Media Coverage of High-Stakes Testing: Understanding Issue Dimensions Using Topic Modeling

• In Event: 41.083 - Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: 41.083-2 - Educator Responses to Accountability Policies

Abstract

This paper draws on the theory of issue framing and the role of media in public policy to examine the problem definitions and dimensions in the high-stakes testing debate in public schools. Structural topic modeling, a recently developed form of quantitative text analysis, is used to trace the evolution of the debate and to investigate shifts in salient dimensions across a 20-year period (1995-2015) of media coverage of the issue. The model estimates suggest that there are substantial shifts in the dimensions of the debate in media coverage over time, with a notable shift to a more negative tone in more recent years. These shifts are discussed within the context of policy developments during the same period of time.

Author

• John Wachen, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill