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Descriptors:
Testing; Objective Tests; Social Studies; Standardized Tests; Curriculum Development; School Administration

Abstract:
The American Historical Association's (AHA's) Commission on the Social Studies was a compilation of prominent scholars who, from 1929 to 1934, investigated social studies education in American public schools in order to provide some cohesive recommendations for teachers. The AHA Commission had a controversial ending, with one of its members, University of Iowa curriculum professor, Ernest Horn, leading a protest against the Commission's final summary volume. This historical inquiry unveils that the cause of controversy revolved around the use of objective testing (now known as standardised testing) in the social studies curriculum, resulting in two duelling camps within the Commission: those who were against the use of objective testing and those who promoted its use. The Commission, therefore, became the battleground for one of the first debates on the role of standardised testing in the school curriculum. (Contains 2 figures and 100 footnotes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Standardized Tests; Test Results; Elementary School Teachers; Self Efficacy; Information Utilization; Teacher Characteristics; Knowledge Level; Evaluation Methods; Measurement Techniques; Measures (Individuals); Academic Achievement

Abstract:
Educational standardized testing impacts millions of children and educational professionals each year. In the current accountability climate, an effective educational system depends on professionals who are literate in assessment and can take the appropriate actions in response to test results. Measurement researchers should begin to focus more attention on how teachers use assessment results, what skills teachers possess, and what teachers believe they can do in working with test results. This study examined elementary teacher knowledge and self-efficacy in measurement concepts through a random sample of teachers in the state of Washington. Teachers had greater success with skills related to basic measurement concepts compared to using test scores for informed decisions. No relationship was found between years of teaching and measurement knowledge or self-efficacy. However, teachers showing interest in resources for communicating test results to parents had lower self-efficacy compared to teachers not interested in resources. (Contains 2 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Academic Achievement; College Admission; Admissions Officers; College Freshmen; Expertise; Admission Criteria; Standardized Tests; Scores; Grade Point Average; Academic Persistence; Measures (Individuals); Learning Processes; College Entrance Examinations; Essays; Self Evaluation (Individuals)

Abstract:
The handyman has a tool for everything, but the admissions dean is not so lucky: He must make do with just a few. Every year, presidents and professors expect freshmen who are curious, determined, and hungry for challenges. The traditional metrics of merit, however, can't reveal such qualities. Standardized-test scores may or may not predict a given student's long-term potential. Grade-point averages present only a partial view of an applicant's talents and work habits. And so, some admissions officers say, it's time for a new set of tools. Over the last decade, a handful of colleges have designed "noncognitive" assessments to measure attributes--like leadership and the ability to meet goals--that content-based tests do not. Succeeding in college often requires initiative and persistence, or what some researchers call "grit." Noncognitive measures are an attempt to gauge such qualities. If the SAT asks what a student has learned, these assessments try to get at how she learned it. Long an afterthought in academe, alternative indicators of student potential have captured the interest of instructors, testing companies, and enrollment chiefs. As science unspools the secrets of how one learns, it inspires new approaches to assessment. The way most colleges have long evaluated applicants reflects beliefs about what counts most. If those beliefs evolve, it follows, so, too, should the admissions process. Imagining a new system, however, is easier than building one. What should the 21st-century college consider? How much can noncognitive assessments--typically in the form of self-evaluations and short essays--really tell a college? And are they reliable? Admissions officials plan to weigh those questions this week at a national conference sponsored by the University of Southern California's Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice. The conference, "Attributes That Matter: Beyond the Usual in College Admission and Success," will include experts in noncognitive aspects of learning, which represent the next frontier in holistic admissions. Jerome A. Lucido, the center's executive director, predicts that new measures of student potential will eventually become fixtures in higher education, allowing admissions officers to conduct more-robust reviews of applicants, while giving colleges valuable data on those who enroll. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Academic Achievement; Credits; Evidence; Outcomes of Education; Minority Group Children; Standardized Tests; Ownership; Educational Objectives; Family Environment; Access to Computers; Hypothesis Testing; Grades (Scholastic); Scores; Homework; Surveys; Attendance; Correlation; Low Income

Abstract:
Computers are an important part of modern education, yet large segments of the population--especially low-income and minority children--lack access to a computer at home. Does this impede educational achievement? We test this hypothesis by conducting the largest-ever field experiment involving the random provision of free computers for home use to students. 1,123 schoolchildren grades 6-10 in 15 California schools participated in the experiment. Although the program significantly increased computer ownership and use, we find no effects on any educational outcomes, including grades, standardized test scores, credits earned, attendance and disciplinary actions. Our estimates are precise enough to rule out even modestly-sized positive or negative impacts. The estimated null effect is consistent with survey evidence showing no change in homework time or other "intermediate" inputs in education for treatment students. Appended are: (1) Computer Ownership and Participation Rates; (2) Attrition; (3) Heterogeneity by pre-treatment performance; and (4) Heterogeneity by demographic characteristics. (Contains 4 figures, 12 tables and 34 footnotes.) [Funding for the project was provided by Computers for Classrooms, Inc., the ZeroDivide Foundation, and the NET Institute.] Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Evidence; Standardized Tests; Educational Change; Mathematics Teachers; Academic Achievement; Incentives; Experiments; Scores; Middle Schools; Mathematics; Control Groups; Experimental Groups; Grade 5

Abstract:
The Project on Incentives in Teaching (POINT) was a three-year study conducted in the Metropolitan Nashville School System from 2006-07 through 2008-09, in which middle school mathematics teachers voluntarily participated in a controlled experiment to assess the effect of financial rewards for teachers whose students showed unusually large gains on standardized tests. The experiment was intended to test the notion that rewarding teachers for improved scores would cause scores to rise. It was up to participating teachers to decide what, if anything, they needed to do to raise student performance: participate in more professional development, seek coaching, collaborate with other teachers, or simply reflect on their practices. Thus, POINT was focused on the notion that a significant problem in American education is the absence of appropriate incentives, and that correcting the incentive structure would, in and of itself, constitute an effective intervention that improved student outcomes. This executive summary presents the findings from the Project on Incentives in Teaching. [For the full report, "Teacher Pay for Performance: Experimental Evidence from the Project on Incentives in Teaching," see ED513347.] Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Testing Accommodations; Access to Education; Testing; Psychometrics; Test Bias; Standardized Tests; Construct Validity; Test Construction; Test Reliability; Test Validity; Test Theory; Educational Principles; Inferences; Measurement Objectives; Measurement Techniques; Evaluation Methods; Evaluation Problems; Evaluation Research; Student Evaluation; Educational Research; Performance Factors

Abstract:
Standardizing aspects of assessments has long been recognized as a tactic to help make evaluations of examinees fair. It reduces variation in irrelevant aspects of testing procedures that could advantage some examinees and disadvantage others. However, recent attention to making assessment accessible to a more diverse population of students highlights situations in which making tests identical for all examinees can make a testing procedure less fair: Equivalent surface conditions may not provide equivalent evidence about examinees. Although testing accommodations are by now standard practice in most large-scale testing programmes, for the most part these practices lie outside formal educational measurement theory. This article builds on recent research in universal design for learning (UDL), assessment design, and psychometrics to lay out the rationale for inference that is conditional on matching examinees with principled variations of an assessment so as to reduce construct-irrelevant demands. The present focus is assessment for special populations, but it is argued that the principles apply more broadly. (Contains 3 tables, 2 figures, and 2 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Academic Achievement; Achievement Tests; Standardized Tests; Control Groups; Second Language Learning; English Language Learners; Case Studies; Scores; Reading Achievement; Middle School Students; High Stakes Tests; Grades (Scholastic); Teaching Methods; Geographic Information Systems

Abstract:
This case study conducted with 1,425 middle school students in Palm Beach County, Florida, included a treatment group receiving GIS instruction (256) and a control group without GIS instruction (1,169). Quantitative analyses on standardized test scores indicated that inclusion of GIS in middle school curriculum had a significant effect on student achievement on both high stakes Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT) reading scores and on final course grades in science and social studies. The most significant increases were found among the English language learners (ELLs). (Contains 4 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Identification (Psychology); Socialization; Academic Achievement; Males; African American Students; Minority Group Students; Middle School Students; Urban Schools; Parent Role; Parent Influence; Self Concept; Goal Orientation; Self Motivation; Achievement Need; Parent Student Relationship; Mediation Theory; Standardized Tests; Achievement Tests; Student Motivation; Student Attitudes; Correlation

Abstract:
This study examines whether academic identification, or one's psychological and emotional investment in academics, mediates the association between child-reported parental educational socialization and standardized achievement test scores among a predominantly ethnic minority sample of 367 urban middle school students. We predicted that academic identification would mediate the relationship between five forms of perceived parental academic socialization (future-oriented, teaching-oriented, effort-oriented, shame-oriented, and guilt-oriented) and achievement when controlling for prior achievement. We found confirmation for this effect among analyses involving "teaching," "future," and "guilt" forms of socialization. For "teaching," this effect was not present for Black boys. Direct effects indicated that "teaching" and "future" socialization was inversely related to student achievement, but when mediated by academic identification it was positive. "Guilt" was only related to achievement through academic identification. Results suggest the importance of the manner in which parental educational socialization is engaged. (Contains 5 tables and 2 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Familiarity; Standardized Tests; Autism; Examiners; Pervasive Developmental Disorders; Elementary School Students; Preschool Children; Cognitive Ability; Test Bias; Test Results; Test Validity; Kindergarten; Observation

Abstract:
The authors examined the difference in standardized test performance when familiar versus unfamiliar examiners tested 26 preschool and elementary-aged children with autism. The children were matched by age, severity, and developmental level and then randomly placed into familiar and unfamiliar examiner groups. Familiarity with the examiner was established before test administration for children in the treatment group. Both groups were administered 2 subscales of the Psychoeducational Profile-Revised. There was a statistically significant difference in favor of the children tested by the familiar examiners on the cognitive verbal subscale (d = 0.43) and on the cognitive performance subscale (d = 0.47), indicating that examiner familiarity had positive effects on the test performance of children with autism. Given these results, it appears that professionals who are responsible for administering standardized tests to children with autism should make pretest contact with these children to reduce test procedure bias. (Contains 3 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Accountability; Teacher Education; Global Education; Foreign Countries; Educational Change; Higher Education; Leadership; Policy Analysis; Evaluation; Neoliberalism; Educational Policy; Standardized Tests; Accreditation (Institutions); Preservice Teacher Education; Outcomes of Education

Abstract:
This paper examines the emergence of new accountabilities in teaching and teacher education in Ireland in the 15 years period 1997-2012. Framing accountability in terms of the three main approaches to it globally in education systems, that is, compliance with regulations, adherence to professional norms and attainment of results/outcomes, we identify significant changes, particularly, in compliance- and results-driven accountability. A "rising tide" of accountability, due to the interrelated influences of the European higher education space, education legislation and professional self-regulation policies (i.e. Teaching Council), is evident since the late 1990s. This was punctuated by a "perfect storm" in 2010 comprising "bad news" from PISA 2009, the economic bailout and strategic leadership at a system level. The cumulative impact of the "rising tide" and "perfect storm" is evident in how they reframed both "to whom" and "for what" accountability in teacher education relates. Significantly, the new accountabilities in teaching and teacher education reflect a move towards the dominant global education reform movement (Sahlberg 2007) with its emphasis on standardisation, narrow focus on literacy and numeracy and higher stakes accountability. (Contains 5 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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