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State Testing and Inquiry-Based Science: Are They Complementary or Competing Reforms?

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Abstract

The effect of district strategies for improving high-stakes test scores on science teachers’ practice is explored in case studies of six middle schools in six Massachusetts districts. At each school, science teachers, curriculum coordinators, principals, and superintendents shared their strategies for raising scores, their attitudes towards the test, the changes that they were implementing in their curriculum and pedagogical approaches, and the effects that the test was having on staff and on students. Results from these case studies suggest that districts chose markedly different strategies for raising scores on high stakes tests, and that the approaches taken by districts influenced the nature of pedagogical and curriculum changes in the classroom. District strategies for raising scores that were complementary to the district’s prior vision of science reform tended to cause less teacher resentment towards the test than strategies that departed from previously adopted goals. Differing effects on teachers in socio-economically “advantaged,” “middle,” and “challenged” districts are discussed.

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Abbreviations

ITBS:

Iowa

MCAS:

Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System

MAT7:

Metropolitan Achievement Test

NRC:

National Research Council

NSF:

National Science Foundation

PALMS:

Partnerships Advancing the Learning of Mathematics and Science (this is the name of the Massachusetts SSI)

SSI:

State Systemic Initiatives

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 2067 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA, 02140, USA

    Joni Falk & Brian Drayton

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  1. Joni Falk
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  2. Brian Drayton
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Correspondence to Joni Falk.

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Falk, J., Drayton, B. State Testing and Inquiry-Based Science: Are They Complementary or Competing Reforms?. J Educ Change 5, 345–387 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-004-1069-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-004-1069-7

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