High Stakes Testing for Tracking, Promotion, and Graduation (1999) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 13-28
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From page 13... ...
This report is about the appropriate use of tests in making such high~stakes decisions about incliviclual students. In his 1997 State of the Union aciciress, President Clinton challenged the nation to undertake "a national crusade for education stanciarcis not federal government stanciarcis, but national stanciarcis, representing what all our students must know to succeed in the knowledge economy of the twenty first century....
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From page 14... ...
Skeptics, on the other hand, worry that such policies may produce harmful consequences for incliviclual students anc3 perhaps for society as a whole. The Clinton aclministration's proposal for new voluntary national tests (VNTs)
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From page 15... ...
In some places, like Chicago, the same achievement test is used both to hold schools accountable anc3 to make incliviclual student promotion decisions. The political debate about voluntary national testing has focused on the inevitable tensions between uniform national stanciarcis anc3 traclitions of state anc3 local school governance.
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From page 16... ...
existing anc3 new tests adequately assess student reacling anc3 math' emetics comprehension in the form most likely to yield accurate informal Lion regarding student achievement of reading and mathematics skills." The questions the Congress has framed reflect concern about the increasing reliance on tests that have a direct impact on students, incluc3' ing the impact of high~stakes testing on various minority communities anc3 on children with disabilities or whose native language is not English. This study therefore focuses on tests that have high stakes for incliviclual students, although the committee recognizes that accountability for stu' clents is related in important ways to accountability for educators, schools, anc3 school systems.
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From page 17... ...
81." Efforts to regulate test use have been based on two principal mocha' nisms: professional norms, including education and self regulation, and legal action, including legislation, regulation, and litigation (Office of Technology Assessment, 1992~. Through its Mer~tal Measurement Year' books, the Buros Institute of Mental Measurement has sought to inform test users about appropriate practices for the past 60 years.
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From page 18... ...
Federal legislation has affected the testing of incliviclual students in two major ways: first, by encouraging or requiring testing, for example, in the Goals 2000: Educate America Act of 1994 anc3, more significantly, in Title ~ of the Elementary anc3 Secondary Education Act of 1965;2 anc3, second, by regulating the use of educational tests anc3 information based on them. An example of the latter is the Family Education Rights anc3 Privacy Act of 1974, commonly known as the Buckley Amendment.
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From page 19... ...
They are based in part on personal experience anc3 journalistic anecdotes: the counter clerk at the local store who cannot make change, the business leacier's complaint that high school graduates lack basic job skills. But much of the information about academic achievement comes from students' performance on tests, anc3 public opinion about the quality of schooling rises or falls with the latest results from NAEP anc3 the Third International Mathematics anc3 Sci' ence Study (TIMSS)
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From page 20... ...
Wisconsin regularly tops the list of state average scores on the SAT, mainly because its state colleges and universities require a different test, the ACT, for admission; Wisconsin students who take the SAT are generally those applying to elite out-of-state colleges thus the state's average score is inflated. This kind of test misuse dates back at least to the mass ability testing of military recruits in World War ~ (the Army Alpha and Beta tests)
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From page 21... ...
History provides equally striking examples of the actual or potential misuse of stanciarclizec3 tests to make decisions about inclivicluals. Un' happy with the increasing numbers of immigrants living in New York City, the president of Columbia University in 1917 embraced the use of the Thornclike Tests for Mental Alertness "to limit the number of Jewish students without a formal policy of restriction" (Crouse and Trusheim, 1988:20~.
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From page 22... ...
But the available evidence suggests that simple retention only compounds the problem: it produces lower achieve' ment and an increased likelihood that the student will eventually drop out of school. Social promotion and simple retention are really only two of several strategies available to educators when tests and other informal tion show that students are experiencing serious academic difficulty.
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From page 23... ...
The committee organized the study by defining "appropriateness" anc3 establishing three criteria for judging whether a test use meets the definition. In our deliberations, we have assumed that the use of tests in decisions about student promotion, tracking, anc3 graduation is intenclec3 to serve educational policy goals, such as setting high stanciarcis for stu' cient learning, raising student achievement levels, ensuring equal ecluca' tional opportunity, fostering parental involvement in student learning, anc3 increasing public support for the schools.
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From page 24... ...
The committee takes no position on the wisdom of such a trade- off; but it is our view that policymakers should fully understand what is at stake and who is most likely to be harmed. The Congress also asked the National Academy of Sciences to consider whether "existing and new tests adequately assess student reading and mathematics comprehension in the form most likely to yield accurate information regarding student achievement of reading and mathematics skills." This could refer to a wide range of issues, including, for example, the balance of multiple- choice and constructed- response items, the use of student portfolios, the length and timing of the test, the availability of calculators or manipulatives, and the language of administration.
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From page 25... ...
Chapter 11 reviews the history of professional norms anc3 legal action in the social control of test use anc3 offers several options for improving test use. Chapter 12 presents the committee's findings anc3 recommendations.
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From page 26... ...
In its short life, the committee has attempted to identify key issues in high~stakes testing, to review anc3 assess current uses of testing in key educational decisions about incliviclual students, anc3 to suggest ways of improving the use of tests to ensure better outcomes. We have necessarily had to limit the scope of our inquiry anc3, in particular, we have icientifiec3 the consequences of certain kinds of decisions as a critical arena for educational policy.
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From page 27... ...
Roeber 1996 The Status of State Student Assessment Programs ire the Urrited States. Oak Brook, IL: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory and Council of Chief State School Officers.
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From page 28... ...
sections 794 et seq. Title I, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 20 U.S.C.
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