What is at stake without high-stakes exams? Students’ evaluation and admission to college at the time of COVID-19

Tasks are a powerful instrument for geography teachers, as they let students engage with the subject. To advance the cumulative learning of students, teachers have to make sure that students learn how to deal with complex and abstract knowledge structures. In the Netherlands, teachers face a dilemma when it comes to task setting: the intended curriculum aims for a considerable part at (parts of) higher order thinking, whereas the high-stakes exams have a clear focus on the use of thinking strategies. This paper explores the task setting and debriefing of Dutch geography teachers by analyzing twenty-three videotaped lessons in upper secondary education by using the Geography Task Categorization Framework. The results show that Dutch teachers mostly rely on textbooks when setting tasks. The focus lies on reproduction and the use of thinking strategies. Tasks aiming at (parts of) higher order thinking are barely used. Furthermore, teachers use tasks from previous high-stakes exams already used in an early stage of upper secondary education. In the debriefing of tasks, teachers move from simple and concrete to complex and abstract knowledge and vice versa. However, most of these movements aim at simplifying knowledge structures. In the observed lessons, curriculum aims at the level of (parts of) higher order thinking are not achieved. The evaluative rules as set by the high-stakes exams and the type of tasks offered by textbooks seem to be dominant.

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Math and science outcomes for students of teachers from standard and alternative pathways in Texas

Education Policy Analysis Archives ◽

10.14507/epaa.28.4863 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 28 ◽

pp. 27

Author(s):

Michael Marder ◽

Bernard David ◽

Caitlin Hamrock

Keyword(s):

Student Performance ◽

Science Teachers ◽

Algebra I ◽

High Stakes ◽

Alternative Pathways ◽

Biology Students ◽

University Preparation ◽

Alternative Routes ◽

Almost All ◽

High Stakes Exams

Texas provides a unique opportunity to examine teachers without standard university preparation, for it prepares more teachers through alternative pathways than any other state. We find two advantages for mathematics and science teachers prepared in the standard way. First, since 2008 they have been staying in the classroom longer than those who pursued alternative routes. Second, we analyze student performance on Algebra 1 and Biology exams over the period 2012-2018. Algebra I students with experienced teachers from standard programs gain .03 to .05 in standard deviation units compared to students whose teachers were alternatively prepared. For Biology students there are fewer statistically significant differences, although when differences exist they almost all favor standard programs. These effects are difficult to measure in part because teachers are not assigned to teach courses with high-stakes exams at random. Nevertheless, we find strong evidence in Algebra I that students learn more when their teachers have standard preparation. In Biology there is also evidence but less compelling. Thus, we recommend that all states bolster traditional university-based teacher certification, that Texas not take drastic action to curtail alternative certification, and that other states not allow it to grow too quickly.

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Which teaching practices improve student performance on high-stakes exams? Evidence from Russia

International Journal of Educational Development ◽

10.1016/j.ijedudev.2014.01.003 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 36 ◽

pp. 13-21 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Andrey Zakharov ◽

Martin Carnoy ◽

Prashant Loyalka

Keyword(s):

Student Performance ◽

Teaching Practices ◽

High Stakes ◽

Improve Student Performance ◽

High Stakes Exams

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The Effects of High Stakes Educational Testing on Enrollments in an Era of Hyper-Expansion: Cross-National Evidence, 1960–2010

Social Forces ◽

10.1093/sf/soaa071 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jared Furuta ◽

Evan Schofer ◽

Shawn Wick

Keyword(s):

Regression Models ◽

Institutional Context ◽

Education For All ◽

Educational Expansion ◽

Panel Regression ◽

High Stakes ◽

Nation States ◽

High Stakes Exams ◽

The Impact ◽

Cross National

Abstract How do national high-stakes exams affect educational expansion across the world? High-stakes exams are conventionally viewed as systems of exclusion that constrain enrollments. In this paper, we situate exams within a broader historical and institutional context and argue that the constraining effect of exams on educational enrollments is a recent phenomenon. Exam systems diffused globally at a time when schooling was a limited enterprise, linked to just a few occupational roles. The later emergence of more inclusive visions of education, culminating in the Education for All (EFA) movement, propelled rapid global educational expansion. In this context, national high-stakes exam systems institutionalize earlier logics of selective education and consequently blunt the impact of more recent expansionary norms. Using panel regression models and a newly constructed dataset of 142 countries from 1960 to 2010, we show that high-stakes exams are associated with lower enrollments. However, this association is strongest in recent years, and exams interact negatively with measures of international pro-educational norms and pressures on nation-states. These findings are consistent with our historical/institutional argument: Exams constrain enrollments in recent years, in part by rendering nations less responsive to global expansionary pressures.

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Part IV. High-Stakes Exams

International Experiences in Language Testing and Assessment ◽

10.3726/978-3-653-02511-8/7 ◽

2016 ◽

Keyword(s):

High Stakes ◽

High Stakes Exams

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The Long-Run Economic Consequences of High-Stakes Examinations: Evidence from Transitory Variation in Pollution

American Economic Journal Applied Economics ◽

10.1257/app.20150213 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 36-65 ◽

Cited By ~ 50

Author(s):

Avraham Ebenstein ◽

Victor Lavy ◽

Sefi Roth

Keyword(s):

Student Performance ◽

Cognitive Performance ◽

Significant Decline ◽

Economic Consequences ◽

High Stakes ◽

Long Run ◽

Noisy Signals ◽

Random Disturbances ◽

High Stakes Exams ◽

Allocative Inefficiency

Cognitive performance during high-stakes exams can be affected by random disturbances that, even if transitory, may have permanent consequences. We evaluate this hypothesis among Israeli students who took a series of matriculation exams between 2000 and 2002. Exploiting variation across the same student taking multiple exams, we find that transitory PM2.5 exposure is associated with a significant decline in student performance. We then examine these students in 2010 and find that PM2.5 exposure during exams is negatively associated with postsecondary educational attainment and earnings. The results highlight how reliance on noisy signals of student quality can lead to allocative inefficiency. (JEL I21, I23, I26, J24, J31, Q51, Q53)

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