A Century of Literature Tests: How the New York Regents' Exam Framed Literary Reading, 1904–2016

• In Event: Framing Instructional Design in Humanities and Social Science Classrooms

Abstract

Assessment is a “direct representation of what we value and how we assign that value” (Huot, 2003, p. 11). This study used standardized tests of literary reading as a lens through which to consider how test-makers have framed and valued literary reading over the past century. Through a content analysis of 72 New York State English Language Arts exams (better known as Regents exams) administered between 1904 – 2016, I explored the interpretive demands of test questions; the framing of the relationship between reader, text, and author; and diversity of authors represented over a century. I make recommendations for the framing of literary reading as well as the role that standardized tests should play in assessing literary reading.

Author

• Sarah Levine, Stanford University