Supovitz Jonathan (2010) examines reforms in testing and accountability in USA within the past decade. Specifically, he reviews the growth and decline of the national experimentation and the rise of the test-based accountability as a core policy initiative. The change in testing and accountability indicate the centrality testing as an important tool of education reforms.
According to the study, high stakes testing does not motivate teachers and school administrators to change their practices and motivate superficial adjustments in content coverage and test preparation. Large-scale assessment provides information critical to measuring school and system progress but offers limited usefulness for instructional guidance. High stake testing is promoted as a key reform despite being relatively weak due to its key shortcomings.
The increasing number of test sales and accompanying materials is one of the key indicators of the increasing popularity of his stake testing. Supotivz (2010) notes that testing has been adopted widely and inexpensively policy instrumentation to take advantage of changes in districts, schools, and classrooms. He states that high stake assessments play a critical role in motivating teachers and administrators to adopt new instructional practices and align their efforts with the high stake examinations. However, these changes are only superficial changes in the coverage of content and preparation tests rather than overhaul improvement in assessment policies and practices. Supotivz concludes that the high stake tests, whose centrally purpose is to motivate educators, is effective in measuring the system progress, aligning system components and accountability to the stakeholders is mistaken as a substantive reform in the education system.
In order to support these claims, Supotivz describes four major theories of how testing and accountability ought to improve the education system. He reviews major trends and movements in large scale testing and accountability and analyze lessons from experiences with testing accountability. Some of the theories explored in the review include test-based accountability systems, the theory of alignment, informational theory, motivational theory and public answerability. According to Supotivz, the motivational theory holds that extrinsic rewards and sanctions associated with high stake testing can be applied as motivators to schools to improve performance. The theory assumes that teachers lack internal motivation to perform their duties. However, teachers have strong internal sense of responsibility. The alignment theory states that system-wide improvement can offer the best results when educators align their key efforts and initiatives so that they can reinforce each other. The alignment theory is the major force behind the push to align standards, the curriculum, and country-wide assessment. The aim of aligning is to synchronize external components of the system. The test-based accountability holds that offering learners and local educators’ performance information and incentives to improve it, the information will guide improvements in classroom and organization decision-making. The data-based approach is thought to offer educators critical information to make decisions about students and effective programs. According to the public answerability theory, the public has the right to expect resources are used responsibly, and public institutions are accountable for the resources the public entrust them. As such, high stake assessments are evidence of rigorous, responsive and accountable systems.
Supotivz describes the key trends that affect the development of high stake testing. He notes that movements in the late 1980s and early 1990s laid the foundation for the formulation of test-based accountability. Some of the characteristics that define the period include the shift of national tracking educational inputs to an increased emphasis on standardized test results as the measure of schools performance. The period saw reforms to widen the forms of assessments beyond the standardized multiple choices. The other key reform is the ratcheting up of frequency and stakes of testing systems. Reformers criticized the multiple choices testing arguing that it focused on an outdated behaviorist view of learning and ignores contemporary constructivist and socio-cognitive perspectives. Consequently, various schools and states began incorporating alternative tests in their test structures. Eventually, portfolios, performance assessments, and open-ended tasks became part of the mainstream assessment. In addition, there is an increase in annual testing and more emphasis on state test performance as critical indicators of quality of schools and districts.
From these trends, it is evidence that high stake tests motivate educators, but do not receive wide scale responses. High stake evidence tests have public support because they focus instructions toward developmentally appropriate literacy and numeracy skills. However, these tests have narrowed the scope of education to test preparation activities and deter the achievement of wider educational goals. The high stake tests are also playing a critical role in aligning the central components of the educational system. These tests are encouraging educators and administrators to align curriculum, standards, and assessments, thus making the education system more coherent.
In order to improve the current status of testing, Supotivz recommends that there is a great need to relegate test-based accountability to its ideal place as a measurement and incentive companion. The progress of the testing system will rely on the extent to which reformer develop regularized responses to patterns in assessment data.
References
Supovitz, J. j. (2009). Can high stakes testing leverage educational improvement? Prospects for the last decade of testing and accountability reform. Journal Of Educational Change, 10(2/3), 211-227. doi:10.1007/s10833-009-9105-2.
Carolyn Morgan is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in Write My Research Paper For Me services.
