Test driven: high-stakes accountability in elementary schools

✍ Scribed by Linda Valli

• Publisher: Teachers College Press
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 209
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

''This important new book is a must-read for anyone who cares about the quality of teaching offered to children, especially those who are most vulnerable.'' --Christine Sleeter, Professor Emerita, California State University Monterey Bay''Provides insights into the behavior and practice of educators negotiating policy, children, and professional community. School leaders, researchers, parents, and policymakers will benefit from reading this volume.'' --William F. Tate IV, Washington University in St. Louis''Offers detailed accounts of the emphasis on standardized testing, deprofessionalization of teachers, and negative consequences for unrealistic expectations -- a story that has emerged in the public press over the past few years, but this work brings the story down to the classroom level.'' --Robert Calfee, Stanford School of Education ''This is a well-documented and persuasive account of the undue negative impact of performance-based reform as embodied in the federal, No Child Left Behind education law….a timely, must-read for every policymaker, administrator, teacher, and advocate.'' --Angela Valenzuela, University of Texas at Austin, author of Subtractive Schooling and Leaving Children Behind''I don't always know [students] by face; I know them by data,'' an elementary curriculum specialist explains ruefully in this broad examination of how No Child Left Behind impacts schools and shapes teaching practice. Capturing the changes teachers are experiencing, especially in the areas of mathematics and reading, the authors compare and contrast three schools with diverse student populations according to school norms and structures, professional roles and responsibilities, curriculum, staff development, and teaching and learning. Including rich observational data and personal accounts from educators, this inside look at school reform analyzes the effects of policies from multiple levels, examining relationships among initiatives at the federal, state, district, and local school levels, focuses on the impact that high-stakes testing policies have on reading and mathematics instruction in 4th and 5th grades, and provides teacher and principal perspectives on factors that influence how practitioners make sense of, mediate, and construct school policy.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 8
CHAPTER 1: Overview......Page 12
CASE STUDY CONTEXT......Page 15
POLICY CONTEXT......Page 18
THE SCHOOLS......Page 21
THEMATIC CHAPTERS......Page 32
CHAPTER 2: Creating Test-Taking Cultures......Page 34
SCHEDULING TIME......Page 36
SETTING PRIORITIES......Page 42
RELATING TO STUDENTS......Page 55
CONCLUSION......Page 58
CHAPTER 3: Becoming Test Managers......Page 59
GEARING UP FOR A YEAR OF TESTING......Page 61
LEARNING ABOUT TESTS......Page 67
WORKING WITH TEST DATA......Page 73
CONCLUSION......Page 82
CHAPTER 4: Subordinating the Official Curriculum......Page 84
STEVENSON’S OFFICIAL CURRICULUM FRAMEWORKS......Page 86
HAWTHORNE: SUSPENDING THE CURRICULUM......Page 92
BROOKFIELD: SUPPLEMENTING THE CURRICULUM......Page 96
CHERRY RIDGE: RESTRICTING THE CURRICULUM......Page 100
CONCLUSION......Page 105
CHAPTER 5: Aligning Teacher Learning with Student Testing......Page 109
HAWTHORNE......Page 112
BROOKFIELD......Page 119
CHERRY RIDGE......Page 126
CONCLUSION......Page 133
CHAPTER 6: Eroding Quality Teaching......Page 136
CONCEPTUALIZATION OF HIGH-QUALITY TEACHING......Page 137
HAWTHORNE: TEACHING AS CRAMMING FOR THE TEST AND REGROUPING......Page 142
BROOKFIELD: TEACHING AS SCAFFOLDING LEARNING......Page 149
CHERRY RIDGE: TEACHING AS TARGETING STUDENT DEFICIENCIES......Page 157
CONCLUSION......Page 165
CHAPTER 7: Weathering High-Stakes Accountability......Page 168
KEY FINDINGS......Page 172
RECOMMENDATIONS......Page 180
APPENDIX: Key School Personnel......Page 186
Notes......Page 188
References......Page 190
About the Authors......Page 198
B......Page 200
C......Page 201
F......Page 202
I......Page 203
M......Page 204
P......Page 205
S......Page 206
T......Page 208
Z......Page 209