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The International Reading Association Opposes High-Stakes Testing
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Summary of a position statement of the International Reading Association:
High-Stakes Assessments in Reading (August 1999) High-Stakes Testing The International Reading Association strongly opposes high-stakes testing. Alarmingly, U.S. policy makers and educators are increasingly relying on single test scores to make important decisions about students. For example, if a student receives a high score on one high-stakes test, it could place him in a honors class or a gifted program. On the other hand, if a student receives a low score on one test, she could be rejected by a particular college. These tests can also be used to influence teachers' salaries, or rate a school district in comparison with others. The Association believes that important conceptual, practical, and ethical issues must be considered by those who are responsible for designing and implementing testing programs. Assessment should be used to improve instruction and benefit students rather than compare and pigeonhole them. Among the Association's recommendations are the following: Teachers should construct rigorous classroom assessments to help outside observers gain confidence in teacher techniques educate parents, community members, and policy makers about classroom-based assessment teach students how tests are structured, but not teach to the test Parents and child-advocacy groups should ask questions about what tests are doing to their children and their schools lobby for the development of classroom-based forms of assessment that improve instruction and help children become better readers and learners Policy makers should design assessment plans that reflect the complexity of reading, learning to read, and teaching reading rely on multiple measures of assessment for decision making avoid using incentives, resources, money, or recognition of test scores to reward or punish schools or teachers The full text of the International Reading Association position statement, High-Stakes Assessments in Reading is available online. Focus on Topics and Issues in Reading (Resources, Links) To view it you will need a copy of Adobe's Acrobat Reader. This can be downloaded free of charge from Adobe's Web site at http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html#reader. Multiple copies can be purchased at a cost of US$5.00 for 10 ($4.00 for IRA members) or US$30.00 for 100 ($24.00 for IRA members). Place your order by telephone to 1-800-336-7323 (U.S. and Canada) or +302-731-1600 (elsewhere). This position statement © 1999 International Reading Association. |