This qualitative phenomenological research design study sought to explore whether the public education governance accountability system's high stakes standardized testing system in Texas played any role in the wellbeing of elementary school educators during the COVID-19 global pandemic. To explore the essence of the Texas high stakes…

In education, assessment helps shape teaching practices and student outcomes, as it influences how teachers perceive their roles, approach instruction, and engage with students. This study investigated 3rd-8th grade English Language Arts and mathematics teachers' conceptions of the NWEA MAP Growth assessment, focusing on four key factors: (1)…

This column is a review of three areas of interest to Texas ELAR educators: the ELAR/SLAR TEKS revision, recent news from the Texas Education Agency, and the status of several bills relating to assessment. Included is a summary of the past two years of the ELAR/SLAR TEKS revision process and information about next steps in that process.

Critics of standards-based reform often cite an accountability policy environment that disproportionately affects teachers compared with principals and district officials. We directly examine this disproportionality. In our three study states of Texas, Ohio, and Kentucky, we use survey analysis to understand how policy environments for district…

Critics of standards-based reform often cite an accountability policy environment that disproportionately affects teachers compared with principals and district officials. We directly examine this disproportionality. In our three study states of Texas, Ohio, and Kentucky, we use survey analysis to understand how policy environments for district…

This article examines how elementary public school teachers in South Texas are implementing a balanced literacy approach in light of the expectations of accountability for student performance. For more than three decades, Texas schools have felt, and continue to feel, the pressure of accountability. Therefore, it becomes essential to investigate…

Purpose: Four purposes were present in this journal-ready dissertation. The first purpose was to examine the degree to which the percentage of beginning teachers in traditionally configured elementary, middle, and secondary Texas schools differed as a function of two distinction designations (i.e., Academic Achievement in Reading/English Language…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to highlight ways two novice secondary English teachers negotiated the politics of college and career readiness along with the literacy needs of students, in the age of accountability. Design/methodology/approach: This three-year longitudinal qualitative case study focused on two participants in English…

The Center on Standards, Alignment, Instruction, and Learning (C-SAIL), examines how college- and career-readiness (CCR) standards are implemented, if they improve student learning, and what instructional tools measure and support their implementation. This brief presents findings from C-SAIL's Implementation Study, which uses interview and survey…

Recent years have seen the convergence of two major policy streams in U.S. K-12 education: standards/accountability and teacher quality reforms. Work in these areas has led to the creation of multiple measures of teacher quality, including measures of their instructional alignment to standards/assessments, observational and student survey measures…

Under Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), the Texas Education Agency is required to establish Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives (AMAOs) for the English language acquisition and academic achievement of limited English proficient (LEP) students. This 2013 Guide to Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives provides AMAO…

The purpose of the study was to collect data to determine if assistant principal experience predicts student achievement as measured by the outcome measures of (1) school overall accountability rating, (2) Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) reading/English language arts score, (3) TAKS mathematics score, and (4) campus attendance rate…

The primary focus of the study was to explore the effect of School Within a School reform on two components in the Adequate Yearly Progress Report by which Texas schools are measured--dropout rates and scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test. The demographics of the particular study sample included 11th grade students…

In this study, the researchers examined the extent to which at-risk students enrolled in traditional high schools differed in their state-mandated assessments in math and in English/Language Arts as compared to at-risk students enrolled in academic alternative education campuses (AECs). All data in this study were based on the accountability…