“Are We Going to Be Prepared for the State Test?” Tensions Elementary Schools Experience in Literacy Teaching

• In Event: Multiple Literacies, Multiple Contexts: Leveraging Urban Students’ Literacies in Schools and Beyond

Abstract

Purpose

Student achievement is increasingly “put to the test” as accountability pressures are intensified from legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (PL 107-110). Schools that primarily serve students from low socioeconomic backgrounds face the biggest challenges in terms of interventions, takeovers, and prescribed curriculum (Anagnostopoulos, 2003; Smagorinsky, Lakly, & Johnson, 2002; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). As a result, test preparation often dominates the instruction and culture of these schools. For most teachers, this is a source of great tension.

This paper examines the teachers in one urban elementary school and the problems and tensions they face as they negotiate the demands placed on them for accountability, namely standardized testing. The participants are 27 teachers (PreK-5th grade) with experience ranging from one year to more than 20 years. The school where data were collected is located in a large metropolitan city in Texas with student enrollment at one thousand. Ninety-seven percent of the students speak Spanish at home and are eligible for free/reduced lunch.

Methods and Data Sources

Data collection for this ethnographic case study (Foley, 1990; Valenzuela, 1999) occurred during the 2010-2011 school year. Data sources include classroom observations, meeting observations, field notes, video and audio recordings, and transcripts of teacher interviews. Data analysis has been inductive and ongoing, using the constant-comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) to develop codes and themes.

Theoretical Perspectives

Together, sociocultural (Wertsch, 1991) and sociopolitical perspectives (Apple, 1996; Luke, 2003) frame this study. These perspectives explicate the relationships between language, literacy, and learning and the cultural, institutional, historical, and political situations in which they occur.

Findings

The findings suggest that teachers regularly felt tension associated with testing. This was often expressed through misalignment in how they defined success versus how success was defined through test scores. While the majority of teachers defined success independently of test scores, they also acknowledged the important role they play in how others define success (i.,e., administration, district personnel, and the state board). Throughout the school year teachers worried whether or not their students would be ready for the test, and wondered what strategies would help them pass. Teachers who were not in testing grades also acknowledged the importance of the scores and felt the entire school was measured by them. Other areas of tension expressed by teachers related to job security as well as decisions made by administration that directly affected literacy teaching, such as the structure and duration of their language arts time.

Scholarly Significance

This study makes a contribution to the field by taking an ethnographic approach to studying literacy teaching and the tensions urban elementary school teachers face within the complex school system. It highlights the ways in which teachers of non-dominant students struggle to broaden their teaching of literacy while negotiating the narrow definitions of literacy created from high stakes testing.

Author

• Melody Zoch, University of North Carolina - Greensboro