Teaching LA in a High Stakes Era
with Dr. Caitlin McMunn Dooley
Dr. Caitlin McMunn Dooley
- assistant professor of Early Child Education at Georgia State University
- research based on what teachers' beliefs are on literature instruction in an era of high stakes testing
High Stakes Testing
- had standardized testing for a while, but what makes them high stakes is what the scores affect
- used for major decision making at individual student level
- funding
- some teachers hired or fired based on scores
- some students retained just for their test score
Journal of Literacy Research Article
--high stakes testing does not support student success
--looked at urban school (historically had not done well on testing) and suburban school (historically had done well on testing)
--looked at urban school (historically had not done well on testing) and suburban school (historically had done well on testing)
- both struggling groups in reading and language arts
- found when school emphasized testing more and more, the level of instruction was going down
- urban teacher - had to stop doing what worked best for students because of district expectations
Teachers
- speak out
- work with parents and together change the system
- join affiliation groups
Parents
- pay attention
- look at teacher comments, other tests, and standardized tests when making a decision of whether or not to retain child
- one test does not tell the whole story
Principles
- speak out
Policy Makers
- we aren't going in the right direction - it isn't the race to the top
- talk to policy makers and look at NCLB
Achievement
- pressure to reduce achievement gap
- made few gains - the pressure hasn't helped scores
- created a gap in the level of instruction for students who were intended to be helped by NCLB
- What are achievement levels anyways?
Assessments in the future
--more authentic
- related to students' interests
- more enjoyable by matching sounds or moving a character on a game based on a reading
- not the same genre that they are now