators in Florida. By this study, they focused on the impacts of high-stakes testing on administrators’ instructional leadership behaviours, job satisfactions and motivation & school climate.

I would agree with high stakes testing being a major obstacle in education. With high-stakes testing present, schools are creating a completely different environment that many students do not want to go to. A lot of students may be really good students in the classroom, and may not be good test takers, which makes the situation even worse as more tests are being given to meet the state standards. By creating this kind of evironment at school, students attitudes towards learning are completely changing because we are focusing too much on scores and not on what is being gained through teaching in the classroom. No I am not saying that tests should not be given at schools, but I am saying that the amount of testing needs to decrease, which

In the cartoon with the teacher telling the student to get back to work or she will be left behind used exaggeration to show how that the author feels about testing in schools. Students are at their desks with blinders and tubes connecting to their head feeding them information and keeping them focused. Although, everything in the classroom is black and white outside the window it is luminous. As the girl looks outside there is a P.E sign and a mountain that says science along with the bright sun shining. Then, the teacher is telling the girl to go back to work or she will be left behind ,and the kids says “sounds good to me.” Exaggeration is used to indicate that schools are solely focused on testing. The tubes that are connected to the kids

2 Reflection: High Stakes Testing 1) Share your experiences with the administration of high stakes testing of your students, students in a classroom you observed, or your own children. What is the attitude of the students? Do you think this or other situational factors could have influenced scores? What was the role of teachers or administrators in these factors?