_{Photo Credit: Rorschach Test 1 on flickr photosharing}

As I’ve shared already, it’s testing season. This is the second year I’ve been a prep teacher, and therefore not had a specific group of students whose scores I was “tied” to. I’ve also noted that I’m not feeling as angry, stressed, annoyed this testing season, and I think the two are definitely connected. Lots of interesting stuff floating out there about high stakes testing and incentives, so I thought this would be a great time to look at this…

First up, for those of you who missed it, Stanford University released a study on California’s High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE), which found it was increasing dropping out among minorities and females as they felt they couldn’t pass the test.  Here’s some interesting background from Ed Week’s new blog, Inside School Research:

Just as intriguing, though, is the researchers’ explanation for why the effects hit some groups of students harder than others: They chalk it up to “stereotype threat.”

…when the research team examined students’ previous scores on other state tests, they turned up some evidence that minority students and women had underperformed on particular sections of the state exit exam. Women fared worse than their earlier performance might have predicted, for example, on the math portion. Asian students did worse-than-expected on English-language arts.

Think about the implication for our student’s test scores. If they think the test is critical for their future, then in aggregate, they are likely to perform at a level lower than past performance would indicate. That means if they have internalized the test as being “high stakes” the more likely it is to be inaccurate in actually measuring knowledge. The implications are troubling. I think that students didn’t feel the “threat” until CASHEE because while the stakes are high for educators, testing doesn’t have a real direct link for kids. It is used in some cases to assign double blocks of Language Arts and/or Mathematics in middle school, but CASHEE Is where the rubber hits the road for students.

Links

Testing…Testing, testing…TESTING | Reflections on Teaching

Inside School Research: California’s Exit-Exam Policy: A Study in Inequity