Standardized Testing and Teachers’ Work: International Survey Findings for Ontario and Illinois Teachers

• In Event: War and Peace: Unions and Teachers in Illinois and Ontario in an Era of Standardization

Abstract

This paper uses a Vygotskian approach to analyze the findings of a survey sent to over 100,000 teachers across Ontario, Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles, this presentation lays out the international divergences and convergences of the ways teachers and teacher practice are impacted by high stakes testing (HST) in these contexts, with a focus on the limitations and opportunities within teacher practice, produced by HST.

The objectives of the paper are three fold. First, the paper seeks to deepen our understanding of the impact of increased standardized testing (understood as activity and interaction) on teacher practices which specifically attend and are attuned to practices of equity-oriented education. Second, the paper seeks to explore, in both intra-national and international comparative perspective, the impact generally, of increased standardized testing on teachers’ work and professional lives as this relates to the issues raised by the other participants. Third, this piece seeks to explicate some the most common challenges and opportunities provided by standardized testing as identified by teachers in the study; and as well to examine, using a constructivist lens, the way teachers navigate professional practice in light of these considerations.

This paper uses a constructivist Vygotskian approach, and specifically an activity theory (AT) lens, to understand pedagogy and teacher practice with regard to equity-oriented education and high stakes testing.

The findings emerge from a multi-year (2011–2014) mixed-method study conducted in the US and Canada. Electronic surveys were mailed to 100,000 plus teachers in New York, Illinois, California and Ontario, Canada. The survey instrument was developed after the completion, and initial analysis of initial qualitative interviews and data analysis.
In addition to the findings from the qualitative and quantitative research outlined in the previous section, the paper provides and engages a review of relevant literature on teachers’ work and standardized testing, teachers’ work and equity-oriented education, and Vygotskian AT approaches to analysing pedagogy and teachers’ professional lives.

This article presents the findings of a mixed-method research project studying the impact of HST on teacher practice with regard to teacher attention to issues of equity in education in Canada and the US. Based on a survey of teachers across Ontario, Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles, this paper lays out the intra- and international divergences and convergences of the ways teachers and teacher practice are impacted by HST in these contexts. Initial results correlate increased HST with decreased attention to equity in terms of content breadth and depth, curriculum development, assessment/evaluation, extra-curricular activities, and one-on-one/small group teaching and support of students.
This presentation will present data from surveys sent to 100,000 plus teachers in two countries on high stakes testing and equity-oriented education. The survey was developed with input from the Elementary Teachers of Toronto and United Teachers Los Angeles. This is the largest comparative study of its kind, and will deepen current knowledge of the impact of HST on equity-oriented education in particular and teachers’ work and professional lives in general, and will do so within an international comparative frame.

Author

• Arlo Kempf, University of California - Los Angeles