How manipulating test scores affects school accountability and student achievement

Abstract

ELEVatOr PitchStandardized testing has become the accepted means of measuring a school's quality.However, the associated rise in test-based accountability creates incentives for schools, teachers, and students to manipulate test scores.Illicit behavior may also occur in institutional settings where performance standards are weak.These issues are important because inaccurate measurement of student achievement leads to poor or ineffective policy conclusions.The consequences of mismeasured student achievement for policy conclusions have been documented in many institutional contexts in Europe and North America, and guidelines can be devised for the future. aUthOr's Main MEssaGEManipulation distorts the accuracy of student achievement indicators, calling into question their validity as a tool for evaluating teacher performance and to enforce school accountability policies.Evidence of compromised scores can be obtained using simple indicators, but these rarely reveal (with certainty) who manipulated test scores or the reasons for this behavior.The most compelling evidence on manipulation comes from controlled retesting of students and from random assignment of monitors to classrooms.These procedures should be part of any testing protocol in contexts where manipulation is a serious threat to the fidelity of results. how manipulating test scores affects school accountability and student achievementStandardized testing can create incentives to manipulate test results and generate misleading indicators for public policy

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