Uneasy writing: The defining moments of high-stakes literacy testing

The authors report on an exploratory study that investigated Grade 10 students’ responses to a large-scale, high-stakes literacy test, the results of which determine high school graduation in Ontario, Canada. Through focus-group and individual interviews, the authors found that students perceived the test as evaluating their English skills rather than their cross-curricular literacy as is the stated purpose by the test administrators. Furthermore, the test contributed to students’ narrow definition of writing. Rather than promoting writing as a powerful tool for thinking and expressing ideas, students understood writing to be a fill-in-the-blanks response to particular genres. The authors conclude by pointing out the power of such tests to define unintended learning in schools.