This paper presents a critique of Wayne Au's 2007 article "High-Stakes Testing and Curricular Control: A Qualitative Metasynthesis," published in Educational Researcher. The critique summarizes the article's research question, methodology, and findings — including the three identified themes of content control, formal control, and pedagogical control — and analyzes the metasynthesis approach used to synthesize 49 qualitative studies. The paper identifies a gap related to student diversity and student-centered curricula, proposes implications for further study, and reflects on how the article's insights can be applied in an educational context to shift teaching away from rote memorization toward concept-based instruction.
High-stakes tests are significant decision-making assessments that determine whether students will be promoted to the next grade, admitted to higher education institutions, or granted graduation from a program (Ritt, 2016). The impact of curriculum design in educational institutions has been debated for several decades, as various stakeholders have reconsidered the opportunities these tests create for students' future academic and career trajectories. The selected article examines how high-stakes testing exerts control over curriculum formulation and classroom teaching practices (Au, 2007).
The significance of this topic lies in the fact that high-stakes tests support crucial decisions about students. Accordingly, the article's research question focuses on identifying the curricular conditions most conducive to achieving strong results on such tests. At the center of the article's inquiry are student-centered pedagogies and their integration into the curriculum — both to expand students' knowledge and to better prepare them for high-stakes assessments.
The sampling method used in the selected article is a metasynthesis of studies that employed qualitative research methods. The author chose qualitative studies because they closely reflect the daily functioning of schools and the human interactions that take place within them. To understand the general nature of the phenomenon, 49 qualitative studies were selected from specific databases using targeted keywords. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to extract relevant articles, consistent with a systematic literature review approach.
The data analysis technique involved a thematic coding method to identify recurring themes across the numerous selected articles. Research has confirmed that systematic categorization of data into themes enables better evaluation of the phenomenon of interest (Nowell et al., 2017). The selected article followed this same procedure to ensure a traceable evidence trail and to establish credibility.
The article's findings and conclusions identify three themes through which high-stakes tests impose control over curriculum design: content control, formal control, and pedagogical control. However, a gap was identified in the qualitative studies: they exerted control over three curriculum areas without adequately connecting to curricula that account for student diversity. The design of student-centered, diversity-inclusive curricula has received increased attention in recent scholarship (Dong et al., 2019), and this body of work may yield different findings regarding high-stakes tests and their inverse impact on curriculum formulation and control.
The implications suggested for further study indicate that student-centered curriculum design should be considered when exploring subject matter and knowledge development in relation to high-stakes tests. Doing so would broaden opportunities for ethnically diverse students, potentially improving both their performance on standardized assessments and their long-term academic outcomes.
"Applying article insights to classroom teaching"
In conclusion, the selected article covered its topic sufficiently. Rather than challenging existing views, it helped expand understanding of the state testing system as a standardized mechanism for evaluating all students equitably — based solely on their capabilities and merit, without discrimination. Regarding reliability, the article itself identifies two strategies to verify this element, contributing to the accuracy and genuineness of its findings and thereby supporting its validity. It was particularly illuminating to learn that high-stakes tests exert control over the curriculum, reversing what had previously seemed an intuitive assumption about the direction of that relationship.
Au, W. (2007). High-stakes testing and curricular control: A qualitative metasynthesis. Educational Researcher, 36(5), 258–267.
Dong, Y., Wu, S. X., Wang, W., & Peng, S. (2019). Is the student-centered learning style more effective than the teacher-student double-centered learning style in improving reading performance? Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02630
Nowell, L. S., Norris, J. M., White, D. E., & Moules, N. J. (2017). Thematic analysis: Striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 16(1).
Phelps, R. P. (2012). The effect of testing on student achievement, 1910–2010. International Journal of Testing, 12(1), 21–43.
Ritt, M. (2016). The impact of high-stakes testing on the learning environment. Sophia: St. Catherine University. https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1660&context=msw_papers
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