Missing in Action: Did They Really Go Because of Test Scores?

• In Event: 18.031 - Leavers, Pushed-Outs, and Those Who Stay: Teacher Responses to Professional Pressures

Abstract

This study focused on initial motivations of beginning teachers to discover how those motivations were maintained in the field given accountability pressures to increase students' test scores. Explanations vary between two perspectives: one assumes test scores are low because teachers lack the necessary abilities, whereas the other looks at contextual factors with a focus on the extent to which teachers are able to negotiate their visions for teaching within a particular school setting. The top ten-percent of teacher education students, referred to as beginning teachers of promise, were selected to participate in one of two consecutive cohorts. Discussion focuses on the extent to which teachers were able to maintain their motivations as a result of a variety of contextual factors.

Authors

• Doris Anne Kroiss, University of North Carolina - Greensboro

• Salem Rainey Metzger, University of North Carolina - Greensboro

• Samuel D. Miller, University of North Carolina - Greensboro