scholarly journals Preservice teachers’ beliefs about high-stakes testing and their working environments

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Sharon L. Nichols ◽  
Shon Brewington
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Future Research ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
High Stakes Tests ◽  
Working Environments ◽  
Teachers Experiences ◽  
Teachers Beliefs

In this exploratory mixed methods survey study, we assess preservice teachers’ (n=379) experiences with and beliefs about their high-stakes testing experiences and analyze how they relate to their beliefs about the role and efficacy of high-stakes testing in education and their future profession. Using Likert, vignette, and open-ended response opportunities, we gauged preservice teachers’ beliefs about accountability and the role of high-stakes testing in three ways: (a) what are their personal experiences with high-stakes testing, (b) what are their their beliefs about accountability and high-stakes testing in general, and (b) what role does accountability (and testing pressures) play in their future workplace preferences? Results indicate that preservice teachers’ experiences with and beliefs about high-stakes testing accountability vary based on gender, ethnicity, and previous experiences with high-stakes tests. Importantly, although in aggregate our participants reported they generally disliked the high-stakes tests they personally had to take in high school, subgroup analyses reveal that for those who took them during the NCLB era, they also saw high-stakes tests as good thing for education overall. Preservice teachers who were younger and “grew up” under NCLB and the height of high-stakes testing believed high-stakes tests to be a waste of time for them personally, but a useful way to evaluate teachers as an educational policy. Vignette and qualitative analyses of workplace preferences and rationales underscore some of the assumptions our preservice teachers hold about high-stakes testing as a policy mechanism to help explain this finding. We conclude with implications for policy and future research.

Preserving Education as a Public Good: Lessons from the Grassroots

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 921-929
Author(s):  
Barbara Ferman
Keyword(s):  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Grassroots Activism ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Neoliberal Reforms ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
School Expansion ◽  
State Takeovers

The article provides an overview of my book, The Fight for America’s Schools: Grassroots Activism in Education. The book examines how grassroots activists in Pennsylvania and New Jersey challenged various neoliberal reforms in education such as high stakes testing, school closures, state takeovers of local school districts, and charter school expansion. The four case studies focus on who the activists were, how they became involved, the challenges they faced, and the prospects for coalition building across different constituent groups. The comparative analysis reveals the role of political, organizational, demographic, and historical factors in shaping how activism played out in each location and in its effectiveness.

scholarly journals Third through Sixth Graders' Perceptions of High-Stakes Testing

2005 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheri Foster Triplett ◽  
Mary Alice Barksdale
Keyword(s):  
Test Anxiety ◽  
Test Preparation ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Sixth Graders ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Content Areas ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
High Stakes Tests ◽  
Written Descriptions

This study examined elementary students' perceptions of high-stakes testing through the use of drawings and writings. On the day after students completed their high-stakes tests in the spring, 225 students were asked to “draw a picture about your recent testing experience.” The same students then responded in writing to the prompt “tell me about your picture.” During data analysis, nine categories were constructed from the themes in students' drawings and written descriptions: Emotions, Easy, Content Areas, Teacher Role, Student Metaphors, Fire, Power/Politics, Adult Language, and Culture of Testing. Each of these categories was supported by drawings and written descriptions. Two additional categories were compelling because of their prevalence in students' drawings: Accoutrements of Testing and Isolation. The researchers examine the prevailing negativity in students' responses and suggest ways to decrease students' overall test anxiety, including making changes in the overall testing culture and changing the role teachers play in test preparation.

Academic Tracking, High-Stakes Tests, and Preparing Students for College: How Inequality Persists Within Schools

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 907-935 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Giersch
Keyword(s):  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Public High School ◽  
School Students ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Academic Tracking ◽  
State University System ◽  
High Stakes Tests ◽  
Academic Track ◽  
The Difference

Academic tracking is a common feature of school organization, but it produces inequalities in student outcomes. High-stakes testing policies offer new opportunities for assessing students’ progress, but the instruments raise concerns about relying on such narrow measures of learning. This study utilizes a longitudinal data set that follows one cohort of North Carolina school students from public high school through the state university system to examine the difference in outcomes associated with academic track. Results show that upper track students do better in college even when controlling for achievement on high-stakes tests and that such tests are a stronger predictor of college success for upper track students than they are for lower track students. Interviews suggest that these differences can be attributed to different methods of instruction in each track.

scholarly journals Explorations of Beliefs about EFL Teachers’ Roles from Both Teachers’ and Students’ Perspectives through Metaphor Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (29) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharihan Shawkat Azeez
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Teachers Experiences ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
The University

Metaphor acts as a window into comprehending teachers’ experiences through providing insights into complex concepts of teaching and learning. As a result, it plays a crucial role in exploring beliefs about teachers’ roles in the teaching and learning process. To elicit ideas and beliefs which both teachers and students held about the role of English teachers, questionnaires were given to 30 teachers and 85 students in the University of Duhok, English Department. The questionnaire asked the subjects to provide their beliefs about English teachers’ roles by using a sentence completion task “An English teacher is…. because….”. Eight conceptual categories are introduced from the linguistic metaphors and example metaphors for each category are given in the results tables. The eight conceptual categories include: teacher as devotee, teacher as nurturer, teachers as provider / source of knowledge, teacher as cultural transmitter, teacher as authority, teacher as guider, teacher as a friend, and teacher as a nice beautiful soul. All participants expressed the same conceptual categories, but still they use different metaphors to express their views. An interesting feature of these results is that there are some parallel and overlaps of metaphors among different subjects. The findings of this study suggested subtle differences between students’ and teachers’ beliefs. This study will benefit teachers, curriculum designers, and researchers. Researchers may carry out comprehensive studies using metaphor as an investigating tool to better understand both students and teachers’ perceptions of the teachers’ roles. The results will help develop comprehensive and inclusive methods of teaching. Larger samples with variables such as gender, age, different locations, and proficiency of participants should be taken into consideration during future studies.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND WHISTLEBLOWING INTENTIONS: MEDIATING APPARATUS OF MORAL IDENTITY

2021 ◽  
pp. 20-32
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Leadership ◽  
Moral Identity ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Working Environments ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Unethical Practices ◽  
Regression Test ◽  
Ethical Leaders

Separation of strategic approaches and morals prompted various business outrages and untrustworthy practices in working environments. This encouraged researchers and practice holders to examine significance of ethical quality at work environment. In particular, the job that moral chiefs play in advancing positive representative practices is urgent. This examination article has featured the part of moral innovators in molding whistleblowing goals of their subordinates. Alongside, this exploration article has likewise researched the part of good character. An aggregate of four speculations, analyzing the immediate impact of moral initiative on moral personality and whistleblowing expectations and meditational job of good character were proposed. This exploration article embraced a period slacked research article plan and gathered data from representative friend dyads at three focuses on schedule. Number of respondents was 214; Cross-sectional technique was used for data collection. Respondents were selected from different services organizations from Multan. Data was analysed on SPSS and AMOS. Results were obtained by applying reliability test, ANOVA, Correlation test, and regression test by using PROCESS Macro. Results gained verified that the role of ethical leaders in shaping moral identity of employees as well as their whistleblowing intentions. The findings suggest that employees working under ethical leaders are inclined to stand up against malevolent and unethical practices taking place at their workplace. Thus, organizations must hire leaders with higher ethical inclinations and also train the existing leaders about importance of ethics. Moreover, this research article has highlighted multiple avenues for future research.

scholarly journals Employee-Organization Fit and Voluntary Green Behavior: A Cross-Level Model Examining the Role of Perceived Insider Status and Green Organizational Climate

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (7) ◽  
pp. 2193
Author(s):  
Jincen Xiao ◽  
Jih-Yu Mao ◽  
Sihao Huang ◽  
Tao Qing
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Climate ◽  
Organizational Factors ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Person Environment Fit ◽  
Level Model ◽  
Perceived Insider Status ◽  
Green Behavior ◽  
Time Lagged

Employee green behavior has received considerable attention in recent years because of its contribution to an organization’s environmental performance. However, little is known about how personal and organizational factors can simultaneously affect employee voluntary green behavior. The present study draws on person-environment fit theory to investigate how and when employee voluntary green behavior can be facilitated by employee-organization fit. Based on a time-lagged survey study of 413 employees from three different manufactures of chemical products, the present study discovers a positive relationship between employee-organization fit and employee voluntary green behavior, and this relationship is mediated by perceived insider status. Moreover, the relationship between perceived insider status and voluntary green behavior is strengthened when employees perceive a green organizational climate. Insights for theory, practice, and future research are also discussed.

Complexity Ramifications of High Stakes Examinations as a Measure of Accountability in Education Systems

2016 ◽  
pp. 176-198
Author(s):  
Ssali Muhammadi Bisaso ◽  
Shakira Bodio
Keyword(s):  
Education System ◽  
Psychological Status ◽  
Learning Assessment ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Educational Value ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Teaching Learning

Examinations occupy a strategic position in our lives and society today. In a situation where moral principles, rules and regulations for conducting examinations are truncated by either teacher or the learner, the validity and reliability of examination and certification are at risk. The nature and process of examination is something that should be looked into deeply having known the role of examination in our lives. That is essence of this paper; the way high-stakes examinations have affected various aspects of the education system in the realm of teaching, learning, assessment, discipline, roles of stakeholders, teachers' beliefs, community expectations, functional role of education, educational outcomes, individual differences, psychological status of learners, educational returns, school completion etc. This paper articulated these issues in terms of using high-stakes examinations as a measure of accountability in the education system and premised on the level of faith placed on these high-stakes examinations irrespective of educational value thereof.

Researching the promotion of fundamental British values in schools

2019 ◽  
pp. 51-68
Author(s):  
Carol Vincent
Keyword(s):  
National Policy ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Work Lives ◽  
Affective Characteristics ◽  
Straight Line ◽  
Policy Enactment

Chapter 3 discusses the processes of ‘policy enactment’ (Ball, Maguire and Braun 2012). This term is used to emphasise that there is no simple straight line between what a policy text states and what happens on the ground. Enactment describes the processes by which teachers interpret and reinterpret national policy, translating it to fit their own contexts. In the discussion, I consider the importance of what has been called the affective policy ‘tone’, in shaping enactment, drawing on Ben Anderson’s work to describe the affective characteristics of the wider social and political climate. The chapter also outlines the current education policy context in England, emphasising the key role of high stakes testing in shaping teachers’ work lives and the emphasis on traditional academic subjects, leading to the marginalisation of citizenship education described in Chapter 2. The chapter finishes by introducing the schools involved in this research. They consist of nine case study schools and eight schools that were visited for a one-off interview.

Students With Learning Disabilities and Computer-Based High-Stakes Testing

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 308-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy R. Gelbart
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
State Standards ◽  
Students With Learning Disabilities ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
New Era ◽  
High Stakes Tests ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
The Common

As schools move into a new era of technology, assessment is evolving as well. With the introduction of high-stakes tests based on the Common Core State Standards, annual assessments are increasingly delivered via computer-based systems. This method of delivery could have a significant effect on students with learning disabilities. This column explores benefits and challenges of testing students with learning disabilities via computer-based systems. It examines accessing accommodations via computer-based systems, best practices in preparing students for computer-based tests, teacher training, and educators and test designers partnering in creating test platforms.

High Stakes Testing: Issues, Implications, and Remedies for English Language Learners

2008 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald W. Solórzano
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Proficiency Tests ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
High Stakes Tests

This article discusses the issues and implications of high stakes tests on English language learners (ELLs). As ELLs are being included in all high stakes assessments tied to accountability efforts (e.g., No Child Left Behind), it is crucial that issues related to the tests be critically evaluated relative to their use. In this case, academic achievement tests are analyzed relative to their norming samples and validity to determine their usefulness to ELLs. Also, commonly used language proficiency tests are examined relative to definitions of proficiency, technical quality, alignment with criteria for language classification and reclassification, and their academic predictive validity. Based on the synthesis of the literature, the author concludes that high stakes tests as currently constructed are inappropriate for ELLs, and most disturbing is their continued use for high stakes decisions that have adverse consequences. The author provides recommendations for addressing the issues related to high stakes tests and ELLs.

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