Can high stakes national testing improve instruction. reexamining conventional wisdom

In this paper, the authors draw on recent international experience to asses s the success of five propositions for how high stakes national testing can improve classroom instruction and, ultimately, raise student achievement. Findings indicate that testing can be an effective mechanism for improving instructional practice, but its success is not ensured. It has failed as of ten as it has succeeded, usually because those implementing the strategy fa iled to understand the intermediate conditions that had to be met for chang es in test content, format, or use to have the desired impact on teachers' classroom practice. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.