Situating Texas’ World Geography End-Of-Course Exam in the Ecosystem of American Geography Education

Abstract

Educational policy in the United States is highly decentralized. While the federal government subsidizes education across the country, and despite federal initiatives such as the Common Core and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers to establish national standards and assessments, most states maintain control over the daily affairs of education. Nowhere in the United States is this fact more pronounced than in Texas. The purpose of this paper is to situate Texas’ assessment of geographic literacy in the ecosystem of American geography education. The research is driven by three fundamental questions: 1) Is Texas’ World Geography End-of-Course (EOC) exam an accurate assessment of national geography standards?; 2) Does Texas’ World Geography EOC assessment framework reflect the most prominent American assessment framework?; and 3) Is Texas’ World Geography EOC exam a good model of large-scale summative assessment of geographic literacy? A content analysis of the second edition of Geography for Life: National Geography Standards, Texas’ state geography standards, the National Assessment of Educational Progress in Geography, and Texas’ World Geography assessment framework, combined with a review of 2012 student performance data and public reaction are used to answer the research questions. Findings indicate that Texas’ World Geography EOC is an accurate and useful summative assessment of geographic literacy at the local scale, but that the assessment’s ability to inform educational decisionmaking at the state level has not been realized.

Keywords

• Geography education, national geography standards, summative assessment, Texas

Situating Texas’ World Geography End-Of-Course Exam in the Ecosystem of American Geography Education

Öz

Anahtar Kelimeler

• -

Kaynakça

1. Anthematten, P. (2004). State geography standards in 2004. Journal of Geography, 103(4), 1821
2. Bednarz, S., Heffron, S., & Huynh, N. T. (Eds.). (2012). A road map project for 21st century geography education: Geography education research. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society.
3. Bednarz, S. W. (2003). Nine years on: Examining implementaiton of the National Geography Standards. Journal of Geography, 102(3), 99-109.
4. Black, P., & William, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Kappan Professional Journal, October, 139-148.
5. Brown, L. (1997). The GeoEd research agenda: What it is, what it might be, what...? In R. G. Boehm & J. F. Petersen (Eds.), The first assessment: Research in geographic education (pp. 239-247). San Marcos, Texas: The Gilbert M. Grosvenor Cneter for Geographic Education.
6. Chappuis, C., Stiggins, R., Arter, J., & Chappuis, J. (2005). Assessment for learning: An action guide for school leaders. Protland, Oregon: Assessment Training Institute.
7. Christopherson, R. W. (2012). Geosystems (8th ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall.
8. Darling-Hammond, L. (1994). Standards for teachers. New York, New York: American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

9. Darling-Hammond, L. (2010). The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future. New York: Teachers College Press.
10. DeBoer, J. (2012). Centralization and Decentralization in American Education Policy. Peabody Journal of Education (0161956X), 87(4), 510-513. doi: 10.1080/0161956X.2012.705153 Edelson, D., Shavelson, R. J., & Wertheim, J. A. (Eds.). (2013). A roadmap for the 21st century geography education: Assessment (A report from the Geography Education Research Committee of the Road Map for the 21st Century Geography Education Project). Washington, DC: Association of American Geographers.
11. Fu, A. C., Raizen, S. A., & Shavelson, R. J. (2009). The nation's report card: A vision of largescale science assessment. Science, 236, 1637-1638.
12. Gandy, S. K., & Kruger, D. P. (2004). An assessment of influences on the implementation of the national geography standards. Journal of Geography, 103(4), 161-170.
13. Geography Education Standards Project. (1994). Geography for Life: National geography standards. Washington, DC: National Geographic Research and Exploration.
14. Gray, T. P., Hildebrant, B. S., & Strauss, T. R. (2006). Advanced Placement Human Geography: The first five years. Journal of Geography, 105(3), 99-107.
15. Hanson, S. (2004). Who are we? An important qustion for geography's future. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 94(4), 715-722.
16. Hargreaves, A., & Shirley, D. (2012). The global fourth way: The quest for educational excellence. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.
17. Heffron, S. G., & Downs, R. M. (2012). Geography for Life: National Geography Standards (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: National Geographic Society.
18. Herman, J. (1997). Large-Scale Assessment in Support of School Reform: Lessons in the Search for Alternative Measures. CSE Technical Report 446. Los Angeles: National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST), University of California, Los Angeles.
19. Joint Committee on Geographic Education. (1984). Guidelines for Geographic Education. Washington, DC: Assocation of American Geographers and National Council for Geographic Education.
20. National Center for Educational Satistics. (2011). The nation's report card: Geography 2010. Wasshington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
21. National Commission on Excellence in Education. (1983). A nation at risk: The imperative for education reform. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
22. National Research Council. (2011). Assessing 21st century skills. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
23. National Research Council (Ed.). (2001). Knowing what students know: The science and design of educational assessment (J.W. Pellegrino, N. Chudowsky, and R. Glaser, Eds.). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
24. National Research Council (Ed.). (2012). A framework for K-12 science education: Practices, cross-cutting concepts, and core ideas. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Popham, W. J. (2001). The truth about testing: An educator’s call to action. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
25. Ravitch, D. (2011). The death and life of the great American school system : how testing and choice are undermining education (Rev. and expanded ed.). New York: Basic Books.
26. Rothman, R. (1995). Measuring Up: Standards Assessment, and School Reform. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
27. Sahlberg, P. (2011). Finish Lessons: What the World Can Learn From Educational Change in Finland. New York, NY: Teacher's College Press.
28. Scherer, M. (2001). How and why standards can improve student achievement: A conversation with Robert J. Marzano. Educational Leadership, 59(1), 1-7.
29. Talerico, N., & Moseley, C. (Eds.). (2012). NAAEE-TEKS-CCRS CROSSWALK: Alignment of the Excellence in Environmental Education Guidelines for Learning (NAAEE), the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, & College & Career Readiness Science & Social Studies Standards for Grades K-12. San Antonio, TX: CPS Energy and the University of Texas at San Antonio.
30. Texas Education Agency. (2012). State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness Summary Report for World Geography. Austin: Texas Education Agency.
31. Biographical statements Dr. Jeff Lash is the Geography Program Chair and an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. He teaches a wide variety of courses and continues to conduct research locally and internationally on human development through education.