Performance Assessments: A Potential Solution to High-Stakes Testing Consequences

• In Event: Poster Session 4
  In Poster Session: Division H Graduate Student Poster Session: Using Data to Drive Educational Success

Abstract

This paper presents the consequences, both intended and unintended, of standardized high stakes testing. Narrowing curriculum and pedagogy through didactic instruction in order to produce elevated scores on high stakes testing hinders science education by stultifying student inquiry and experimentation. Contrary to traditional testing, which is composed primarily of multiple-choice questions focusing on the memorization of a breadth of knowledge, performance assessments evaluate deep conceptual understanding, requiring teachers to focus on mastery learning, rather than student ability levels or knowledge recall. Research has found that intrinsic motivation, engagement in challenging tasks, the self-attribution of successes and failures, and positive attitudes towards instruction are more common in mastery goal orientated students in comparison to those who just seek to outperform.

Author

• Angela Shelton, Temple University