High Stakes Testing for Tracking, Promotion, and Graduation (1999) / Chapter Skim
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12 Findings and Recommendations
12 Findings and Recommendations
Pages 273-307
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From page 273... ...
existing anc3 new tests that are used to assess student performance are not used in a discriminatory manner or inappropriately for student promotion, tracking or graduation; anc3 B 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 reacling anc3 mathematics skills." Congressional interest in this subject stems from the wiclespreac3 movement in the Ignited States for stanciarcis~basec3 school reform, from the consideration of voluntary national tests, anc3 from the increased reliance on achievement tests for various forms of accountability: for school systems, incliviclual schools, administrators, teachers, anc3 students.
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From page 274... ...
These objectives are in tension, and thus present serious technical and operational challenges to test developers and users. ASSESSING THE USES OF TESTS in its deliberations the committee has assumed that the use of tests in decisions about student promotion, tracking, or graduation is intended to serve educational policy goals, such as setting high standards for student learning, raising student achievement levels, ensuring equal educational opportunity, fostering parental involvement in student learning, and increasing public support for the schools.
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From page 275... ...
effectiverress of treatment whether test scores leac3 to placements anc3 other consequences that are educationally benefit cial. This framework leacis us to emphasize several basic principles of appropriate test use.
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From page 276... ...
In the absence of better treatments, better tests will not leac3 to better ecluca' tional outcomes. Throughout the report, the committee has consicierec3 how these principles apply to the appropriate use of tests in decisions about tracking, promotion, anc3 graduation anc3 to possible uses of the proposed voluntary national tests.
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From page 277... ...
These include the alignment between testing anc3 the curricu' lum, the social anc3 economic sorting that follows from the decisions, the range of educational options potentially linked to the decisions, the use of multiple sources of evidence, the use of tests among young children, anc3 improper manipulation of test score outcomes for groups or incliviclu' als. Even though we also raise some of these issues in connection with specific decisions, each of them cuts across two or more types of decisions.
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From page 278... ...
Such information should be made avail able to the public and should be incorporated into teacher education and into educational programs for principals, admin istrators, public officials, and others. Recommendation: A test may appropriately be used to lead curricular reform, but it should not also be used to make high stakes decisions about individual students until test users can show that the test measures what they have been taught.
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From page 279... ...
For ex' ample, according to a recent survey, teacher~assignec3 gracies, stanciarclizec3 tests, developmental factors, attendance, and teacher recommendations form the evidence on which most school districts say that they base promotion decisions (American Federation of Teachers, 1997~. A test score, like any other source of information about a student, is not exact.
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From page 280... ...
For example, it is entirely appropriate to prepare students by covering all the objectives of a test that represents the full range of the intended curriculum. Thus, it is important that test users respect the distinction between genuine remedial education and teaching narrowly to the specific content of a test.
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From page 281... ...
These disproportions are especially disturbing in view of other evidence that grade retention and assignment to low tracks have little educational value. The concentrations of minority students, English-language learners, and low-SES students among those retained in grade, denied high school diplomas, and placed in less demanding classes raise significant questions about the efficacy of schooling and the fairness of major educational decisions, including those made using information from high-stakes tests.
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From page 282... ...
students in low-track classes c30 not have the opportunity to acquire knowledge anc3 skills strongly associated with future success; anc3 (4) many students in low-track classes wouIc3 acquire such knowledge anc3 skills if placecl in more demanding eclucational settings (Slavin et al., 1996; Levin, 1988; Title ~ of the Elementary anc3 Secondary Education Act)
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From page 283... ...
Educators consistently report that, whereas test scores are routinely used in making tracking decisions, most within~gracle tracking decisions are based not solely on test scores but also on students' prior achievement, teacher judgment, anc3 other factors (White et al., 1996; Delany, 1991; Selvin et al., 19901. Research also suggests that "micicile class parents intervene to obtain advantageous positions for their chili siren" regardless of test scores or of teacher recommendations (Lucas, in press:206~.
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From page 284... ...
Many states anc3 school districts rely on large-scale assessments, some heavily, in making decisions about student promotion anc3 retention at specified gracle levels. In the great majority of states anc3 school districts, promotion anc3 retention decisions are based on a combination of gracles, test scores, developmental factors, attenclance, and teacher recommendations (American Fecleration of Teachers, 1997~.
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From page 285... ...
Social promotion anc3 simple retention in gracie are only two of the educational interventions available to educators when students are experiencing serious academic difficulty. Schools can use a number of possible strategies to reduce the need for these either- or choices, for example, by coupling early identification of such students with effective remedial eclucation.
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From page 286... ...
For example, achieving a certain test score has become a necessary condition of gracie~to~gracie promotion. This is inconsistent with current anc3 ciraft revised psychometric stanciarcis, which recommenc3 that such high~stakes decisions about inclivicluals should not automatically be macle on the basis of a single test score; other relevant information about the stuclent's knowledge anc3 skill should also be taken into account (American Educational Research Association et al., 1985: Stanciarc3 8.12; 19981.
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From page 287... ...
Recommendation: Test users should avoid the simple either or option to promote or retain in grade when high stakes tests and other indicators show that students are doing poorly in school, in favor of strategies combining early identification and effective remediation of learning problems. Awarcling or Withholcling High School Diplomas 287 The intended purposes of graduation test requirements are (~)
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From page 288... ...
In fact, minimum competency tests do appear to have affected instruction, by increasing the amount of class time spent on basic skills (Darling-Hammond and Wise, 1985; Madaus and Kellaghan, 1991; O'Day and Smith, 1993) , but available evidence about the possible effects of graduation tests on learning and on high school dropout is inconclusive (e.g., Kreitzer et al., 1989; Reardon, 1996; Catterall, 1990; Cawthorne, 1990; Bishop, 1997~.
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From page 289... ...
At present, however, acivancec3 skills are often not well clefinec3 anc3 ways of assessing them are not well established. Second, there is evidence that graduation tests geared to high performance levels, such as those currently used in the National Assessment of Educational Progress, would result, at least in the short run, in denying diplomas to a large proportion of students (Linn, 1998b)
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From page 290... ...
Recommendation: Research is needed on the effects of high stakes graduation tests on teaching, learning, and high school completion. Research is also needed on alternatives to test based denial of the high school diploma, such as endorsed di plomas, end of course tests, and combining graduation test scores with other indicators of knowledge and skill in making the graduation decision.
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From page 291... ...
Similar concerns apply to the use of VNT scores in making high school graduation decisions. It is doubtful that there woulc3 be any poten' tial use for the results of a 4th gracie reacling test in determining an
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From page 292... ...
There are clear incompatibilities between features of the VNT that would facilitate its use as a tool for informing students, parents, and teachers about student achievement, on one hand, and possible uses of the scores in making decisions about tracking, promotion, or graduation of individual students, on the other hand. Recommendation: The voluntary national tests should not be used for decisions about the tracking, promotion, or graduation of individual students.
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From page 293... ...
However, accommodations should be inclepenclent of the construct being measured (Phillips, 1993, 1994; American Educational Research Asso ciation et al., 19851. Determining whether an accommodation is inciepenclent of the construct is difficult for some types of clisability, especially cognitive disabilities.
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From page 294... ...
This goal significantly chat {enges current knowledge and technology about measurement and test design and the infrastructure needed to achieve broad based participation. In abolition, students with disabilities are rarely incluclec3 in adequate numbers in the pilot samples when new assessments are being cievelopec3; oversampling may be necessary to permit key statistical analyses, such as determining the impact of accommodations on test scores, norm cievelopment, anc3 analyses of differential item functioning (Olson anc3 Goldstein, 1997~.
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From page 295... ...
Recommendation: If a student with disabilities is subject to an assessment used for promotion or graduation decisions, the lEP team should ensure that the curriculum and instruction received by the student through the individual education pro gram is aligned with test content and that the student has had adequate opportunity to learn the material covered by the test.2 295 Although the basic principle should be to include all students with disabilities in the large~scale assessments, and to provide accommocia' tions to enable them to c30 so, some number of students is likely to need to participate in a different or substantially mollified assessment; the size of this group will clepenc3 on the nature of the assessment and the content being assessed. Obtaining meaningful information about the educational achievement and progress of these students is difficult.
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From page 296... ...
Research evidence to date does not allow us to be certain about the meaning of test scores for students who are not yet proficient in English and who have received accommodations or modifications in test procedures. For any examination system employing accommodations or modifications, test developers or test users should conduct research to determine whether the constructs measured are the same for all children (Hambleton and Kanjee, 1994; Olson and Goldstein, 19971.
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From page 297... ...
Experts in the assessment of English language learners might work with test developers to maintain the content difficulty of items while making the language of the instruct tions as well as actual test items more comprehensible. These moclifica' tions would have to be accomplished without making the assessment invalid for other students.
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From page 298... ...
For example, invalid low scores on the test may lead to inappropriate placement in treatments that have not been ciemonstratec3 to be effective. Multiple sources of informal tion should be used to supplement test score data obtained from large' scale assessment of students who are not language proficient, particularly when decisions will be made about incliviclual students on the basis of the test (American Educational Research Association et al., 19851.
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From page 299... ...
Many users of educational test results policymakers, school ac3' ministrators, anc3 teachers are unaware of the Joint Stanciarcis anc3 are untrained in appropriate test use (Office of Technology Assessment, 1992)
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From page 300... ...
A second target of a labeling strategy would be test consumers: parents, students, the public, anc3 the media. Relevant information could include the purpose of the test, intenclec3 uses of inclivicluals' scores, consequences for incliviclual students, steps taken to validate the test for its intenclec3 use, evicience that the test measures what students have been taught, other information used with test scores to make decisions about incliviclual students, anc3 options for questioning decisions based on test scores.
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From page 301... ...
The advantages of this strategy would include its applying to all 50 states anc3 virtually all school districts. Federal regulations could also be a powerful tool for educating policymakers anc3 the public about appropri' ate test use.
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From page 302... ...
Washington, DC: The White House. Council of Chief State School Officers 1998 Survey of State Student Assessment Programs.
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From page 303... ...
1998 Trends in black-white test score differentials: 1. Uses and misuses of NAEP/ SAT data.
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From page 304... ...
Shepard 1991 The Effects of High-Stakes Testing on Achievement: Preliminary Findings About Generalization Across Tests. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association and the National Council on Measurement in Education.
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From page 305... ...
Stanford, CA: National Academy of Education. National Research Council 1982 Placing Children ire Special Education: A Strategy for Equity, K.A.
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From page 306... ...
1996 Eighth Grade Minimum Competency Testing and Early High School Dropout Patterns. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Assocation, New York, April.
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From page 307... ...
Improving America's Schools Act, 1994. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C.
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