A Survey of Teachers' Perspectives on High-Stakes Testing in Colorado: What Gets Taught, What Gets Lost. CSE Technical Report (original) (raw)
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A Survey of Teachers’ Perspectives on Highstakes Testing
2003
The development of state assessments and a school accountability system in Colorado closely parallels trends in standards-based reform efforts nationwide. According to the rhetoric of standards-based reform, setting high standards is expected to improve academic achievement by creating higher expectations and thereby focusing greater effort and resources on student learning. However, critics of standards raise a variety of objections, including the fear that higher standards without additional resources may worsen educational inequities or decrease teacher professionalism. The central role of assessments in standards-based reform has proven to be equally controversial. On the one hand, it is argued that the use of more challenging, open-ended performance assessments, instead of multiple-choice-only, basic-skills tests, will help to better align teaching and learning efforts with ambitious curriculum standards. On the other hand, emphasis on assessments (even good ones) might narrow the curriculum and encourage teachers to teach the test. Regardless of one's position pro or con in the debate about standards and assessments, it is clear that teachers and teachers' classroom practices are expected to be the key intervening variable that will determine the effects of reforms on student learning. The purpose of the present study was to survey a representative sample of teachers in Colorado to examine the effects of standards, the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP), and school report cards, on instruction and test-related practices.
Voices from the Frontlines:Teachers' Perceptions of High-Stakes Testing
education policy analysis archives, 2004
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether teachers perceived Florida's high-stakes testing program to be taking public schools in the right direction. More importantly, we sought to understand why teachers perceived the tests to be taking schools in the right or wrong direction. Based on the survey results of 708 teachers, we categorized their concerns and praises of high-stakes testing into ten themes. Most of the teachers believed that the testing program was not taking schools in the right direction. They commented that the test was used improperly and that the one-time test scores were not an accurate assessment of students' learning and development. In addition, they cited negative effects on the curriculum, teaching and learning, and student and teacher motivation. The positive effects cited were much fewer in number and included the fact that the testing held students, educators, and parents accountable for their actions. Interestingly, teachers were not opposed to accountability, but rather, opposed the manner in which it was currently implemented. Only by understanding these positive and negative effects of the testing program can policymakers hope to improve upon it. To this end, we discuss several implications of these findings, including: limiting the use of test scores, changing the school grading criteria, using alternative assessments, modifying the curriculum, and taking steps to reduce teaching to the test.
Effects of standardized testing on teachers and learning--Another look
1990
and Student Testing (CRESST) UCLA Graduate School of Education 1 Standardized testing has assumed a prominent role in recent efforts to improve the quality of education. National, state, and district tests, combined with minimum competency, special program, and special diploma evaluations, have resulted in a greatly expanded set of testing requirements for most schools. At a cost of millions, even billions, of dollars and at the expense of valuable student, teacher, and administrator time, testing advocates and many policymakers still view testing as a significant, positive, and costeffective tool in educational improvement.
1999
The impact of the new Virginia statewide Standards of Learning (SOL) testing program on classroom instructional and assessment practices was studied through surveys before and after implementation of the testing program. The sample represented responses from 570 secondary school teachers (of mathematics, social studies, English, and science) and 152 elementary school teachers from grades 3 through 5. Teachers were asked about changes in their instructional and assessment practices. Comments were made by 80 teachers on a second survey the following year, which also asked about the impact of the SOL tests on instruction or assessment. Although the generalizability of the data may be limited by the relatively small number of schools represented, both qualitative and quantitative data support the conclusion that teachers in this study changed their assessment and instructional practices in 1997, before any administration of the SOL tests. More than 80% of teachers responded that the SOL tests had an impact on their instruction or assessment, with most changes in instruction. (Contains 3 tables and 11 references.) (SLD)
High school teachers' attitudes toward a statewide high stakes student performance assessment
1993
A study examined Maryland high school teachers' attitudes toward specific individual characteristics of the Maryland Writing Test as well as their overall attitudes toward the test. Subjects, 538 English/language arts, mathematics, science, End social studies teachers in Maryland's 176 public high schools, responded to a survey designed to elicit responses on each of the 18 identified distinguishing characteristics of the writing test. Through a proportional random sampling procedure, a total of 1,220 surveys were sent to the teachers. Results indicated that: (1) 97% of the subjects have favorable total overall attitude scores on the survey instrument; (2) as a group, English/language arts teachers had a higher percentage of teachers with "more-than-important" attitudes toward the test than do those in groups of mathematics, science, and social studies teachers; (3) no moderate or strong differences existed in the total overall attitude scores teachers had based on the number of years they have taught; and (4) teacher in all groups had favorable attitudes toward the 18 identified characteristics of the test. (Seventeen tables of data are included; 24 references, a list of the panel of experts who assisted in development of the survey instrument, an information sheet about the Maryland Writing Test, and the survey instrument are included.) (RS)
State Standardized Testing Programs: Their Effects on Teachers and Students
National Research Center …, 2007
Abstract: A driving force in standards-based educational reform was the 1983 release of" A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform"(National Commission of Excellence in Education [NCEE], 1983). The report called for" an end to the minimum competency ...
Teachers and Testing: Implications from a National Study. Draft
1984
This paper presents findings from a study of teachers' and principals' testing practices. The research included a nationwide survey, exploratory fieldwork in preparation for the survey, and a case study inquiry on testing_costs. Teachers and principals share misgivings with some of the research community about the appropriateness of required tests for some students, and about their quality and equity. Teachers seem to use test results temperatelyas one of many sources of information. As a result of required testing, more time is spent in teaching basic skills and less attention can be paid to other subject areas. The survey also Suggests that those in the education and testing communities have paid far too little attention to the matter of teachers' assessment skills. Teachers essentially receive neither training nor any kind of supervision nor any supporting resources in the development of their own tests. Given their frequency and importance at the elementaryschool level, the findings also suggest curriculum-embedded testing