English teachers often feel blamed for low results on high-stakes standardised literacy tests such as Australia's National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). Faced with pressure for their students to produce high scores, teachers can react by making changes to both content and strategies which result in a narrowing of curriculum…

In the current study, two pools of 250 essays, all written as a response to the same prompt, were rated by two groups of raters (14 or 15 raters per group), thereby providing an approximation to the essay's true score. An automated essay scoring (AES) system was trained on the datasets and then scored the essays using a cross-validation scheme. By…

Recent advocacy and legislation across states calls for stricter accountability measures and closure of low-performing charter schools. As charter schools try to meet the multiple accountability standards they face from federal, state, local authorities, and their own associations, it is important to understand how these numerous frameworks…

Standardised testing in early childhood education has a direct impact on how teachers teach. In 2015, Western Australian early childhood teachers were invited to complete a questionnaire to provide feedback on their perceptions of standardised testing in the context of the "Early Years Learning Framework for Australia" (EYLF)…

Teachers in a New Jersey suburban high school noticed an increase in students' stress and anxiety associated with high-stakes testing, and they were struggling to find strategies and interventions to help. The purpose of this study was to investigate high school English and mathematics teachers' current knowledge, experiences, and perceptions…

The idea of a "hyper-surveillance" state that devolves school management to the private sector and local governments, but, at the same time, evaluates, inspects, and sanctions schools in the name of "educational quality and equality," has been advocated by diverse sectors, right and center-left, conservative and liberal,…

This study explored 12 upper-intermediate and advanced learners' affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement with peer feedback in TOEFL iBT preparation classes in an Iranian English-as-a-foreign-language context. The data were collected from textual analysis of original and peer-reviewed drafts of student writing, qualitative interviews, and…

Integration of e-learning and computerized assessments into many levels of educational programs has been increasing as digital technology progresses. Due to a handful of prominent advantages of computer-based-testing (CBT), a rapid transition in test administration mode from paper-based-testing (PBT) to CBT has emerged. Recently, many national and…

Purpose: By recognizing high-stakes testing as a key constraint to teacher agency, this paper aims to provide a close analysis of one teacher's testing narrative to illustrate how emerging positioning is relative to high-stakes testing shapes perception of pedagogical agency. Design/methodology/approach: Data were generated through a series of…

In this month's interview, Kappan's editor talks with developmental psychologist and Northwestern University professor Emma K. Adam about her recent research into stress, stress hormones (particularly cortisol), sleep, and learning. High school students' self-reported stress levels during the day are closely aligned with their measured levels of…

High school science and mathematics achievements in high-stakes testing environments are often characterised by poor performance and reduced participation by learners. The poor performance and reduced participation by learners in science and mathematics is often on the school improvement agendas. Making sense of how to improve learner achievements…

Environmental educators need pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)--they need to know what to teach and how to teach it. This article examines teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of a tool known as a Content Representation (CoRe) for enhancing their PCK development in a school setting. The research design incorporated a partnership between an…

High-stakes tests are often introduced to bring about change on educational practices and thus lead to pedagogical reform. The Field Knowledge Test (FKT) for teacher candidates of English in Turkey is an example of such an attempt. This study aims to giving voice to English language teacher educators and student teachers to view the FKT critically…

There are substantial differences between the Chinese and US education systems. One difference is in the design and use of assessment due to differences in educational policies. This study described the differences in student learning outcomes, instructional approaches, and learner motivation in physical education as consequences of the policies…

The Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI) partnered with the New York State Education Department (NYSED) to examine the pathways used by students to attain a Regents diploma at the outset of a new policy expanding those pathways in June 2015. Under the new 4+1 pathways policy, students could replace one of the two…