Educational reform and language testing

Educational reform involves systematic attempts by governments or other educational authorities to change educational policies and practices with a view to improving learner outcomes (see Farrell, 2000; Fox, 2005; Tollefson and Tsui, 2004). It typically has its origins in the identification of aspects of an educational system that are viewed as problematic such as - falling standards of student achievement - poor performance by students in international comparisons - lack of national standardization in assessment - lack of comparability of outcomes across different educational systems - lack of transparent accountability reporting - public concerns about teacher competence. Testing has long been used by educational policy makers as a tool of reform for a variety of reasons (Linn, 2000; Shohamy, 2001): - it is relatively cheap compared to other major reforms such as reducing class sizes or improving teaching standards - it can be externally mandated as opposed to trying to change the culture of what happens in classrooms - policy changes can be rapidly announced and implemented during a single electoral term - results are visible and measurable; standardized test scores can be reported by the media in terms the public can understand and used to show that change has (or has not) taken place. In describing the role of testing in educational reform, a number of dimensions need to be considered. These are: - the social and political context of the reform - the process by which it is implemented and adopted - its effects on teaching and learning14 page(s