Explains assessment's nature and purpose and appropriate classroom conditions for its use. Describes a teaching and learning model for the assessment cycle that includes application of learning targets, purposes, methods, feedback/inference, and documentation and communication of results. Delineates six core principles for quality assessment. (MLH)

According to 1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress science results, there is no difference between private and public school performance by the time one reaches the 75th percentile of grade 12. Recent SAT scores for the top 20% of students indicate teachers are not inflating grades. The National Center for Fair and Open Testing…

Uses a case study of Charleston, South Carolina, to analyze the new, more rational, legally defensible, durable forms of desegregation and discrimination that replaced caste arrangements in public education, focusing on the development and implications of high stakes tests for both teachers and students. (SM)

Challenges the belief that high stakes tests are the keystone of students' educational attainment, describing a series of exploratory workshops, developed in reaction to this issue, in which teachers (as essential preparation for developing students' curiosity) deepened their understanding of the principles of physics by playing with light. Such…

In England, the General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQ) assessment regime has been radical, influential, and controversial. Drawing on interviews with diverse policy-development constituencies, this paper argues that GNVQs presented mainstream policy processes with profound ideological and epistemological challenges undermined by…

Findings from a study conducted with 203 suburban secondary and elementary teachers in Ohio reveal concerns about proficiency testing's effects on professional job environment, curriculum, student learning behavior and needs, and community relations. Economic and policy forces are de-professionalizing certain aspects of teachers' work. (Contains…

Students with disabilities are required by law to participate in state and district assessments and performance reports. High-stakes testing is a significant part of standards-based reform and educational accountability. There are many potential negative and positive consequences of high-stakes testing for students with disabilities. Educators…

Presents the American Educational Research Association's position on high-stakes educational testing, which stresses conditions essential to sound implementation of such testing, including: protection against high-stakes decisions based on single tests; adequate resources and opportunity to learn; validation for each intended use; alignment…

Presents a speech delivered at the 2001 Whole Language Umbrella Conference in Chicago, Illinois. Considers the situation behind the call for an education rights movement. Discusses how privatizing, corporatizing, and standardizing are happening in many public spheres. Suggests that schools are being manipulated by corporations. Calls for an…

Presents a call to action (including an outline of specific ideas) to educators to resist high-stakes testing, and encourages them to stand up for what they know about how and why children learn (not by the threat of being retained or not graduating) and how and what to teach (not teaching to the tests). (SR)

Presents a fictionalized dialogue loosely based on a meeting attended after writing tests had been piloted. Notes that some details have been added and enhanced to demonstrate the impact that state writing assessments with high stakes can have on classroom content. (SG)

Many positive and negative consequences of high-stakes testing for students with disabilities are alleged. Yet, there is little evidence on actual consequences. Both anecdotal and empirical evidence were reviewed with regard to increased participation in assessment, raised expectations, provision of appropriate assessment accommodations, alignment…

As the effects of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and its ensuing mandates for compliance are felt in classrooms across the United States, the issues of high-stakes testing and rigorous benchmark paradigms are becoming a daily challenge for teachers. NCLB mandates rigorous testing for every child in grades 3-8 in reading and math. Children…

In this article, the author offers a new vision of assessment that has the potential of bringing about remarkable gains in student achievement. The time has come to take advantage of the new understanding of the potential of assessment and to fundamentally rethink the relationship between assessment practices and effective schools in the United…

The current emphasis on high-stakes testing is leaving an unmistakable imprint on all aspects of education. Our curriculum, our instructional methods and materials and even our understanding of the purpose of public education are being reshaped by the standardized tests. Another area where the impact of high-stakes testing can be felt is in the…