Differences in personalized learning practice and technology use in high- and low-performing learner-centered schools in the United States

The Every Student Succeeds Act supports personalized learning (PL) to close achievement gaps of diverse K-12 learners in the United States. Implementing PL into a classroom entails a paradigm change of the educational system. However, it is demanding to transform traditional practice into a personalized one under the pressure of the annual standardized testing while it is unclear which PL approaches are more likely to result in better academic outcomes than others. Using national survey data of ELA teachers in identified learner-centered schools, this study compared high and low-performing learner-centered schools (determined by their standardized test results) in terms of their use of five PL features (personalized learning plan, competency-based student progress, criterion-referenced assessment, project- or problem-based learning, and multi-year mentoring) and their use of technology for the four functions of planning, learning, assessment, and recordkeeping. Generally, teachers in high-performing schools implemented PL more thoroughly and utilized technology for more functions than those in low-performing schools. Teachers in high-performing schools more frequently considered career goals when creating personal learning plans, shared the project outcomes with the community, and assessed non-academic outcomes. They stayed longer with the same students and developed close relationships with more students. Also, they more frequently used technology for sharing resources and reported having a more powerful technology system than those in low-performing schools. This study informs educators, administrators, and researchers of which PL approaches and technology uses are more likely to result in better academic outcomes measured by standardized assessments.

     

Academic Improvement Through Regular Assessment

Media reports are rife with claims that students in the United States are overtested and that they and their education are suffering as result. Here I argue the opposite—that students would benefit in numerous ways from more frequent assessment, especially of diagnostic testing. The regular assessment of students serves critical educational and life-learning functions. It focuses the efforts of educators and students on mastering important material. Testing provides educators with crucial intelligence about the needs and abilities of students and the performance of academic programs. Regular assessment provides students and parents with useful feedback regarding how well the student is building important skills and knowledge. It allows both parents and educators to identify motivational and learning problems with individual students at an early stage, when interventions have the greatest prospects for success. It is especially important in the areas of early reading acquisition and special education, supposedly “sensitive” areas where educators often eschew regular assessment. Finally, standardized testing provides students with an important skill—test-taking experience and facility—that will serve them well throughout their lives. A wealth of evidence confirms that testing alone boosts student achievement.     

On the testing of standards and standardized achievement testing: Panacea,placebo, or pandora's box?

Parents and educators concerned with the quality of education in Canadian schools have been subjected to a concerted campaign (through editorials, columns, and letters to the editor in major dailies and magazines, as well as a spate of books with alarmist titles) aimed at convincing them that the lack of adequate testing represents a major shortcoming and a stumbling block to educational reform. Provincewide and nationwide standardized achievement tests are offered as an indispensable tool to understand what works and what does not, to let parents know how schools are doing and how well their children are performing, and to make teachers and school boards accountable. Provincial education authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to resist the pressure, with Ontario the latest to jump on the testing bandwagon. However, although concerns about school curricula and about the best methods for testing student learning and performance are legitimate, the belief that standardized achievement tests are part of the solution to many ills allegedly afflicting our educational system does not stand up to the increasingly clear evidence of the many problems associated with the construction and administration of these tests, as well as the misuse and abuse of test scores. Far from being a panacea, this approach has proved to be fraught with dangers and adverse effects, from a narrowing of the curriculum to overemphasis of routine processes at the expense of higher learning skills, with virtually no empirical support for the purported benefits. With Canadian students facing the risk of being subjected to the same abuses as their U.S. counterparts, this paper reviews recent contributions and attempts to alert educators and policymakers to the serious deficiencies of this type of testing.     

The growth of high‐stakes testing in the USA: accountability,markets and the decline in educational equality

Over the last decade education in the United States has undergone perhaps its most significant transformation. Where in the past public schools have been primarily under the control of the local community, control has shifted to the state and federal levels. Furthermore, state and federal governments have introduced standardized testing and accountability as a means to hold teachers and students responsible. These reforms have been successfully introduced because reform proponents have provided three principal rationales for the reforms: they are necessary within an increasingly globalized economy, they will reduce educational inequality and they will increase assessment objectivity. After describing the reforms implemented in New York and Texas and by the federal government through the ‘No Child Left Behind’ Act, the author discusses a range of evidence that the reforms have not achieved their ostensible goals and that resistance to the reforms is beginning to emerge from US educators and citizens.     

英语教育活动中档案袋评价应用分析

在英语教育活动中,现行的以成绩为主的终结性评价标准与体系已无法满足对师生以及教育活动效果进行评价的需要,而基于多元智能理论创建的档案袋评价则是一种可行性的解决方案。档案袋评价是教育评价体系中非常有效的一种质性评价方式,能够针对当前评价模式的弊端,促进师生角色转变,增加过程性评价,激发英语学习者的学习动机,丰富英语教育评价手段,真正发挥教育评价的积极作用。     

The impact of high-stakes testing on curriculum and pedagogy: a teacher perspective from Australia

Debates continue about how high-stakes testing regimes influence schools at all levels: their impact on teaching practices, distribution of resources and curriculum provision, and whether they achieve the intended increases in student achievement in targeted areas. In 2008, the Australian government introduced a national testing scheme, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), in which all Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are required to participate, and a national website, MySchool, was established in 2010 to publish the results of all schools. This paper reports on the first national study of educators’ views on the impact of NAPLAN on Australian schools and students. Over 8000 educators from all states and territories participated in the study, and the findings indicate that the testing regime is leading to a reduction in time spent on other curriculum areas and adjustment of pedagogical practice and curriculum content to mirror the tests. The findings suggest that the modification of teaching and curricular practices is in response to concerns regarding the use and reporting of NAPLAN data and the potential impact on schools. This confirms findings of researchers in other countries on the capacity of high-stakes regimes to distort teaching practices, constrain the curriculum and narrow students’ educational experiences.     

Standardized Testing + High-Stakes Decisions = Educational Inequity

Changes in assessment policy have increased standardized testing at provincial, national, and international levels, introduced testing at more grade levels, increased the reporting of test results, and attached more significance to those results. Advocates claim that testing will result in greater accountability in education. The research demonstrates that standardized testing has a negative impact on students, perpetuating and intensifying educational inequity through test bias and the misuse of test scores. Test results are increasingly being used to analyse policy, program, school, and teacher success, and they are being inappropriately used as "educational gatekeepers" to make important decisions about students, teachers, schools, and school systems. This paper focuses on how standardized testing is becoming the mechanism that facilitates many questionable education practices that contribute to educational inequity.     

Strategies for Improving Vertical Alignment: Implementation of a College-Readiness Collaborative of Secondary and Post-Secondary Educators

This article describes how one community college and region service center developed a collaborative of secondary and post-secondary English/Language Arts educational professionals to promote college readiness. Challenged by state mandates to test college readiness and by concerns about student performance in high school and college English classes, the collaborative examined standards and testing practices, high school and college cultures, college placement policies, course content, assessment practices, syllabi and sample assignments, and college preparation programs. The results of the two-year collaboration include a list of nine specific practices that educators can use to enhance students’ success in college Composition I. In addition, the collaborative implemented these recommendations in several area high schools.     

Notes on the American Fascination with the English Tradition of School Inspection

The paper briefly explores the dynamics of the American school reform movement to explain the current American interest in English school inspection. The main explanation suggested is that there is a clear and growing awareness of the difficulties of ‘knowing schools’ through standardized testing. Knowledge from testing is a poor resource for schemes of school accountability and for supporting the work of teachers. Reflecting American interest, the ‘Study of School Inspection’ (Wilson, 1995) was carried out in 1992 to discover the underlying assumptions in the ways traditional English inspection knows and judges schools. The study, which was based on watching LEA and HM inspectors at work over a 9 month period, considers some of the ramifications of the English approach for American assessment and reform     

From nationwide standardized testing to school‐based alternative embedded assessment in Israel: Students' performance in the matriculation 2000 project

Matriculation 2000 was a 5‐year project aimed at moving from the nationwide traditional examination system in Israel to a school‐based alternative embedded assessment. Encompassing 22 high schools from various communities in the country, the Project aimed at fostering deep understanding, higher‐order thinking skills, and students' engagement in learning through alternative teaching and embedded assessment methods. This article describes research conducted during the fifth year of the Project at 2 experimental and 2 control schools. The research objective was to investigate students' learning outcomes in chemistry and biology in the Matriculation 2000 Project. The assumption was that alternative embedded assessment has some effect on students' performance. The experimental students scored significantly higher than their control group peers on low‐level assignments and more so on assignments that required higher‐order thinking skills. The findings indicate that given adequate support and teachers' consent and collaboration, schools can transfer from nationwide or statewide standardized testing to school‐based alter‐native embedded assessment. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 34–52, 2003     

Every school a school of choice: school choice in Ireland as viewed through American eyes

‘Choice’ and ‘freedom’ as measured by the ability of parents to select their children's schools are deeply embedded in the national ethos of the United States of America. Wealthy American parents have always exercised school choice but minority and lowincome students are often trapped in failing schools. This paper is based on research conducted in a purposive sample of Irish primary schools into the nature of school choice. The authors examine five aspects of the Irish national primary school system that could provide models for American educators, whose vision often stops at the boundaries of the United States: education law, school choice for all, a national curriculum framework, the role of assessment, and the role of parents and educators in the creation of new schools. While arguably the five relate directly to school choice of different degrees, they collectively weave a web whereby school systems in the Republic of Ireland and the USA may productively be compared to the benefit of both.     

The Use and Misuse of Standardized Testing: A Whiteheadian Point of View

First an overview is given about the actual national and international situation concerning standardized testing. Then two major reasons are presented why accountability systems based on standardized testing have become so widespread: (a) the missing validity and reliability of teachers’ assessment of students’ achievement, and (b) the important role standardized testing plays for out-put management in educational systems.On the basis of these considerations Alfred North Whitehead’s critical remarks on external standardized testing are presented. Whitehead’s main point is that external standardized testing limits the freedom of teachers to adapt to the complex, situation specific circumstances in order to obtain a maximum of the creative learning process for students who are conceived as specialists. Instead external testings lead to “teaching to the test.” As a consequence, the attitude of creative, adventurous exploration is undermined and substituted by simple pattern recognition, narrow visions, and even boredom. Finally, the question is raised whether there is any possibility of developing a measurement tool which on the one side meets scientific test criteria, and on the other side is still flexible enough to do justice to needs of individual schools – which according to Whitehead are the essential educational unit – and not vice versa, as it is the case at present with external standardized testing. That such a flexible approach to evaluation is possible is demonstrated by the presentation of the basic ideas of the MSS (Module Approach to Self-Evaluation of School Development Projects) which has been developed and examined in ten schools by the author and his collaborators.     

How Can Student Success Support Teacher Self-Efficacy and Retention?

High-stakes testing has driven the way that educators deliver instruction. Historically, standardized testing has been in existence since the 1800s, but the impact of accountability was not recognized until the late 1970s. Science educators are trying to balance the requirements of state assessments with creative and meaningful curricula. Inquiry-based science instruction has led the way in assisting students in the process of discovering knowledge for themselves instead of simply being asked to recall information. Inquiry learning promotes creativity by increasing motivation, wonderment, and curiosity. The author proposes that inquiry is the key to enhancing creativity, while still meeting the demands of standardized testing.     

Factors affecting the professional characteristics of teacher educators in Israel and in the USA: a comparison of two models

The objective of this research study was to identify the factors affecting the professional characteristics of teacher educators by comparing two models of teacher education. The research findings revealed four major focal points that have an impact on professional characteristics: the operational model adopted by the institution where teacher educators work; the breadth and depth of teacher educators’ research and scholarship and the degree to which such scholarship is required as part of the assessment criteria; the cooperation between the training institution and the practical field (i.e., the schools where the students do their practice teaching); and the informal relationships between teacher educators and their students. The novelty of the study resides in the fact that these points affect teacher educators’ professional characteristics and that focusing on these characteristics facilitates a comprehensive view of methods, tools and directions that may expedite the professional development of teacher educators.     

‘The reality is complex’: teachers’ and school leaders’ accounts and justifications of grouping practices in the English key stage 2 classroom

ABSTRACT

Grouping pupils by attainment is frequently practised in primary schools yet is associated with detrimental effects for middle- and lower-attaining children. Drawing on a mixed methods study, we find that attainment grouping practices at key stage 2 in primary schools are seldom straightforward. Although grouping by attainment appears to be the dominant form of grouping, the language used by teachers to talk about their classroom practice suggests a varied and sometimes complex picture. We explore how school leaders and teachers justify their grouping practices and conclude that primary school educators endeavour to strike a balance between their concern for the child and the need to respond to the demands of testing and assessment. In the wake of new reforms to primary education, the findings in this study are significant and timely in providing a picture of the types of grouping currently being carried out in primary schools across England.     

How Can Released State Test Items Support Interim Assessment Purposes in an Educational Crisis?

State testing programs regularly release previously administered test items to the public. We provide an open-source recipe for state, district, and school assessment coordinators to combine these items flexibly to produce scores linked to established state score scales. These would enable estimation of student score distributions and achievement levels. We discuss how educators can use resulting scores to estimate achievement distributions at the classroom and school level. We emphasize that any use of such tests should be tertiary, with no stakes for students, educators, and schools, particularly in the context of a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. These tests and their results should also be lower in priority than assessments of physical, mental, and social–emotional health, and lower in priority than classroom and district assessments that may already be in place. We encourage state testing programs to release all the ingredients for this recipe to support low-stakes, aggregate-level assessments. This is particularly urgent during a crisis where scores may be declining and gaps increasing at unknown rates.     

美国医学院校的伦理学教育:对教学大纲的研究

为了解美国医学院校中伦理学作为必修课的学习范围,课程目标、教学方法、教学内容、参考读物以及学生成绩评定方式,研究进行了一项调查,通过对58份医学伦理学教学大纲的重点研究,发现共有10种教学目标,平均每个院校3种;3种教学方法,平均4种;6种学生成绩评定方式,平均2种;39个方面的教学内容,平均13个。这些教学大纲共要求或推荐1191种不同的读物,其中只有8种为6所以上的院校所使用。研究表明,美国的医学伦理学教育五花八门,但“理想”的伦理学教育在实际教学中还是有所体现,几个方面的不足应引起注意。     

Dilemmas in crossing the boundaries: From K-12 to higher education and back again

For the purpose of reflective analysis, this article, which employs narrative inquiry as a research methodology, combines two “crossing the boundaries” dilemmas I experienced over the course of a decade. While the dilemmas relate to different issues that emerged in my career (standardized testing as a K-12 teacher and the formal evaluation of a reform program as a tenured, full professor), I trace the roots of the dilemmas to the same source: the hegemonic relationship between theory and practice which, despite the passage of time, continues to persist in the field of education and to shape the professional experiences of educators, some of which are miseducative. I argue that until the relationship between educational practices in schools and educational practices in universities are addressed, school reform that benefits children cannot be fully realized.     

Varying access to professional,special educational support: a total population comparison of special educators in Swedish independent and municipal schools

Independent schools are securely established in the Swedish education system. Prior research shows they generally have fewer pupils in need of support and lower proportions of special educators. Here, results are presented from a total population study of Swedish special educators (n = 4252) examined after 2001. The aim was to explore and compare the occupational situations of special educators working in Swedish municipal and independent schools. This is done by studying their occupational situations and the values they express regarding identification of – and work with – special support. The results show that while the respondents are demographically similar and express similar values, they have very different occupational situations. Those employed in independent schools have fewer years’ experience as special educators, are more often employed part‐time than full‐time and are more likely to hold other positions in schools (such as head teacher) than those employed in municipal schools. The results further illustrate different organisational approaches towards special educational support. Apparent is that independent schools offer professional special educational resources to a lower degree and utilise them differently. This is likely to influence the situation of pupils in need of support, and has consequences for the image of the Swedish education system.