description- – The educational research agenda proposed by the National Board on Educational Testing and Public Policy has five priorities. The first is monitoring the effects of state-level tests, including promotion and exit-level examinations, and teacher testing. The second priority is designing state systems for accountability that link technical possibilities with public policy issues. A third priority is understanding the role of tests in standards-based educational reform. This means investigating a possible connection between high stakes tests and student dropout rates. A fourth priority is understanding, and making clear, how standardized tests are used in college admissions. A final need is understanding the link between technology and testing. The national research agenda should establish the best uses of tests, study school system accountability, and consider the impact of new technologies on testing.
subjectcollectiondatepublishercreator description- – In order to understand the roles of test scores and diversity characteristics (including race and ethnicity) in the admission process, National Board researchers interviewed admissions directors who worked at selective public and private institutions are well as admissions consultants in the summer and fall of 1999. This report presents an overview of the roles that test scores and diversity characteristics play at the different stages of the admission process, as identified by the interviewees. The overarching theme is the variety of ways in which selective institutions use test score and diversity information, from tools for marketing and recruitment to information for admissions decision making to foci for support services on campus. Also presented are the strategies that interviewees identified for balancing the effects of these roles on the academic and racial/ethnic composition of the applicant, admitted, enrolled, and retained student body. The report also explores some of the options that colleges have in their use and interpretation of test score and diversity information, and it presents some suggestions about colleges might begin to think about the roles of test scores and diversity characteristics of the admission process. Appendixes contain two interview protocols.
subjectcollectiondatepublishercreator description- – The goal of this study was to identify the effects of state-level standards-based reform on teaching and learning, paying particular attention to the state test and associated stakes. On-site interviews were conducted with 360 educators (elementary, middle, and high school teachers) in 3 states (120 in each state) attaching different stakes to the test results. In Kansas, state test results were used to determine school accreditation but had no stakes for students. In Michigan, school accreditation was determined by student participation in and performance on the state test and students received an endorsed diploma and were eligible for college tuition credit if they scored above a certain level on the 11th grade tests. In Massachusetts, school ratings were based on the percentage of students in different performance categories and students, starting in 2003, had to pass the 10th grade test to graduate. No clear relationship was found between the level of the stakes attached to the state test and the influence of the state standards on classroom practice. Findings suggest that other factors are at least as important, if not more so, in terms of encouraging educators to align classroom curricula with these standards. At the same time, as the stakes attached to the test results increased, the test seemed to become the medium through which the standards were interpreted. Taken together, findings suggest that stakes are a powerful level for effecting change, but one whose effects are uncertain. A one-size-fits-all model of standards, tests, and accountability in not likely to bring about the greatest motivation and learning for all students. Three appendixes contain a grid describing state testing programs, the interview protocol, and the methodology.
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