Studying and Learning in a High-Stakes World

If you want to help your students help themselves on this game we call testing, this is the book for you—and your students. -- P. David Pearson, professor, graduate school of education, University of California, Berkeley
The Common Core Standards emerged in 2010, and the test consortia began business shortly after. Four years have elapsed, and it is clear that (1) test-based accountability remains a major force affecting public schools, and (2) end-of-year summative tests will become the primary index for accountability beginning in June 2015. These tests will be standardized. Students will work alone, with limited time and no access to resources, and they will, for the most part, fill in bubbles. Yet, the Common Core Standards are not about testing, but about preparing students for college and careers and the world ahead. However, the tests are a reality, and Studying and learning provides teachers and students with the strategies needed to deal with this reality. This book covers the entire territory. It directly addresses the challenges of panic, anxiety, frustration, and distraction. And while it speaks about “test preparation,” it presents tests not as the primary goal of schooling, but as problems to be “researched” much like any other project. The modern world is full of tests, and this book is true to the claim that “it should prepare your students for any test they need to take and help them do better in school” (Preface). -- Robert Calfee, professor emeritus on recall, graduate school of education, Stanford University
I have always been concerned that high stakes testing has particularly negative consequences for minorities and the poor. Rona Flippo’s book, Studying and Learning in a High Stakes World, addresses that concern effectively. The book can be used to help any student from any background improve their studying and learning and become more successful in middle school, high school, and college. While the high stakes testing movement meanders through more and more state legislatures, this book provides the perfect response to this movement – accept the tests where they are, and do a better job of preparing students to learn needed content curricula. Studying and Learning can help students to prevail in the maze of learning tasks and tests that measure them. -- Hunter Boylan, professor and director, National Center for Developmental Education, Appalachian State University
Rona Flippo’s Studying and Learning in a High Stakes World: Making Tests Work for Teachers will be the essential book for teachers of middle and high school students. It should resonate as well with those who teach developmental reading and study skills at community colleges and universities. The unique presentation of material in this book allows it to also be of great use to students who want to increase their independence as learners and prepare better — and with less anxiety — for exams. The close ties, that Flippo develops as part of close learning, which are drawn between literacy, learning, studying, and test-taking are a hallmark of the volume. The smart tie-ins to the Common Core Standards and to English Language Learners (ELLs) are other featured highlights. In sum, you won’t find a better book covering the terrain that is captured so well by Flippo inside these covers. -- Rand Spiro, professor of educational psychology, Michigan State University
For better or for worse, the accountability movement of the past two decades has created a high stakes testing environment unparalleled in education. Rona Flippo’s latest book confronts the realities of a high stakes world in today’s classrooms and is one of the most practical and comprehensive resources on how to succeed in a variety of test-taking situations. This book is written by teachers for teachers and reminds us that studying, learning, and test-taking are interrelated and are an integral part of the teaching-learning process. -- Richard T. Vacca, professor emeritus, Kent State University
Successful athletes prepare for events in running, swimming, surfing, and other sports by “projecting” mental images of how they will go about managing the stresses and strategies of a competitive event. By the time the actual competition gets underway, they are ready. Studying and Learning in a High Stakes World provides teachers and students with powerful test preparation and research-based strategies that give them an edge in our high stakes testing environment. With attention to all the elements of successful test preparation including organization, time management, note taking, and memorization strategies, this book is a must for teachers and students. Close learning and preparation strategies advanced in the text provide learners with a game plan for accomplishing their educational goals. -- Thomas W. Bean, Ph.D., professor of reading/literacy, graduate program director, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA