Teaching to the Test? A Comparison of Two High Schools’ Responses to Mandated Testing
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Teachers do not always do as they are told. Differences in local context and in individual teachers’ attitudes and beliefs are often overlooked in analysis of policy implementation at the school and classroom level, but they nevertheless influence the way reforms reach classrooms. This study focuses on implementation of standards-based and accountability reforms, in particular mandated state testing, at two small high schools in California, presenting findings based on classroom observations and teacher interviews. The two schools, similar in their focus on college preparation and strong academics, differ in how they prepare students for standardized tests such as the California High School Exit Exam and the California Standards Tests. One rigorously advocates test preparation while the other prefers alternative means of assessing students. Teachers also vary in their level of implementation of test preparation within each school. The study concludes that school context plays an important role in determining how teachers deal with mandated testing and calls into question the usefulness of one-size-fits-all accountability policies.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | August 2005 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Gorges, Torie |
|---|
Subjects
| Subject | Teachers |
|---|---|
| Subject | Testing |
| Subject | California |
| Subject | Education reforms |
| Subject | Stanford Graduate School of Education International Educational Administration and Policy Analysis |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
| Related item | |
|---|---|
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/nc281tr5462 |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Collection
Graduate School of Education International Comparative Education Master's Monographs
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- Contact
- torie.gorges@gmail.com
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