| Chapter 1: | Story of the Research |
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Because the external accountability system had such a profound impact on teachers, the system caused teachers to do things within the classroom that they would not have done otherwise. For example, teachers believed that the content they must teach came almost exclusively from the test, thus making their own rich knowledge base irrelevant and forcing them to separate “real content” from “test content” (p. 7).
This separation of content caused resentment of the test; however, teachers must value the test because of the high stakes associated with it. Two outcomes resulted from this simultaneous resentment and valuing of the test: First, teachers sometimes rebelled and taught things they thought would help their students even though these things may not be tested; second, teachers acquiesced to the test and often referred to what they used to do or be able to do compared to what they can or cannot do now because of the test (Mathison & Freeman, 2003).
Assessment
Teacher autonomy, within the context of student assessment, is directly related to decision making. Teachers base their decisions on their belief systems, which form the foundation of their assessment practices. Working within the testing culture spawned from the federal NCLB legislation, many teachers are forced to reconsider their belief systems. Often, they feel they must compromise their belief systems in order to meet the requirements set forth by the law, which focuses exclusively on student achievement (Kimonen & Nevalainen, 1996).
An example of this compromise was seen in the literature that discussed formative and summative assessment. According to Wiliam, Lee, Harrison, and Black (2004), formative assessment is assessment for learning, whereas summative assessment is assessment of learning. Wiliam et al.