An administrative rule allowed students who failed an exam to retake it shortly after, triggering strong `teach to the test' incentives to raise these students' test scores for the retake. We develop a model that accounts for truncation and find that these students score 0.14 standard deviations higher on the retest. Using a regression…

Developments in school education in Australia over the past decade have witnessed the rise of national efforts to reform curriculum, assessment and reporting. Constitutionally the power to decide on curriculum matters still resides with the States. Higher stakes in assessment, brought about by national testing and international comparative…

With increased accountability attached to students' results on national testing in Australia, teachers feel under pressure to prepare students for the tests. However, this can lead to shallow teaching of a narrowed curriculum. An alternative approach involves using data to identify common errors and misconceptions, discussing strategies aimed at…

Introduction: The Swedish government has decided to introduce national tests in primary education. Swedish pupils in general have few tests and a recognised possible adverse effect of testing is test anxiety among pupils, which may have a negative impact on examination performance. However, there has been little research on effects of testing on…

The rural elementary principal has the ultimate responsibility for bringing all stakeholders together to focus and improve student achievement. In doing so, they must be able to provide knowledge of national, state, and local policies that influence achievement. Response to Intervention is a tiered framework for school's to provide…

This study examines trends in American students' growth trajectories in reading and math achievement over the past three decades. Drawing upon multiple sources of national assessment data, cohort analyses provide new evidence on the stability and change of national academic growth curves. The emerging trends imply a tripartite pattern where…

The purpose of this study was to examine influences of standards-based reform and high-stakes testing on teacher practices and perceptions in high school science classrooms. A literature review suggested that teacher practices and perceptions are affected by emphasis on standards-based reform and high-stakes testing and that state level…

The educational standards, instruction, and testing of mathematics remain a controversial subject in the United States. Given the significant and growing need for mathematics remediation, it is reasonable to question how well individual states are preparing its high school students to succeed. This evaluation examines the correlation between the…

A key component to the new wave of performance-based pay initiatives is the use of student achievement data to evaluate teacher performance. As greater amounts of student achievement data are being collected, researchers have been developing and applying innovative statistical and econometric models to longitudinal data to develop measures of an…

The particular variable manipulated in this study was the testing procedure. The experimental test contingency is called programmed student achievement which involves requiring a student to retake tests until he has evidenced 100 percent mastery of discrete units of material. (Author/CB)

Educational standards are an essential tool for many school districts in their efforts to increase student academic achievement. Elementary school administrators and teachers play a critical role in the process of gathering, analyzing, and synthesizing student data with the goal of creating a meaningful plan to accomplish this goal. This article…

This study examined the relationship between the internal-external control and text anxiety constructs, and academic achievement. The hypothesis that internals would be more successful academically than externals was not supported. (Author)

Teachers at Woodlawn Middle School in Long Grove, Illinois are no different than most. They were discouraged by the amount of testing taking place in their classrooms, frustrated with not having the kind of data they needed, and feeling overwhelmed by the data they did have. The teachers wanted to make better schoolwide instructional decisions,…

The Colorado Learner Needs Assessment (CLNA) is described, with operational models for sampling, computer analysis and reporting. The rationale of the program is discussed, followed by its specifications (scope, reporting possibilities, precision and data format), development (meetings, letters, preliminary tryout, sampling and analysis plans,…

This report was designed to provide information on the effectiveness of the high school mathematics program in Hawaii, including identification of deficiency areas. The Stanford Achievement Test of Academic Skills (TASK) Level 1 was administered to 10,154 tenth-grade students in October 1983. In general, the students did not perform as well as the…