Teacher Autonomy: A Multifaceted Approach for the New Millennium ...

In reality, however, high-impact environments seemed to greatly affect individual teacher autonomy. Clearly, high-impact governmental involvement is more than just symbolic change; it often means change to teachers’ practice and can therefore greatly affect individual teachers (Sipple et al., 2004). The authors gathered interview and survey data relative to the New York State Board of Regents’ decision mandating that all students earn a Regents diploma and that middle school and elementary school students participate in new testing programs as well. Prior to this decision, Regents diplomas were reserved for only those students studying the Regents curriculum, which is a rigorous college-preparatory course of study.

Sipple et al. (2004) found strong agreement among educators that external accountability affects their thinking. Many teachers felt increased pressure and believed that external accountability led to constraints on instruction that resulted in shallow curricula. The work of Anders and Richardson (1992) corroborated Sipple et al.’s findings. Anders and Richardson conducted a qualitative study, interviewing 39 teachers in two schools. Their data revealed several interesting themes, one of which centered on teachers’ feelings of autonomy as they related to both external and teacher-constructed evaluations. A data analysis revealed a theme of “suspiciousness and defensiveness” (p. 388) with regard to the topic of grading. Teachers viewed personally constructed assessments as inferior to the externally produced standardized tests and discussed how student performance on teacher-constructed assessments compared to scores on externally produced tests. Pressure associated with accountability standards was internalized by teachers. Therefore, their assessments became more about improving test scores than about evaluation and diagnosis of children’s learning.