From Leaving CertiFiCate to Leaving SChooL a Longitudinal Study ...

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From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School
for later access to education, training and employment (Eurydice, 2009).
In the Irish context, young people with a Leaving Certificate qualification
have better access to post-school education and training as well as to
high-quality, better paid employment than those with Junior Certificate
or no qualifications (Smyth and McCoy, 2009). Even among those taking
the Leaving Certificate exam, higher grades are associated with entry
to third-level education, particularly to courses associated with the élite
professions, a smoother transition to employment, and greater access to
white-collar jobs (Byrne et al., 2008).
The consequences of high stakes testing have been the subject of
considerable debate. Some researchers argue that national tests based on
centrally set procedures are necessary to ensure that the performance of
individual students (and schools) are readily comparable (Grodsky et al.,
2008). Others maintain that tests can lead to positive individual learning
experiences and educational outcomes (Braun, 2004; Williamson,
Bondy, Langley and Maine, 2005). Tests are seen as providing students
with information about their own acquired knowledge which can be
compared to that of their peers and the national average.
In contrast, a large body of research has emerged, especially in the
US, which points to the unintended consequences of high stakes testing
on student performance, engagement in school, and teaching and learning
(Airasian and Madaus, 1983; Madaus, 1988), access to college
(Perna and Thomas, 2008; Hill 2008), and the reproduction of gender
and social class inequalities (Grodsky, Warren and Felts, 2008; Diamond
and Spillane, 2004). One of the main areas of research in relation to high
stakes testing is on the extent to which these tests influence what knowledge
is taught, the form in which it is taught, and how it is taught (Au,
2010). Many studies have shown that in a high stakes environment extensive
time is given by teachers to exam preparation, which results in a
narrowing of the curriculum and fragmentation of subject knowledge
through the neglect of subject content not included in exams (Shephard
and Dougherty, 1991; Au, 2007). A decline in instructional time for nontested
subjects has also been demonstrated in other studies (Stecher,
2002) with an increasing amount of time devoted to practice tests (Jones
et al., 1999). Critics argue that high stakes examinations reduce the
breadth of the curriculum by emphasising only subjects and dimensions