The relationships between student high stakes testing results and student end-of-year academic grades: A longitudinal study

Purpose. The purpose of this research study was to examine the relationships between the scores on the high stakes assessment Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) and the end-of-year report card grades in English Language Arts and mathematics for 561 students in five Texas public school districts. In the 1980s, Americans became dissatisfied with the nation's schools and demanded greater accountability of school personnel and administration. Growing evidence of student achievement concerns that developed from the national study, A Nation at Risk, suggested that schools were failing. An increased public interest in higher educational standards, assessment, and testing that resulted from reform efforts validated the concern that the educational improvement was successful. Shifting emphasis from minimum skills to higher order thinking and problem-solving skills, the Texas legislature established a criterion-referenced testing program.; Method. Data from five high schools in comparable districts across Texas were analyzed over a three-year period. The study, which spanned 2002 until 2005, explored the possibility of a link between final course report card grades and high stakes assessment results through correlation, regression, and comparative analysis. The cohort population along with the demographic data, ethnic, gender and socio-economic status, were reviewed to determine the significance of any potential relationships within the quantitative data.; Findings. I found moderate to strong correlation between end-of-year report card grades and student performance on high-stakes tests when curriculum is aligned. My study confirmed previous findings reported by the Texas Education Agency that correlations existed between end-of-year report card grades in Algebra I and in Reading and high-stakes assessments in 1999 and in 2004.; The findings are limited to only students in high school and to students taking the TAKS that also completed class work and then received end-of-year report card grades over the three-year longitudinal study.; Keywords. assessment, minimum skills, higher level thinking, problem solving skills, criterion-referenced, and testing...