BCTF Information Services—Research & Reports

A new report from the Advancement Project explores the common ideological roots of zero-tolerance policies and the high-stakes testing culture in the United States, as well as the deleterious effects of both trends.  The authors also delve into the ways in which “zero tolerance and high-stakes testing have become intertwined and even mutually reinforcing, combining to push huge numbers of students out of school.” 

The full report, Test, Punish, and Push Out: How “Zero Tolerance” and High-Stakes Testing Funnel Youth Into the School-To-Prison Pipeline, can be found here.

Elsewhere in the world of high-stakes testing:

Delegates at the Australian Education Union’s annual federal conference recently voted to boycott the yearly national literacy and numeracy tests for grades 3, 5, 7, and 9.  The NAPLAN tests (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) are used to create league tables, which rank schools based on test results.  These tables are published on the government’s My School website, which went live this morning.

[UPDATE:   The My School website crashed shortly after its launch due to overwhelming demand.  Everything appears to be working properly now.]

The AEU objects to the use of test data to create league tables, arguing on their website that “League tables which rank schools based on raw test scores are bad for students, schools and education.”

Meanwhile, the National Union of Teachers in the UK saw 25% of its membership respond to an indicative ballot to voice their opinions on the efficacy of SATs.  95% of those respondents said that the current testing system should be abolished, and 76% indicated that they are prepared to boycott the tests.  The NUT and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) now plan to ask their 300,000 members to respond to a full ballot to determine the level of support for a boycott of the tests, which are scheduled for the summer.  The Guardian reported this week that various parents’ groups in the UK have come out in support of the potential boycott.

The University of Colorado’s Education and the Public Interest Center (EPIC) and Arizona State University’s Education Policy Research Unit (EPRU) have just released a policy brief titled, “Universal Access to a Quality Education: Research and Recommendations for the Elimination of Curricular Stratification.”  The authors of the brief argue for the elimination of the practice of organizing students into separate classes based on assumptions about their academic ability.  They argue that “curricular stratification ... has been shown to exacerbate the societal or natural disadvantages suffered by many children,” and they provide recommendations for changing educational policy and practice in this regard.

• Carol C. Burris, Kevin G. Welner & Jennifer W. Bezoza
  Universal Access to a Quality Education: Research and Recommendations for the Elimination of Curricular Stratification  
  Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit
  December 2009, 52 pages.
  

Other recent research into academic tracking and detracking can be found in the March 2008 issue of Teachers College Record:

• Burris, C.C., Wiley, E., Welner, K.G., & Murphy, J.  (2008). Accountability, Rigor, and Detracking: Achievement Effects of Embracing a Challenging Curriculum As a Universal Good for All Students.  Teachers College Record 110(3), 571-607.

• Oakes, J.  (2008). Keeping Track: Structuring Equality and Inequality in an Era of Accountability. Teachers College Record 110(3), 700-712.

• Watanabe, M. (2008). Tracking in the Era of High Stakes State Accountability Reform: Case Studies of Classroom Instruction in North Carolina.  Teachers College Record 110(3), 489-534.
  
  

Raegen Miller
Adding Value to Discussions About Value-Added: A New Framework for Talking About Teacher Effectiveness  
Center for American Progress
December 2009, 24 pages.

In a new report, Raegen Miller argues that the term “value-added" needs to be eliminated from the discussion around the use of test scores as a measure of teacher effectiveness.  The implications of the phrase “value-added” ignore the fact that test scores are a result of many contextual factors, not solely the efforts of an individual teacher; therefore, the language used to discuss teacher effectiveness and teacher evaluation needs to reflect these nuances.  Furthermore, test scores should never be used as the sole determinants when making big decisions that affect teachers.  Miller outlines a framework for guiding discussions around such decisions and for understanding how the data fit into these decision-making processes.

Interesting developments in the world of English high-stakes testing, as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, announced last week that the controversial National Curriculum exams for 11-year-olds could be abolished by 2012. 

The news was greeted favorably by the National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Head Teachers; both organizations have campaigned vigorously for the abolition of the tests, known colloquially as SATs. The unions are currently balloting their members to gauge support for a boycott of the exams in 2010, and a petition circulated by the NUT calling for an end to the SATs has amassed roughly 25,000 signatures to date.  The NUT calls SATs "bad for children, bad for teachers, bad for education and bad for communities."

In spite of the announcement, the unions have not stopped their boycott consultations. The NUT calls the decision to keep SATs in 2010, "clearly disappointing," and is urging members to continue to pressure the government to put an end to the tests.

The National Curriculum tests were instituted in 1993, and have been controversial right from the start. Under the testing system, assessments are given to 7-, 11- and 14-year-olds at the end of Key Stages 1, 2 and 3. In practice, 7-year-olds are assessed by class teachers, while older students sit for marked standardized examinations in English, math and science. In 2008, the system broke down; major problems scoring tests and delivering the results led to the elimination of SATs for 14-year-olds and of the science exams for 11-year-olds. Reports of inconsistent marking, faulty scoring, missing exam papers, and students mistakenly marked absent from the exam ultimately made the SATs status quo untenable.

However welcome the elimination of some of the exams might have been, educators continue to argue that the problems affecting the tests for 14-year-olds were also problems for the SATs given to 11-year-olds, and that the continuation of the latter makes no sense now that the former has been done away with.

Also at issue are the league tables that are created with the SATs results. The SATs scores are used to rank English schools and the resulting tables are then published in national newspapers - reminiscent of the annual Fraser Institute school rankings here in Canada. It is common for parents to choose schools for their children based on the League Tables, in spite of the concerns that teachers and heads have raised over this practice.

Secretary Balls has indicated that, beginning in 2010, primary schools' teacher assessment data will be published alongside test data in the league tables in an attempt to provide a more complete picture of school and student achievement. Mick Brookes, general secretary of the NAHT, has stated that while "Acknowledging teacher assessment is a major step forward," it is still "not far enough."

For more information:

• NUT Assessment Campaign page
• NAHT's "Action on Assessment Reform" page
• SATs stories from The Guardian
  • "Targets are not the way to make schools accountable; Sats tests cause pupils great harm and the information they provide is of little use." (23 Oct. 2009, Warwick Mansell)
• Assessment Reform Group. (2002). Testing, Motivation and Learning. A review of research into the impact of summative testing on students' motivation to learn.
• Marshall, B. (2008). "The End of Testing and Future Possibilities: An Examination of the Demise of Sats in England and Possible Alternative Assessments." English Teaching: Practice and Critique 7(3), 65-73. While the complete "demise" of Sats has not yet come to pass, this paper provides a useful overview of the history of the National Curriculum testing and the opposition it has faced.
• Warwick Mansell's blog - Mansell is a staunch opponent of standardized testing, and a former staff reporter for the Times Educational Supplement.

Jane G. Coggshall, Amber Alt, Ellen Behrstock and Molly Lasagna
Supporting Teacher Talent: The View from Generation Y
Learning Point Associates and Public Agenda
November 2009; 36 pages.

This study reveals the perspectives of “Generation Y” teachers on a number of professional issues (including performance pay, unions, and methods for improving teacher effectiveness), and compares these attitudes to those of older teachers.  The authors also put forward a number of policy recommendations based on their findings, with an aim to support the successful management and retention of talented young teachers.

Early Development Instrument (EDI) – Local Maps
Human Early Learning Partnership
Fall 2009

The Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) has published a series of community EDI and socio-economic maps, as well as written summaries, for each school district in British Columbia.  The EDI is used by Kindergarten teachers to measure the development of incoming students across five areas: physical health and well-being; social competence; emotional maturity; language and cognitive development; and communication skills.  The maps and reports assess early childhood vulnerability in each geographic area.

John Richards
Dropouts: The Achilles’ Heel of Canada’s High-School System
C.D. Howe Institute
October 2009; 28 pages.

According to this study, high school dropout rates are too high in much of Canada, particularly among Aboriginal students and francophone Quebecers.  The author examines the problem on a province-by-province basis, and makes a number of policy recommendations to combat it.

Matthew G. Springer, et al.
Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) Program: Year Three Evaluation Report
National Center on Performance Incentives
August 31, 2009; 566 pages.

This is the NCDI’s final report on the outcomes of the state-funded Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program.  In the end, the study found no evidence that the TEEG had any strong effect on student achievement gains.  While it should be stressed that the findings pertain only to this specific performance pay program, the researchers provide advice to policy makers and practitioners for the design and implementation of future programs.

Linda Darling-Hammond et al.
Professional Learning in the Learning Profession: A Status Report on Teacher Development in the United States and Abroad
National Staff Development Council
February 2009; 162 pages.

This report examines the state of professional development for teachers in the United States and abroad.  The researchers found that, while many countries around the world invest heavily in professional development for educators, the United States lags far behind in this regard.  The report presents a number of findings about the nature of effective professional development and argues for substantial changes to educational policies in the United States.  The situation in Canada is not extensively discussed.

Abridged report (36 pages)

The Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth 2009
Active Healthy Kids Canada
2009; 170 pages.

This annual report card continues to find that the majority of Canadian children and youth are not meeting the country’s physical activity guidelines of 90 minutes of physical activity a day, though the proportion of children meeting the guidelines has risen from 9% in 2005/2006 to 13% in 2007/2008.  The report stresses the strong ties between improved academic performance and regular physical activity, lending support to calls for more time allocated to school-based physical activity such as PE, recess, or school sports.