Identifying New Jersey Teachers’ Assessment Literacy as Precondition for Implementing Student Growth Objectives

The Student Growth Objectives are assessments created locally or by commercial educational organizations. The students’ scores from the Student Growth Objectives are included in teacher summative evaluation as one of the measures of teacher’s effectiveness. The high amplitude of the requirements in teacher evaluation raised a concern of whether New Jersey public school teachers were competent in assessment theory to effectively utilize the state mandated tests. The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify New Jersey teachers’ competence in student educational assessments. The researcher measured teachers’ assessment literacy level between different groups based on subject taught, years of experience, school assignment and educational degree attained. The data collection occurred via e-mail. Seven hundred ninety eight teachers received an Assessment Literacy Inventory survey developed by Mertler and Campbell. Eighty-two teachers fully completed the survey (N=82). The inferential analysis included an independent-sample t test, One-Way Analyses of Variances test, a post hoc, Tukey test and Welch and Brown-Forsythe tests. The results of this study indicated teachers’ overall scores of 51% on entire instrument. The highest overall score of 61% was for Standard 1, Choosing Appropriate Assessment Methods. The lowest overall score of 39% was for Standard 2, Developing Appropriate Assessment Methods. The conclusion of this study was that New Jersey teachers demonstrated a low level of competence in student educational assessments. In general, the teacher assessment literacy did not improve during the last two decades.

Card Sorts, State Tests, and Meaningful Mathematics

“Data-driven decision making” is a phrase that is now commonplace in educational conversations. It is used when school districts discuss strategies to help meet the needs of all students while closing the achievement gap between subgroups of students. Within mathematics education, there is a growing need to educate prospective and practicing mathematics teachers about No Child Left Behind accountability measures and corresponding data within a given state in a way that emphasizes meaningful mathematics instruction that is consistent with national recommendations (NCTM 2000). Given pressures that teachers face within high-stakes teaching environments, it is important to analyze assessment tools, such as state-mandated tests, in an efficient, enlightened manner. A goal of such an analysis is to acknowledge accountability through constructive discourse while continuing to emphasize good mathematics teaching. Such discourse about accountability can take on many forms (Chauvot 2006). This article shares card-sorting activities that use items from state-mandated tests with prospective and practicing mathematics teachers. These activities give teachers tools to further accountability measures while exploring reformminded mathematics instruction.

Limiting the Unintended Consequences of High-Stakes Testing.

Interviews with 61 teachers and administrators in four Minnesota school districts suggest that, in their judgment, Minnesota's state-mandated tests were well-aligned with curricular priorities and teachers' instructional goals, emphasizing critical thinking as well as competencies needed to pass the Basic Standards exit exam, and avoiding the type of recall item that would require drill and memorization. This result, i n combination with a survey showing that 85 percent of Minnesota teachers support the exit exam, suggests that Minnesota has been unusually successful in designing a high stakes testing system that has garnered teacher support. The success of Minnesota's model suggests that unintended narrowing of the curriculum due to high stakes testing may be avoided if pressure on teachers to narrow the curriculum is reduced through well-designed, well-aligned exams.

Constraining Elementary Teachers' Work:Dilemmas and Paradoxes Created by State Mandated Testing

There are frequent reports of the challenges to teacher professionalism associated with high stakes and mandated testing (McNeil, 2000). So, we were not surprised in this year-long study of two elementary schools in upstate New York to hear teachers talk about the many ways the 4th grade tests in English Language Arts, Mathematics and Science undermine their ability to do their jobs with integrity. We came to understand in more nuanced ways the ongoing tension created by teachers' desires to be professionals, to act with integrity, and at the same time to give every child a chance to succeed. What we found in these schools is that the high stakes tests continually forced teachers to act in ways they did not think were professional and often resulted in creating instructional environments that teachers did not think were conducive to student success. The teachers at these elementary schools are not radicals. They do not seek complete autonomy, they do not eschew the need for accountability (even bureaucratic accountability), they find some virtue in state mandated tests, they are content within centralized systems that proscribe some aspects of their work. But, they also perceive themselves as professionals with both the responsibility and capability of doing their jobs well and in the best interests of their students. New York State's outcomes based bureaucratic accountability system tests their resolve, makes them angry or frustrated, and requires unnecessary compromises in their work.

The Influence of State-Mandated Testing on Teachers of Literature

This study investigated the influence of state-mandated tests on the thoughts and actions of three middle school-junior high school literature teachers. Case studies revealed that the changes the tests caused in their teaching were a function of two factors: (a) the fit between the teacher’s preferred approach to teaching literature and the conception of literature embodied in the state tests, and (b) the amount of “curricular power” the teacher held—that is, the teacher’s place in the curricular decision-making structure of the school. The conclusions suggest that a subject such as literature, for which several competing conceptions currently exist, presents special problems during a time when tests are being used to influence classroom practice.

Editorial

Testing is on people's minds these days. In Georgia, students face standardized tests or other state-mandated tests every year but one (fifth grade) between kindergarten and 12th grade. Reports have surfaced of large numbers of Georgia kindergarteners who cried because they could nor do the California Achievement Test, which, as of 1988, they must “pass” to be promoted to first grade. Other reports claim that many high school students have become complacent about taking standardized tests because they cannot see what relevance the tests have. Meanwhile, chambers of commerce offer monetary rewards to those teachers whose students' year-end test scores reach arbitrary targets, and real estate agents add thousands of dollar to rhe prices of houses in suburban school districts where Scholastic Aptitude Test score averages exceed those of neighboring districts. School personnel respond to these developments in various ways—instituting test-preparation units or courses, setting aside class periods for intensive review, discouraging ill-prepared students from taking the tests, and “realigning” curricula to fit test content.