Learning to Teach in the Era of High-Stakes Accountability: Teacher Learners' Reactions to State Testing During Literacy Education Practicum Courses

• In Event: 61.087 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: 61.087-3 - Accountability Results: Its Impact on Teacher Practice, Instruction, and Students' Lives

Abstract

Public schools in the United States face increasing pressure to measure their success – and the achievements of the children they serve – on standardized, large-scale evaluations and tests. While many scholars have argued that these tests do not take culture into account, leading to a lack of educational equity for non-mainstream students (e.g. (Darling‐Hammond, 2007; Lee, 2007), less research has focused on the impact that these issues of equity and accountability have on teacher preparation. Drawing on data from a year-long, ethnographic study, this paper explores how participants made sense of complicated issues of assessment and culture that arose within their urban-based field experiences, particularly in regards to the pressures of accountability on literacy education and instruction in schools.

Author

• Katharine Emily Bartow Jacobs, University of Pittsburgh