Education Commons^™

Perceptions Of High Stakes Testing And Burnout As Predictors Of Quality Of Life Among Primary School Teachers In Trinidad And Tobago, Victoria Patricia Elder

Dissertations

Problem

This study explored how high-stakes testing (HST) and burnout affected the quality of primary school teachers in Trinidad and Tobago. HST refers to school exams often required by government agencies that are used to make key decisions pertaining to students, teachers, and schools (Embse & Hanson, 2012). Burnout is defined operationally as a psychological syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and impaired personal accomplishment induced by repeated workplace stressors (Maslach & Schaufeli, 2017). Quality of life (QoL) is the measure of an individual’s ability to function physically, emotionally, and socially within his/her environment at a level consistent with his/her own …

High Stakes Testing And School Characteristics: A Comparative Study, Kelsey M. Dailey

Dissertations

Problem

The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to better understand the relationship between the 2016 Grade 10 ISTEP+ English passing rate and 2018 graduation rate amongst 290 Indiana high schools and the following variables: school size, average SAT reading score, percentage of students passing advanced placement (AP) exams, percentage of special education students, percentage of free or reduced lunch students, percentage of English Language Learner students, and percentage of minority ethnic group students.. The results of the research may further evaluate how 2016 school characteristics are related to the Grade 10, 2016 ISTEP+ English which may suggest future …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Reading Wonders: Is It Really A Wonder? A Program Evaluation, Myra A. Richardson

Dissertations

Reading programs are essential tools for leaders to use while building literacy. The transfer from instructional delivery to student knowledge should be easily recognizable in the end-of-year assessment data. As the principal analyzing the end-of-year data, I discovered a problem when I struggled to see this transfer in my data. The purpose of this program evaluation was to determine whether teachers perceived Reading Wonders to be an effective reading program for the school district as well as whether the assessment data aligned with teachers’ perceptions. A survey was used to collect responses from the participants and an Excel spreadsheet was …

Policy Advocacy For Letting Schools Be Schools, Jason Major

Dissertations

Ever since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools have been in an era of high stakes accountability around test scores, attendance, and climate and culture. This has also ushered in a wave of accountability down to teachers in the form of paperwork, mandates, and a heavy emphasis on reading and math. In Chicago Public Schools, all schools in the district are rated on the School Quality Rating Policy, which utilizes the Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measures of Academic Progress assessment to determine student growth from the spring of one year to the spring of the next. This heavy …

Taking The “Squeeze” Off Of Social Studies: A Phenomenological Study Of Teacher “Curricular” Autonomy And Its Effects On Social Studies Instructional Time, Jerri Antoinette Johnson

Dissertations

The state of social studies instruction in US schools has become dismal. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to gain an understanding of the impact of high stakes testing on social studies teaching when it is not tested by the state. I examined the elementary teacher’s “curricular” autonomy (curricular/instructional decision making) within the context of social studies teaching in a suburban low performing, urban demographic, school. Participants were asked to describe the experience of making instructional decisions regarding social studies education. The specific aims of this study were to: 1. reveal the meaning of teacher autonomy for teachers in …

Determining The Academic Achievement Of English Language Learners (Ells) By Using Additional Measures Of Growth, Adriana Maria Marin

Dissertations

Accountability measures employed in the country to determine the academic achievement of all the student population rely solely on the results obtained on the standardized tests. Such measures have often placed English language learners’ (ELLs) at risk of academic failure despite the fact that research on second language acquisition (SLA) has stated the complexity involved in the learning/acquisition process of a target language. Scholars have also discussed the influence accountability measures and the issues with the validity of the tests implemented to assess ELLs may have on such results. Therefore, in an effort to obtain a more comprehensive idea of …

What’S In A Test? Constructions Of Literacy And Its Implications For English Proficiency Test Design, Josye Marie Brookter

Dissertations

Although college-level composition pedagogy is becoming more open to language diversity, some crucial current-traditional vestiges remain, particularly in proficiency exams. Too often these exams only identify students who are slipping through the cracks of literacy instruction, while the definition of English represented by this test limits alternate notions of writing and literacy. The test represents local, institutional values about written English, although those values must also be consistent with national standards. Typically, administrators, teachers, and students feel compelled to choose traditional forms of writing over postmodern ones, a choice that is seldom discussed in the literature. Conflicting perspectives of English …

A Historical Perspective Of Testing And Assessment Including The Impact Of Summative And Formative Assessment On Student Achievement, Carole Sanger Brink

Dissertations

In 2007, Georgia developed a comprehensive framework to define what students need to know. One component of this framework emphasizes the use of both formative and summative assessments as part of an integral and specific component of the teachers' performance evaluation. Georgia administers the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) to every elementary student in Grades 1 though 8. Before 2008, the state tested eighth-grade students on a quality core curriculum. In 2008, the state began testing students on a Georgia Performance Standard curriculum. A direct comparison of the curriculum change should have contained items to test both curriculums. However, this was …

High-Stakes Testing And Its Relationship To Stress Levels Of Secondary Teachers, Sonya Colman Christian

Dissertations

This study investigated the relationship between high-stakes testing and the stress levels of secondary teachers in Jackson’s Jackson Public School District. The independent variables of age, gender, subject taught, teaching experience, degree and school level were used to determine the differences of the various groups. A survey was piloted and used to determine teachers’ levels of stress. There was not a statistically significant difference between the stress levels of teachers who teach subjects that are measured by high-stakes testing and those who do not. There also was not a statistically significant difference between the stress levels of veteran teachers and …