Yamashita, Mika Yoder
(2011)
HOW DOES HIGH STAKES TESTING INFLUENCE TEACHERS' CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION?: INSTITUTIONAL PRESSURES AND CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
This study examined how a total of eight math and science elementary school teachers changed their classroom instruction in response to high stakes and low stakes testing in one school district. The district introduced new assessment in the school year of 2005-06 to meet the requirement set forth by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)—that the assessment should be aligned with the state academic standards. I conducted interviews with teachers and school administrators at two elementary schools, district officials, and a representative of a non-profit organization during the school year 2007-08 to examine how the new assessment introduced in 2005-06 had shaped classroom instruction. Concepts from New Institutional Theory and cognitive approaches to policy implementation guided the design of this study. This study focused on how materials and activities associated with high stakes testing promoted ideas about good instruction, and how these ideas were carried to teachers. The study examined how teachers received messages about instruction and how they responded to the messages.The study found that high stakes testing influenced teachers' classroom instruction more than low stakes testing; however, the instructional changes teachers made in response to state testing was at the content level. The teachers' instructional strategies did not change. The teachers' instructional changes varied with the degree of implementation of existing math curriculum and with the degree of support they received in understanding the meaning of assessment results. The study concluded that, among the six teachers I studied, high stakes testing was not a sufficient intervention for changing teachers' instructional strategies. The study also addressed the challenges of aligning instructional messages across assessment, standards, and curriculum.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
|
| ETD Committee: |
| Title | Member | Email Address | Pitt Username | ORCID |
|---|
| Committee Chair | Stein, Mary Kay | | | | | Committee Member | Coburn, Cynthia E | | | | | Committee Member | McClure, Maureen | | | | | Committee Member | Gunzenhauser, MIchael | | | |
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| Date: |
13 May 2011 |
| Date Type: |
Completion |
| Defense Date: |
3 February 2011 |
| Approval Date: |
13 May 2011 |
| Submission Date: |
12 April 2011 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
School of Education > Administrative and Policy Studies |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
classroom instruction; high stakes testing |
| Other ID: |
http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04122011-225020/, etd-04122011-225020 |
| Date Deposited: |
10 Nov 2011 19:36 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 13:39 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/7081 |
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