Teaching the Culture of High Stakes Testing: Listening to New Teachers

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Abstract
In their first semester of teaching, former education students in New York City encounter a school culture which has embraced high stakes testing of students. This culture is part of a nationwide movement which sees increased student testing as an agent of school reform. This study interviewed six education students in their first year of teaching to discover what impact New York's testing culture had on their classroom practice. The participants related that they found the culture of testing in their schools troublesome, expressing feelings ranging from oppression, to wanting to leave the profession. The reality of high stakes testing invites an increased discussion of this phenomenon in schools of education, and it also invites a closer collaboration between schools of education, beginning teachers, and local schools and districts to discover a curriculum that is gratifying for new teachers and best practice for students.

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