Performance testing in schools: Is tested too much?

parents, teachers, and students sometimes feel a Testeritis exposed to. In fact, the use of school performance reviews in all over the world is increasing. According to a survey by the European Commission, eight out of 18 countries studied have introduced between 2000 and 2015 national Tests at the end of primary school or lower secondary education on the further school career of pupils. In the same period, in 23 of the 59 countries that we examine in a new study, the proportion of schools that use standardised tests for external comparisons, by more than 20 percentage points increased.

The debate over increasing trials neglected but often the most important distinction between various forms and uses of the Tests. Tests are standardized to a large student body and the external reference has consequences for the schools that are fundamentally different from Tests that were created by the teachers themselves, in order to check the learning progress of their class. An assessment of teachers is on the Basis of the achievements of your school classes in something other than the selection of pupils for entry to University.

As the various forms of performance reviews influence the success of learning will depend on how they affect the incentives and behavior of actors. To test this, have studied the author, Annika mountain farmer from the Ifo Institute, and Eric Hanushek of Stanford University in a new study (NBER Working Paper no 24, 836) reforms of Tests and testing systems in 59 countries in the years 2000 to 2015. To this end, we use the micro data of more than two million 15-year-old pupils in all the six surveys of the international Pisa study round. Because in the observation period, many countries reformed their testing practices we can use in our analysis the changes in the examination systems, which can be observed in the countries over time. Average level differences between countries remain in the estimates is ignored, so that unobserved characteristics of countries that do not change over time, distort the results. In addition, our analysis removing the influence of numerous individual factors such as family backgrounds and school equipment.

Changing testing technology

Our results show that some forms of performance monitoring influence the learning success of the students, while others have no discernible influence. In particular, an expansion of externally improved compared to inspections, which usually have consequences for the parties Involved, the student performance, but not an expansion of internal Tests, which are based on local or subjective information.

on the one Hand, an increased use of external comparative tests with higher student achievement in international Tests. In countries that have expanded the use of external comparative tests, the average performance in Mathematics of students over the 15-year period and systematically improved in comparison to countries that do not extend the use of this Form of tests or even reduced. This is for student performance in all three subjects, mathematics, science and reading. In the external comparison exercises, there are both school-based forms, which compare the performance of schools with the respective regional or national services, as well as student-based forms, such as national standardized tests, which decide about the further education. For both forms of positive effects. The effects of education are pronounced based forms in performance of the weaker school systems.

on the Other hand, for internal school Tests, inform, or monitor progress, hardly discernible effects on student performance. Changes in the use of internal Tests are not associated systematically with changes in the student performance of the countries. The same is true for internal audits, which are used for the assessment of teachers, including inspections of lessons.