In "Test-Specific Thinking," the authors provide recommended practices, methods, and means for educators to implement structural schemas into teaching, helping students better prepare for tests and formulate stronger responses to certain question frames. Armed with a better understanding of how tests are designed, teachers will increase…

The New York State Education Department (NYSED) has a partnership with NWEA for the development of the 2024 Grades 3-8 English Language Arts Tests. Teachers from across the State work with NYSED in a variety of activities to ensure the validity and reliability of the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP). The 2024 Grades 6 and 7 English Language…

Assessments are one of the most important--and often misunderstood--elements of education. In most cases, tests are administered by the state as well as by districts and schools. Assessments at each of these levels have distinct purposes, yield different information, and are part of a powerful, coordinated approach to improving student outcomes.…

Secondary students with disabilities are given accommodations to support deficits they have in learning and/or behavior. Higher levels of test anxiety within this population are a factor often unaddressed by administrators. The physical environment in which students with disabilities take tests influences their ability to achieve maximum…

In 2016, the Office of the Higher Education Commission issued a directive requiring all higher education institutions in Thailand to have their students take a standardized English proficiency test. According to the directive, the test's results had to align with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). In response to this…

This paper aims to map and understand tactics and practices of resistance to standardised testing in England by focusing on the "More Than a Score" (MTAS) campaign. More specifically, this paper examines the role of professional organisations affiliated to the MTAS campaign in the production and mobilisation of expert knowledge as a tool…

In the United States, standardized tests shape what, how, and why English Language Arts teachers teach. For the last generation, these tests have increasingly taken a narrowly text-centered approach to literature, making it difficult to enact or research alternatives. But what if it were otherwise? In the current study, we asked teachers to…

Learning to read marks an important milestone in children. Extensive research with monolingual and bilingual children has demonstrated that language comprehension (LC) forms fundamental building blocks for reading comprehension (RC). However, mixed findings are reported among studies that compare readings skills in children with and without…

National testing of students has become an increasingly prevalent policy tool, often implemented to drive improvement through increased accountability and heightened competition between schools. Such testing has been found to generate negative emotional responses among students, including increased stress and anxiety. However, there is little…

Effective assessments can illuminate strengths, pinpoint learning gaps, and better guide education. This Spotlight will help readers evaluate effective ways to offer students feedback; examine how some states are transitioning to through-year testing models; hear from educators regarding pressure for student success on standardized tests; gain…

This study draws on qualitative data to analyse the effect of the national Year 5 test culture on test actors in selected Slovak schools. The test culture is presented in the context of disciplinary power, while the method of analysis follows Foucault's later recommendation to focus more on the 'new economy of power relations'. Such an analysis is…

In this state, one constant that students with disabilities have experienced has been the lack of accessibility to the high-stakes standardized test, the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS). The purpose of this Action Research study was to investigate and improve the access, to MCAS testing for students with disabilities in…

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…

While many standardized assessment measures exist to track child mental health treatment outcomes, the degree to which such tools have been adequately tested for reliability and validity across race, ethnicity, and class is uneven. This paper examines the corpus of published tests of psychometric properties for the ten standardized measures used…

In recent years, the Indonesian government has put greater emphasis on promoting critical thinking in the education system, including the notion of critical thinking in national examinations, curriculum, and graduate outcomes for school education. Nevertheless, as in many testing-oriented countries, fostering critical thinking in the Indonesian…