Accountability: Exploring the effects of external testing on teachers'

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• Accountability? Exploring the effects of
  external testing on teachers.
•  
• Presenter Dr. Margot Filipenko
• Department of Language Literacy
  Education
• University of British Columbia.

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• Purpose
• Early childhood educators are torn between
  appropriate practice and mandated curriculum.
  Many teachers struggle with the strict
  guidelines, and with the curriculum they are
  mandated to teach that is often misaligned with
  their personal philosophies of how young children
  learn best (Adcock Patton, 2001).
• The purpose of this presentation is to examine
  what research shows about the effects of
  standards and testing on teachers, teaching and
  the teaching profession.

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Shape of the Day

• Standards and Testing
• Pressures on teachers
• Influences of high-stakes testing on Teaching and
  learning.
• Teachers perceptions about testing.
• What have teachers lost in the Time of Testing?
• Phonemic awareness A case in point.
• Activity.

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Standards and Testing

• The 1983 publication of A Nation at Risk is
  frequently identified as the impetus of the
  focused march toward accountability and
  high-stakes testing.
• The report recommended
• strengthening graduation requirements
• setting higher standards for both schools and
  colleges
• increasing the amount of time students spend
  engaged in learning tasks and,
• Improving teaching through higher standards
• The drive for accountability was on.

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• During the 1990s, educators worked tirelessly to
  perfect descriptions of standards at every level
  and content area.
• Testing appeared to be the logical approach to
  identify students who did not meet set standards,
  as well as the teachers of those students.
• Thus, through developing higher standards and
  tests for measuring the degree to which students
  met those standards, there was a system in place
  for holding students, teachers, and schools
  accountable for assuring that all students met
  expected standards.
• (Barksdale-Ladd Thomas, 2000)

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Pressures on Teachers

• 1. Pressure on teachers to ensure high scores
  is constant.
• Direct sources of pressure include
• Statements made and memos sent to teachers by
  administrators
• Conversations and meetings with other teachers
  where testing was a topic and,
• The media.

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• Its awful. I just cringe every time I walk
  in the teachers room because these tests are the
  only topic of conversation in there, and it
  raises your anxiety just to hear how scared
  everybody is. A few years ago, I really loved
  teaching, but this pressure is just so intense .
  Im not sure how long I can take it.
• (reported in Barksdale-Ladd Thomas, 2000 p.
  390).

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• Finally, publishing test scores with schools
  rankings in local newspaper, thereby pressuring
  teachers to produce high test scores, causes
  teachers anxiety, shame, loss of esteem, and
  alienation.
• (Barksdale-Ladd Thomas, 2000).

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• Influences of high-stakes testing on Teaching and
  Learning.
• Teachers tend to neglect teaching materials that
  the external test does not include (Smith,
  Edelsky, Draper, Rottenber, and Cherland, 1990).
• Teachers adjust the sequence of their curriculum
  based on what is included on the test (Herman and
  Golan 1991).
• Teachers alter their instructional materials to
  resemble the format of mandated tests
  (Mathison,1987).
• Teachers teach to the test when they believed
  important decisions such as student promotion
  will be based on test scores (Madaus, 1988).
• A result of the emphasis on test results, is that
  teachers increase attention on paper-and-pencil
  computation, and reduce attention to project work
  (Romberg, Zarinnia, Williams, 1989).

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Teachers Perceptions about the Effects of
Testing on teaching and the teaching profession

• Teachers identified that their teaching was
  worse instead of better as a result of
  preparing children for testing
• Im not the teacher I used to be. I
  used to be great, and I couldnt wait to get to
  school every day because I loved being great at
  what I do. All of the most powerful teaching
  tools I used to use every day are no good to me
  now because they dont help children get ready
  for the test, and it makes me like a robot
  instead of a teacher.

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• Teachers identified the effects on teaching as a
  profession
• These tests, and all of this pressure to
  make kids do well on tests its an insult.
  Its saying that we arent a profession and we
  cant be trusted to do our jobs, so high-pressure
  tactics are necessary to make us behave. Theyre
  treating us like stupid children, theyre turning
  us into bad teachers, taking away every bit of
  pride.

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• Teachers identified the negative effects of
  testing on student learning, student achievement,
  and student self-esteem
• I know this is disrespectful, but these
  tests are making my kids stupid. The kids Ive
  had the last few years have gotten higher scores
  because Ive worked so hard at getting them ready
  for the tests, but this is a façade because they
  just dont have it together like my former
  students.

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What have teachers lost in the Time of Testing?

• Voice and Ownership
• Time
• Faith
• Opportunity
• Desire
• (McCracken McCracken, 2001).

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Definition of Phonemic Awareness

• Involves the explicit awareness of the
  individual phonemes (sounds) and the manipulation
  of these sounds. It involves such task as
  rhyming, segmenting sounds, blending sounds, and
  manipulating sounds (deleting and substituting
  sounds). It's metalinguistic. Children learn how
  to think about the sound structure of language
  and are given strategies to both process and
  manipulate the sound structure in order to learn
  to read and spell.

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Why is Phonemic Awareness Important

• Educators are always looking for valid and
  reliable predicators of educational achievement
  and research indicates that phonemic awareness is
  the best predictor of early reading acquisition
  (Stanovich, 1993-94).
• Phonemic awareness is both a prerequisite for and
  a consequence of learning to read (Yopp, 1992).
• Phonemic awareness can be taught (Lundberg et al,
  1988).

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IRA position statement on teaching phonemic
awareness

• As positive as the Association is about recent
  research findings on phonemic awareness, there is
  concern that these findings might be misused. For
  example, mandates that require teachers to
  dedicate specific amounts of time to phonemic
  awareness instruction could compromise other
  important aspects of the literacy curriculum. The
  Association strongly supports a balanced approach
  to teaching reading--one that recognizes the
  importance of comprehension and enjoyment as much
  as discrete language skills.

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A Case on point School District No. 26
(Surrey)Kindergarten Phonemic Awareness Standards

• Are these standards appropriate?
• Why/why not?