How do school educators experience high-stakes testing? A case study of the Australian New South Wales Higher School Certificate in two independent schools

Cahill, Paul

doi:10.26199/acu.8vyq9

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Furthermore, this scrutiny strengthens the incentives for educators in low-scoring schools to adopt short-term strategies in an attempt to inflate test scores (Mintrop & Sunderman, 2009)-strategies such as targeting students at cutoff points (so-called "bubble kids"), reducing instructional differentiation, and narrowing the curriculum through teaching to the test and standard-specific remediation, to name a few (Amrein-Beardsley, 2022). Given these findings of disproportionately negative effects on schools with higher shares of low income and minority students, researchers have repeatedly raised concerns about the unintended consequences of test-based accountability policies (Baker & Johnston, 2010;Cahill, 2019;Cunningham & Sanzo, 2002;Herman & Golan, 1993;Mintrop & Sunderman, 2009;Polesel et al, 2012;Polesel et al, 2014).…”

Section: Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Same tests, same results: Multi-year correlations of ESSA-mandated standardized tests in Texas and Nebraska

Gibbs¹,

Pivovarova²,

Berliner³

2023

EPAA

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Statewide assessments in reading and math are required every year under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, at an annual expense of billions of taxpayer dollars. Analyzing 10 years of school-level results from public schools in two states—Nebraska and Texas—we found that year-to-year correlations of schools’ test scores were exceptionally high, with reading and math correlations regularly above r = 0.9, indicating that little new information is derived from annual testing. Furthermore, while schools experiencing the largest demographic changes had significantly lower year-to-year correlations—highlighting the sensitivity of these scores to changes in underlying student demographics—even these lower correlations remained strong. We argue that the frequency of these tests may therefore be reduced, yielding substantial savings of time and money and no loss of useful information.

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