High stakes testing refers to state and district level standardized tests students must take to show grade-level proficiency. These tests are tied to school, teacher, and student consequences (The Glossary of Education Reform, 2014). Standardized tests in schools have existed for many years, but the No Child Left Behind law reignited the conversation about high stakes testing (Kamenetz, 2015). In this blog, I interviewed my sister- a special education biology teacher in Los Angeles- about her experience with high stakes testing. I compare her high stakes testing experience with mine as a third grade teacher in Washington, D.C.. My sister works at a title 1 high school in the Los Angeles area, where she teaches 9th grade biology in an inclusive setting. The state of California requires certain grades to take the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) assessment yearly. These assessments are common core aligned and administered online (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, n.d.). Ninth grade is not required to take the SBAC. The state uses the assessment to see how schools are performing in relation to other districts, but hold no consequences for teachers or students. The school uses it to figure out professional development. One assessment my sister finds helpful is their benchmark assessments. Every grade level and content area uses district benchmarks to evaluate students’ progress toward the content and standards.The benchmarks are created by a team of teachers in the subject areas. This is done every quarter and there are four quarters in a school year. Again, these benchmarks are not high stakes. The results are used to re-teach or make modifications to their curriculum and supports offered to students. Sometimes, patterns in groups of students appear when analyzing the benchmark data. Analyzing data has led to improved supports for students receiving special education and English Language Learners. The low stakes dissuades teachers in her school from teaching to a test or teach a certain style with the solely focus of answering certain types of questions correctly. The low stakes also allows teachers to gauge student interest and attend to those interests, because they are not rigid in their pacing. This leads students to more likely to recall and use information in meaningful ways. I’ve taught third grade for the past 4 school years, which is the first year students begin taking state standardized tests. It was not until my second year in third grade that we began testing. We take the PARCC assessment for state purposes as well as the ANET assessments as benchmarks for the school. These tests are not tied to any teacher pay or retention system, which makes them less high stakes. As a teacher, I do not feel pressure to teach to the test nor do I feel it to be excessive; this is partly due to how my school uses assessment data. My school uses the assessment scores as tools for curriculum and teacher improvement. The PARCC assessment is used to inform teachers of their students’ ability, therefore allowing them to anticipate differentiation strategies and curriculum changes to fill gaps in knowledge.The ANET scores are used ensure students are mastering the content, if not, teachers re-teach certain content or make shifts in our practice. Additionally, my school is focused on racial equity among student experiences. We use the assessments to track our progress in ensuring our students from historically marginalized groups are succeeding. The one way the PARCC is a high stakes assessment is that the state charter school board uses the results to rate schools from tier 1 (the highest) to tier 3 (lowest). A few years of low ratings can be cause to revoke a schools charter. Luckily, my school does not place any pressure on teachers because of this. My sister and I have similar experiences with high-stakes assessment in that our schools do not place any consequences or pressure. The assessments are used for learning purposes. I’m unsure if there are district or school consequences for chronic low performance in California, but this does not seem to impact how teachers do their work. This fact is the same for me in the District. References Kamenetez, A. (2015, January 22). The Past, Present And Future Of High-Stakes Testing. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/01/22/377438689/the-past-present-and-future-of-high-stakes-testing Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. (n.d.) What is Smarter Balanced? Retrieved from http://www.smarterbalanced.org The Glossary of Education Reform. (2014). High-Stakes Test. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/high-stakes-testing/
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AuthorDon't judge me for these blog entries. I find these topics important, but teaching and going to school is hard. Archives
February 2018
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