Browsing by Subject "Educational tests and measurements--Texas"
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Item The application of cognitive diagnosis and computerized adaptive testing to a large-scale assessment(2004) McGlohen, Meghan Kathleen; Chang, Hua-HuaOur society currently relies heavily on test scores to measure individual progress, but typical scores can only provide a limited amount of information. For instance, a test score does not reveal which of the assessed topics were mastered and which were not well understood. According to the U.S. government, this is no longer sufficient. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 calls for diagnostic information to be provided for each individual student, along with information for the parents, teachers, and principals to use in addressing individual student needs. This opens the door for a new area of psychometrics that focuses on the inclusion of diagnostic feedback in traditional standardized testing. This diagnostic assessment could even be combined with techniques already developed in the arena of computer adaptive testing to individualize the assessment process and provide immediate feedback to individual students. This dissertation is comprised of two major components. First, a cognitive diagnosis-based model, namely the fusion model, is applied to two large-scale mandated tests administered by the Texas Education Agency; and secondly, computer adaptive testing technology is incorporated into the diagnostic assessment process as a way to develop a method of providing interactive assessment and feedback for individual examinees’ mastery levels of the cognitive skills of interest. The first part requires attribute assignment of the standardized test items and the simultaneous IRT-based estimation of both the item parameters and the examinee variables under the fusion model. Examinees are classified dichotomously into mastery and non-mastery categories for the assigned attributes. Given this information, it is possible to identify the attributes with which a given student needs additional help. Results from the first portion indicate that the fusion model is indeed an appropriate approach to cognitive diagnosis in a real large-scale assessment. The second part focuses on applying CAT-based methodology, and in particular item selection, to the diagnostic testing process to form a dynamic test that is sensitive to individual response patterns while the examinee is being administered the test. This combination of computer adaptive testing with diagnostic testing will contribute to the research field by enhancing the results that students and their parents and teachers receive from educational measurement. Results from this second portion of this dissertation indicate that item selection based on both the overall score and the diagnostic attribute pattern is comparable to item selection based solely on the overall score and is better than selecting items based solely on the diagnostic attribute pattern.Item Eliminating the achievement gap: the study of one Texas school district(2003) Hernandez, Cynthia Fowler; Scheurich, James Joseph, 1944-Despite decades of educational and social reform efforts targeted to eradicate differences in achievement among student groups, gaps in the achievement of minority and poor students remain one of the most pressing problems in education. During the past 4 decades, there has been a gradual evolution toward disaggregating ethnic student group data to the greatest extent possible. The rationale for devising a system of identifying students by race and socioeconomic level is to monitor performance differences between students and to hold districts accountable for any gaps in achievement between student groups. Designed to confront and to solve equity and excellence issues, Texas instituted a statewide test, the TAAS, and implemented an accountability system that reports student achievement for ethnic and socioeconomic student groups as well as for all students. These results-oriented control structures, however, do not examine the design of the school system itself to determine if it is capable of achieving its aim. Some educational researchers have asserted that it is the design of the educational system itself that maintains the ethnic and economic achievement gaps (Apple, 1982). Few school districts have succeeded in actually eliminating the gap; yet, one Texas school district has successfully addressed the problem by completely eradicating achievement differences between student groups. Four major theories are suggested as reasonable explanations for the district’s success: (a) organizational learning disciplines; (b) correlates of effective schools; (c) total quality management in education; and (d) focused equity practices. In attempting to discover how this phenomenon occurred, especially in light of the fact that an infinitesimal number of other school districts have had comparable accomplishments, five suppositions emerged: (a) The Texas Accountability System acted as the key infrastructure of the district transformation; (b) district leaders possessed a strong desire to remedy academic discrimination; (c) all stakeholders maintained a sustained focus on student learning; (d) the conditions in the district were conducive to reciprocal support; and (e) student, teacher, and district efficacy improved the learning environment.Item Emerging democracy in an urban elementary school: a Habermasian framework for examining school governance reculturing in response to systemic reform(2004) Maxcy, Brendan David; Scribner, Jay D.The purpose of this study was to examine the micropolitical dynamics manifested in the re-culturing of campus governance in response to systemic reform imperatives? The study examined: 1) the recent intensification of standards and stakes associated with the Texas performance accountability system, 2) managerial responses to these pressures by the central administration of a large urban school district, and 3) the renegotiation of work and leadership in response performance pressures and the district policies by the faculty at a highpoverty, majority Hispanic elementary school. The study combined document analysis and various ethnographic methods to understand the interplay between reform pressures, district policies, and campus micropolitics. The analysis of the state performance accountability system used state reports, press releases, and print media related to the development and intensification of the system. The district level analysis combined press releases, print media, public comments by administrators and participant observation to study the administrative response to accountability pressures. The campus-level analysis employed formal and informal interviews of teachers with observations of faculty and committee planning meetings to understand decision-making dynamics and planning processes as carried out by the faculty of one campus. The major findings of the study are three-fold. First, the state-level analysis suggests that the Texas performance monitoring system, a response to a state legitimacy crisis, appears to be informed by a narrow technical logic and therefore seems likely to intensify an existing administrative emphasis on efficiency at the expense of other valued outcomes, most notably equity. Second, responses to accountability pressures in the district studied reflect an intensification of a traditional management discourse evidenced in a series of reforms that dramatically extend administrative control over staffing decisions, campus planning, curriculum development, and instructional delivery. Third, the current district policies contrast with recent reforms at the campus studied that engaged teachers and administrators in more deliberative governance activities focused on collective and strategic planning. Conflict between the communicative rationality of the campus-level reforms and the technical rationality informing the district’s management discourse are resulting in ongoing renegotiation of work and leadership norms at the campus.Item "Equal access to mandated testing": policies, disciplinary discourse, and practices of performance in the lives of English language learner youth(2004) Black, William Robert; Scribner, Jay D.; Valenzuela, AngelaItem How high the stakes?: a critical ethnographic study of the changes in programs and instruction for low income children of color in a Texas elementary school(2006) Guzmán, Sheila Bernal; Scribner, Jay D.Item Oppression, conflict, and collusion: high-stakes accountability from the perspective of three social justice principals(2002) Nelson, Sarah Wilson; Scheurich, James Joseph, 1944-This research is a qualitative research study involving three social justice principals in a collective investigation of the dissonance they experience between their social justice orientations and their work within a high-stakes accountability system. The three participants were successful principals of urban elementary schools in Texas. The purpose of the study was to explore the nature and the cause of the dissonance the principals experience and to identify strategies for dissipating that dissonance. The method of inquiry was participatory action research (Whitehead, 1993; McIntyre, 1997) that included individual interviews, reflexive journaling (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) and group sessions. The data revealed three themes. The first theme, oppressed oppressor, refers to the principals being both oppressed by the accountability system and being oppressors themselves. The second theme, clash with caring, refers to a conflict between aesthetic and authentic caring (Noddings, 1984). The third theme, coerced collusion, refers to the pressure the principals’ feel to participate in a system they believe perpetuates educational inequity. This study offers implications for policy, research, and practice. This study suggests that the high-stakes accountability system in Texas may be an enactment of the “Fixes that Fail” systems archetype (Senge, 2000). This archetype suggests that while the high-stakes accountability system in Texas may appear to be improving education, there may be serious unintended consequences of this system, and, therefore, policy makers may need to reconsider the use of this system. This study further suggests that practitioners, particularly superintendents, may have the power to either intensify or diminish the unintended consequences that may result from the high-stakes accountability system in Texas. Lastly, this study suggests that the effects of the high-stakes accountability system in Texas warrant further study. In particular, this study suggests that researchers need to consider whether there are unintended long-term consequences of this system.Item Quality teaching in high-stakes learning environments in third grade(2009-05) Feger, Elizabeth Ann Smith, 1970-; Brown, Christopher P., Ph. D.This dissertation investigates the quality teaching practices of three third grade teachers within the context of high-stakes testing. Chapter 1 introduces my research question and important terms, such as quality teaching, standardized testing and success. Chapter 2 synthesizes relevant literature in the area of quality teaching and standards based accountability. The literature review seeks to highlight the significant attention paid to outcomes based education and, the lack of emphasis given to quality teaching in such contexts. Chapter 3 forwards the specific conceptual framework for this study while detailing the methodology that guided this investigation including data gathering and analysis. Chapters 4 and 5 present the findings from this research. Chapter 4 examines the quality teaching practices demonstrated by these teachers and found in the literature and chapter 5 presents notions of success and the unique ways that each teacher enacted quality teaching practices in his/her classroom. I highlight the specific way each teacher facilitated students' success and discuss the various ways that each teacher conceived of success, both within and outside the context of standardized testing. Chapter 6 draws comparison between the three teachers involved in the study highlighting overarching themes present in the ways they defined and created successful learning environments for students. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of implication for teachers, teacher educators and other stakeholders and, suggestions for future research.