School testing culture and teacher satisfaction

• In Event: Identifying and addressing challenges faced by more vulnerable students

Proposal

Recent decades have brought about a sharp increase in teacher-focused accountability policies and practices. This global phenomenon (Holloway, Sørensen & Verger, 2017; Verger & Parcerisa, 2017) has relied heavily on the numerical measures of ‘teacher quality’, as various forms of standardised achievement tests grow in prominence. Large-scale international achievement tests, like PISA, as well as state-level tests (e.g., those in the US) and national-level tests (e.g., NAPLAN in Australia) have enabled education systems to incorporate student test scores into their accountability systems. While most of these standardised tests were never designed or intended to be used for measuring teacher quality or effectiveness, it is becoming increasingly common for schools to incorporate student test scores in to teacher-level appraisal/evaluation systems. Indeed, Smith and Kubacka (2017) conducted an analysis of international TALIS data and found that nearly all teachers (I.e., 97%) of teachers reported that their appraisals included student test scores. While multiple measures of teacher performance are typically included in these systems, overall, teachers reported that student test scores have taken precedence in terms of appraisal focus, supplanting other forms of more meaningful feedback (e.g., teacher portfolios, observations).

The disproportional emphasis on student test scores is producing a ‘testing culture’ where the professional identities and work of teachers is being fundamentally changed. This is exacerbated when high stakes are attached to appraisal outcomes (Certo, 2006; Larsen, 2005), which is also increasingly common across most education systems (Smith & Kubacka, 2017). This paper draws on data from the 2013 TALIS and uses path analysis to examine how a school ‘testing culture’ is related to teacher’s satisfaction with the school they are teaching in. School testing culture is captured by examining whether student test scores are included in teacher appraisals and whether the principal ensures teachers know they are responsible for student achievement. Initial results demonstrate that emphasizing student test scores has a direct negative relationship with teacher’s satisfaction with their school. Additionally, a school testing culture is also more likely to be associated with emphasizing student test scores in teacher appraisal feedback. This indirectly reduces teacher satisfaction by mediating the potential benefits the teacher appraisal can have on satisfaction. The results speak to the larger global testing culture and illustrate how over emphasis on test scores can shape teacher experiences.

Authors

• William Smith, University of Edinburgh

• Jessica Holloway, Deakin University