An Examination of the Relationship Between the Frequency of Standardized Testing and Academic Achievement

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Date

2014-09-29

Authors

Bergmann, Eric

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Publisher

University of Oregon

Abstract

Over the past twenty years, there has been significant research conducted on the effects of large-scale standardized tests on academic achievement. Policy makers around the world have developed policies and allocated substantial sums of money in order to increase the frequency of large-scale standardized tests, although existing research offers inconclusive findings as to whether the use of large-scale standardized tests leads to higher achievement. This study was intended to empirically examine the use of standardized testing and its relationship with student achievement. The study focused on two questions: first, why do some nations require their students to take large-scale standardized tests more frequently than others? And second, is there a correlation between the frequency of large-scale standardized tests frequency and academic achievement? This study examined data from the 2003 and 2009 administrations of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in order to address these questions. Results from this study indicated the frequency of large-scale standardized tests is most likely to be associated with testing consequence or stake (e.g., data are made public, etc.). Additionally, results suggest that the frequency of large-scale standardized tests is not significantly related to academic achievement.

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Keywords

Academic achievement, PISA, Standardized testing

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