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Full-Text Articles in Education

High-Stakes Testing And Special Populations, Gary H. Sherwin, Todd Jennings May 2005

High-Stakes Testing And Special Populations, Gary H. Sherwin, Todd Jennings

Journal of Critical Issues in Educational Practice

This opinion paper critically examines the use of high-stakes testing on special populations. Without appropriate accommodations, standardized exams are not valid for some students with special needs. Unfortunately, many classroom teachers who must initiate testing accommodations lack knowledge of appropriate accommodations and regularly fail to provide the necessary testing accommodations. The deficit understanding of testing accommodations makes comparisons between classrooms, schools, and districts invalid since some scores loose validity. Solutions specific to standardized testing and students with special needs are offered and a more encompassing solution to the problems incurred from these tests when used for high-stakes is suggested.


High-Stakes Testing And Assessment: One Is Not The Other, Enrique Murillo, Alayne Sullivan May 2005

High-Stakes Testing And Assessment: One Is Not The Other, Enrique Murillo, Alayne Sullivan

Journal of Critical Issues in Educational Practice

Since the institution of the common school and the advent of universal education, Americans have placed tremendous faith in public schools. Public education cultivates an informed citizenry, one of the pillars of a liberal democracy. But more importantly, schools are a repository for our common dreams of human potential and individual self-actualization. Because they so thoroughly shape the lives and life-chances of our youth, school issues are freighted with an emotional charge. Education remains the last fully public American institution, one in which millions of students cast their common lot daily and strive to become better readers, better citizens, better …


To Wonder, Wander, And Linger In The World Of Standardized Testing, Randall Wright, Alayne Sullivan May 2005

To Wonder, Wander, And Linger In The World Of Standardized Testing, Randall Wright, Alayne Sullivan

Journal of Critical Issues in Educational Practice

The standards movement began as a nobly-intended effort to establish a core curriculum—a template of knowledge and skills that would guide teaching and learning across the K-12 curriculum. Our attempts to standardize curriculum may have unintended and deleterious side-effect: The atrophying of the mind’s natural tendencies for exploratory play and inherently imaginative dimensions. This paper engages us in a critical remembering of our pedagogical relationships with children. It reminds us of children’s ways of being and asks how we might engage them in a rigorous appreciation of curricular literacies without thwarting their wonderful wanderings. Ultimately, we worry about the place …


Concurrent Enrollment Vs. Advanced Placement Courses, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Apr 2005

Concurrent Enrollment Vs. Advanced Placement Courses, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The Lake View decision required that Arkansas schools provide a “substantially equal” curriculum to all students. The package of reforms adopted by the Arkansas General Assembly in 2003 included a measure that required high schools to offer College Board Advanced Placement (AP) courses and/or concurrent enrollment in college level courses (Act 102, §6-16- 1201-1206). Specifically, beginning with the 2008-2009 school year, all school districts are required to offer one AP course in each of the four core areas of math, English, science, and social studies for a total of four courses. In districts that do not already offer these courses, …