High-stakes Accountability Research Articles

School conditions and principal practices promoting instructional data use in high-stakes accountability systems

This study explores how school environments and principal behaviors enhance the use of data within Chile's high-stakes accountability systems. Emphasizing the importance of Data-Driven Decision Making (DDDM) for improving educational outcomes, this mixed-methods research analyzed data employment for accountability, improvement, and instructional purposes. Findings show that schools prioritize data use for enhancing instruction and school improvement over mere compliance with external accountability. Key leadership behaviors, notably instructional leadership, are crucial in promoting effective data utilization. The study identifies both minimal and organizational conditions as critical enablers for data use, although their impact varies with the type of data employed. The results advocate for a balanced approach that considers both quantitative and qualitative factors to optimize data use in educational settings. Future research should delve deeper into specific instructional practices and the factors that influence teacher decision-making to further improve data-driven instruction.

Exploring strategies to sustain teacher agency in the context of ‘hyper-accountability’: Reflections from ten experienced chemistry school teachers in Chile

We explored teacher agency in a policy context of hyper-accountability drawing on interviews with ten experienced secondary school chemistry teachers in Chile. Constraints included successive reforms of the national curriculum, a resource-poor and high-surveillance education culture, and a low-priority culture of professional learning. Strategies enacted to sustain teacher agency included identifying ‘pockets of possibility’ to realise authentic chemistry education for all, developing trusting relationships with students and proactively nurturing their own professional development. These strategies have the potential to enhance the practice of teachers and teacher educators, and to inform a reorientation of policy away from high-stakes accountability.

Mētis: a framework for understanding tactics of resistance

ABSTRACT Teachers’ negative experiences of high-stakes accountability have been documented extensively, but the ways in which teachers are able to engage in tactics of resistance in response are less well known. This is most especially true in terms of the subtle, covert forms of resistance which occur through the practice of teachers’ everyday working lives. This paper contributes through a novel exploratory application of ‘Mētis’, a framework for understanding tactics of resistance derived from the thought of Detienne and Vernant (1978). When Mētis is harnessed alongside de Certeau’s (1984) notion of the practice of everyday life, it provides an innovative means of exploring the complex, elusive and intricate ways in which teachers pursue tactics of resistance within a context of high-stakes accountability. By so doing, it demonstrates how teachers are able to evade or resist high-stakes accountability in order to pursue their own educational goals. Thus, the article also adds to an understanding of the gap between policy formulation and its enactment. This initial exploratory study contributes to the literature by offering a transferable conceptual approach which is recommended for broader use while identifying some important considerations which attend the empirical application of Mētis.

Teachers’ perspectives on pay incentives in England: performance evaluation in a context of high-stakes accountability

Teachers’ perspectives on pay incentives in England: performance evaluation in a context of high-stakes accountability

‘Gaming’ in the English primary school: ‘do whatever you need to do to make your data look good’

ABSTRACT In an international policy environment of intensified high-stakes accountability, pupil assessment data are an invaluable commodity and critical indicator of both school and teacher effectiveness. Teachers’ engagement with pupil data and the associated experiences of increased accountability are of great consequence, and highly contentious for perceptions and experiences of policy. In the context of the English primary school, this paper explores the progressively tactical nature of teachers’ enactment of assessment policy, and the impetus to ‘make the data look good’. It draws upon an empirical study of rich qualitative data from 42 interviews with 22 primary teachers employed in the South-East of England. The findings add to an evolving field about ‘gaming’, and particular consequences for teacher identity are discussed. The paper further advances insights about teachers’ experiences of ‘in-school assessment’ as pertinent for understanding gaming. It locates the pupil progress meeting as an iteration of teacher accountability and performativity, and particular site of contestation, and a specific contribution to knowledge in this regard.

Unveiling teachers’ work preferences: A conjoint experiment on the implications of school governance reform across three countries

School governance reforms have changed teachers’ work in many aspects and have been associated with increasing teachers’ discontent and demotivation. Research on which school policies and organizational practices teachers prefer is scarce and faces challenges. Our conjoint experiment identifies the importance given by teachers to different work dimensions altered by recent reforms and teachers’ preferences regarding school policies in three contexts. Internationally-shared preferences include qualitative teaching assessments, socially mixed classes, clear goal-setting, and collective rewards. Context-specific preferences include individual incentives in Chile, a low-pay, high-stakes accountability system, and peer support in Norway and Catalonia, which are systems with collaborative governance traditions.

The Instrumental Motivation of Teachers: Implications of High-Stakes Accountability for Professional Learning

ABSTRACT This article considers the motivations of teachers to pursue ongoing professional learning. During recent decades, the international policy context has been characterised by high-stakes accountability, but the implications of this agenda for teachers’ motivations toward professional learning remains under-explored. In this mixed methods study, combining a large teacher survey and in-depth teacher interviews, a new and significant concept of ‘instrumental motivation’ is generated to capture how high-stakes performance management policies damage the motivation of teachers to learn professionally. This innovative approach, employing ordinal factor analysis and inductive/deductive hybrid thematic analysis inclusive of self-determination theory, reveals how the ‘instrumental motivation’ of teachers should be constrained and argues for the adoption of alternative motivational strategies to support effective professional learning in schools.

Confronting the disadvantage gap: the challenges to transformative leadership in a high-stakes assessment system

ABSTRACT Students with low socio-economic status (SES) often have lower levels of academic achievement. In England, various UK governments have sought to address this disadvantage gap through reforms to national large-scale assessments, school accountability mechanisms, and educational governance structures. While scholarly research highlights the important mediatory role of educational leaders in policy implementation and student performance, typologies of successful leadership tend to emphasise ‘what works’ at the organisational level. Conversely, theories of transformative leadership acknowledge that efforts to provide an equitable education are related to, and should address how to transform, wider social power structures. With an abductive methodology, this qualitative study explores the experiences and perspectives of three academy headteachers in their work with the most disadvantaged students in their school communities. Semi-structured interview data were analysed thematically to evaluate whether and how their leadership practices might be considered transformative. The findings suggest that these headteachers are mostly transformative at the individual level which aligns with the current UK government social mobility agenda. Moreover, despite their courage to promote equity of opportunity, transformative leadership is restricted by government cuts to public expenditure, a high-stakes accountability system focused on students’ academic performance, and the limited political capital of students and headteachers.

“Who are these for? Is this for the teacher?”: Understandings of expertise and evaluation in the era of ESSA

Understandings of teacher expertise in the US have transformed over the past 40 years, arguably being “narrowed” and “numericized” due to high-stakes accountability and neoliberal education reform movements. While this trend has been thoroughly studied under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and Race to the Top regimes, less consideration has been given since the Every Study Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced NCLB in 2015, which notably pivoted away from some of the most stringent accountability practices of the previous era. This paper begins a new line of inquiry into teacher expertise in our current federal policy context, especially considering how understandings of expertise are constructed in school districts that never adopted the most high-stakes evaluation measures. By relying on Jessica Holloway’s (2021) technologies of risk management, this paper explores how teachers in one school understand expertise, focusing specifically on how evaluation and assessment technologies engage with and influence these understandings. Ultimately, it was found that teachers in fact held a plurality of understandings, yet complex and sometimes conflicting influences of assessment and evaluation practices also emerged. This paper argues that although risk management technologies have become commonplace, scholars and practitioners alike should continue to scrutinize their use under ESSA, particularly considering how they are being used, who they primarily benefit, and what consequences come from our reliance upon them.

Contextual imperatives for effective shared instructional leadership: a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis

PurposePrincipal instructional leadership and teacher participation in decision-making are conceptualized as shared instructional leadership (SIL) – a management philosophy that positively impacts student academic performance. However, the statistically meaningful relationship between SIL and student performance remains controversial as SIL functioning is influenced by various fundamental school conditions shaped by education policy, including high-stakes accountability, school autonomy and teacher professionalization. The authors examined the relationship between three SIL policy configurations and promising student performance: inclusion, exclusion and insensitive to SIL.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis on data obtained from the Program for International Student Assessment (2015) results, including principals' responses to leadership questions and school conditions shaped by policy, and student science scores in 64 countries and areas.FindingsThe role of SIL in student performance varied among the three configurations, and the condition of teacher professionalization in the configuration was consistently associated with high student performance.Originality/valueSIL can create conditions for continued professional development of the teaching workforce in conjunction with school conditions shaped by policy.

REFLECTIONS ON THE CHALLENGES OF HEADSHIP

I retired in April 2020 after 17 years as a Headteacher, serving four different schools across two local authorities. One thing that remained constant throughout this period was the privilege I felt being a school leader. I deliberately chose to work in challenging schools serving more deprived communities. I was driven by the belief that a high-quality education has the power to transform the life chances of young people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.In this paper I reflect on my personal experience of government policy during this period and the impact it had on school leaders. In doing so, we will revisit two underpinning themes that featured throughout my headship career. The first was that education became part of the election battleground with each party developing their own ideas and thinking about the direction of education that, in turn, became policy for the successfully elected party. Successive Secretaries of State had their own view of what state education should look like. I have not always been convinced that all policy was based on educational theory and sometimes wonder if it derived from the minister’s own personal experience of education! Sir Kevan Collins describes this as the ‘Complacency of Certainty’ (2021) where ministers speak with authority on education without any substance or research to back it up. The impact this had on school leaders was to experience a see-saw effect as policies swung one way and then the other as governments and ministers changed. The second underpinning theme was the breakdown in trust between the government and the education profession. It is evident that this lack of trust in the system led to the growth of a command-and-control model whereby schools were compelled to follow government policy.To explore these themes, I will focus on three key areas of government policy that were intended to improve standards and reduce education inequality. First the rise of academisation under Tony Blair’s New Labour that accelerated with the Coalition government under David Cameron. Second the government policies designed to give parents far greater choice whilst also creating competition between schools. To this end, we will explore the two system changes that successive governments utilised to drive this culture of choice and competition starting with the high stakes accountability associated with examination results and then finally, reviewing my experience of the Ofsted process.

The Irony of Accountability: How a Performance-Inducing Policy Reduces Motivation to Perform

Although sociological and organizational studies have focused on the influence of quantification on behavior, the author focuses on quantification’s increasingly important consequences on well-being and motivation. Using the case of U.S. education, which has long relied on accountability policies, the author finds that attendance at schools with high-stakes accountability predicted lower student self-efficacy, that is, decreased task motivation and resilience as well as increased fear of failure—salient for low-income, urban, and public schools. These associations, however, did not spill over to social and life satisfaction dimensions of well-being. Taken together, these findings suggest the irony of accountability, where data used to induce performance may unintentionally reduce people’s motivation to perform, particularly consequential in disadvantaged contexts. This article is an attempt to contribute to a broader theorization of quantification, affecting not only external behaviors and organizational structures but also internal personal dispositions. Finally, the article provides implications for the study of well-being, organizations, and education policy.

VULNERABLE LEADERS AND TEACHERS IN ENGLISH SCHOOLS IN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: IMPLICATIONS FOR LEADERSHIP OF WELLBEING, RETENTION AND EQUITY

This paper explores the wellbeing of school leaders and teachers in England who assessed a specific health risk during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. It explores how this cohort, guided to physically shield, was affected in attitudes towards work and the extent to which leadership behaviours supported a positive and perhaps ‘thriving’ physical return in a post-Covid-19 environment for effective schools and staff retention.Educational systems worldwide have become a high-stakes accountability landscape, with leaders questioning how they can lead with integrity. Staff wellbeing has moved up the agenda in England, forming part of England’s inspection framework, with one criterion being that staff consistently report high levels of support for wellbeing issues (Ofsted, 2019).Insufficient numbers of teachers, with an early exit of novices, is a particularly negative structural feature of the English school system (OECD 2017). A large scale quantitative study indicates that teacher retention is crucial to meet rising pupil numbers (Worth and van den Brande 2020). In the same study, unmanageable workloads and low job satisfaction are cited as significant factors determining teachers’ retention decisions and where teacher autonomy is strongly related to the extent to which teachers regard their workload as manageable (ibid).The study is as concerned with leadership capability as the wellbeing and retention of staff and decision-making driving processes. It is in the development of leaders faced with extraordinary stresses that researchers can understand where gaps lie in leadership development and organisational structure and culture and how these gaps might be strategically addressed. The empirical research on which the paper is based explores some facets for leading effectively in extraordinary circumstances. The paper presents findings on how external structural government directives have challenged schools in carrying out their instructions, amplifying inequality.

Teachers’ constitutive motivations for professional learning in England’s context of high-stakes accountability

ABSTRACT How are teachers motivated to continue to learn throughout their career in a high-stakes accountability context? This innovative mixed methods study employs inductive/deductive hybrid thematic analysis and self-determination theory to investigate teachers’ self-reported motivations to continue their professional learning. Through analysis of survey responses and in-depth interviews, a new concept of ‘constitutive motivations’ is presented. This concept adds more nuanced insight into the motivations of teachers working in contexts dominated by a neoliberal framework that foregrounds teacher performativity. The analysis suggests that, despite experiencing controlling managerialism within high-stakes accountability workplace contexts, teachers retain a sense of vocation and are motivated to learn based on their commitment to children and to teaching itself. The findings imply school leaders and teachers themselves should take steps to cultivate and harness constitutive motivations as a driver for professional learning.

Why do opt-out movements succeed (or fail) in low-stakes accountability systems? A case study of the Network of Dissident Schools in Catalonia

External and standardized assessments based on student results are a contested education policy among school actors. Movements of opposition have emerged in different countries, especially in those contexts with high-stakes accountability systems. However, this phenomenon has not been analyzed in soft accountability systems. The objective of this article is to study the opt-out movement in Catalonia, understood as an anti-standardization movement in a system of soft accountability. In order to do so, we adopt the case study approach as a methodological strategy, based on the triangulation of semi-structured interviews with activists (n = 14), key stakeholders (n = 3), and document and press analysis (n = 25). The results shed light on the emergence and nature of the movement, its opportunity structures, the discursive frames and the repertoires of collective action. Our results show how accountability instruments have a ‘life of their own’ beyond their policy design. In this sense, the opt-out movement in Catalonia identifies potential risks and adverse effects similar to those reported in high-stakes systems, developing a repertoire of collective action and discursive frames similar to other emerging anti-standardization movements in high-stakes contexts.

Fine Arts Advocacy: Whose Job Is It?

Why does not everyone understand the importance of the arts in a well-balanced education for all Texas schoolchildren? The reality is that in these days of high-stakes accountability and testing combined with an educational philosophy driven by local control, it is a battle that we will have to continue to fight at every level. The reality is that advocacy truly is a responsibility for each of us.

Distributed Leadership, Teacher Autonomy, and Power Relations Between Headteachers and Teachers Under Low-Stakes Accountability Conditions: An Ethnographic Account from Switzerland

Distributed leadership is propagated internationally as an effective means to improve teaching and learning in schools. Increasingly it is acknowledged that practices of distributed leadership depend on its context, not only on the school level but also on the larger governing conditions. This article discusses how distributed leadership is put into practice within a “loose” governing regime with low-stakes accountability. The example is taken from Switzerland, where the strengthening of leadership is one of the core instruments of New Public Management reforms, while high-stakes accountability instruments have not been implemented. By taking a governmentality perspective, the article analyses the (self-)governing practices that distributed leadership generates between headteachers and teachers in a primary school. It argues that a “loose” accountability regime produces an opaque field of power relations, in which the self-governing imperative of distributive leadership conflicts with claims of traditional teacher autonomy.

A profession in crisis? Teachers' responses to England's high-stakes accountability reforms in secondary education

There has been a tendency to construct the teaching profession through a narrative of ‘crisis’ which places particular emphasis on high rates of attrition and poor wellbeing driven by a demanding work culture. Drawing on qualitative data from a mixed-methods study, this paper examines teachers' responses to reforms to English secondary education. It presents evidence that supports a ‘profession in crisis’ narrative with many of the research participants expressing negative attitudes towards the reforms and concerns about staying in teaching. However, the paper also illuminates a counter-narrative that highlights teachers' job satisfaction and their desire to remain in the profession.

“This School is Killing my Soul”: Threat Rigidity Responses to High-Stakes Accountability Policies

Accountability-era reforms have promulgated a discourse of crisis and a looming threat for public schools. While these threats negatively affect all, this paper focuses on how schools’ responses to these threats shape novice Teach for America Corp Members’ (CM) socialization. By analyzing nearly 6,000 daily reflections from 38 CMs about their experiences during a high-stakes cheating scandal, we argue that schools’ responses indicated a threat rigidity response that allowed what we call the mesosystem of transgressions to occur. Our implications present ways to (a) mitigate threats inflicted on schools through unjust policies and practices and (b) enact equitable public schools.

Comparative analysis of the 2022 DfE GCSE Subject Content for French, German and Spanish and its implications for schools

ABSTRACT In the high-stakes accountability English educational system, decisions made by government and agencies about curriculum, pedagogy and assessment drive school planning and actions. This paper analyses the drivers for the recent change to French German and Spanish GCSEs and highlights particular areas of the new specification which may damage the experience of language learners in the secondary school environment. After describing the context for the revisions we question why GCSE subject content has been revised when there is no evidence that a revision would improve uptake or grades. Our detailed comparison of the 2015 and 2022 subject content shows how the emphasis has shifted considerably from the requirement to demonstrate skills needed in realistic, authentic contexts, to demonstrating productive knowledge of a tightly prescribed list of vocabulary, grammar and phonics. We then identify the likely impact on schools of the new subject content. While the ostensible justification of change is to make more accessible and motivating, our view is that it will demotivate and will not reward broader skills which the whole spectrum of ability could demonstrate. We conclude by suggesting the real reason for the changes is part of a concerted government policy to reorientate the teaching of languages.