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Below is one of our free research papers on sociological iss. If the term paper below is not exactly what you're looking for, you can search our essay database for other topics.
Abstract
In recent decades, test scores have come to dominate the discourse about schools and their accomplishments (Amrein & Berliner, 2002). In 1983, the National Commission on Education released A Nation at Risk, the most influential report on education of the past few decades (Amrein & Berliner, 2002). The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (2000) believes that far-reaching and critical educational decisions should be made only on the basis of multiple measures. There has been an increase in reliance on high stakes testing without full validation throughout the United States. The content and format of high-stakes tests tends to taper the curriculum and limit instructional approaches. Today, twenty-two states offer schools incentives for high or improved test scores and twenty states distribute financial rewards to successful schools, and nineteen distribute financial rewards to improved schools. Paris (2000), charts the advantages of high stakes testing as students will work harder and learn more under high stakes testing, students and teachers need high stakes testing to know what is important to learn and to teach, high stakes testing provides a good measurement of the curriculum that students are taught in schools, tests are a “level playing field” and provide an equal opportunity for all to demonstrate knowledge. Several studies have been conducted to determine whether increases in test scores reflect real increases in student learning. Charles & Helen (2...
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