Student Perceptions of High Stakes Testing

This text explores how students perceive their §school environment changing as a result of the No §Child Left Behind Act and the subsequent §implementation of high stakes testing in their §state. The research focuses on four questions: (1) §What factual understanding do students have of how §their test works, (2) What changes do students §perceive their instructors making, (3) What changes §do students perceive themselves making, and (4) How §do students perceive the likelihood of high stakes §testing achieving its stated goals. Results are §disaggregated by ethnicity, socioeconomic status, §gender, and special education status. The research §generated indicates that diverse groups of students §are motivated in different ways by high stakes §testing. Special education and minority students in §particular were observed to respond differently than §the overall student body. A secondary finding is §that despite the best efforts of schools to educate §their students about the function of high stakes §testing in their state, students continue to retain §misconceptions.