In this exploratory mixed methods survey study, we assess preservice teachers' (n=379) experiences with and beliefs about their high-stakes testing experiences and analyze how they relate to their beliefs about the role and efficacy of high-stakes testing in education and their future profession. Using Likert, vignette, and open-ended response…

The current NCLB/ESSA-generation [No Child Left Behind/Every Student Succeeds Act] of pre-service teachers in the U.S. received their K-12 schooling during the standardized test-focused education accountability era. There is little research exploring how they perceive the disconnect between their K-12 teacher-centered, test-focused school…

Since No Child Left Behind was passed nearly 20 years ago, test-based accountability policies have grown more comprehensive in scope than ever before. Tests have always mattered, but they have become substantively empowered, now dominating classroom conversation and activity. To ascertain the impact they have on people's lives one must involve…

As teacher educators search for ways to prepare future educators for the challenges of assessment implementation, we suggest that authentic practice by preservice teachers in an informal learning environment promotes assessment implementation. The analysis of 28 volunteer assessment students' reflections revealed that practicing assessment…

This study is an examination of early childhood preservice teachers' kindergarten internship experiences to identify the supportive and challenging conditions for their learning and explore in what ways those conditions are productive or unproductive for them, based on ecological perspective as a theoretical framework. Qualitative data were…

The anticipated constraints imposed by the accountability process associated with standards-based reform on teachers' practice suggest a tension between teachers' desire for flexibility and the accountability mandates associated with reform initiatives. In particular, we posited that the teachers would negatively perceive the influence of…

The promise of university-public school partnerships as contexts for mutually beneficial learning, or "simultaneous renewal," has been well established (Goodlad, 1994, 1999). However, difficulties in creating and sustaining these kinds of collaborative contexts for teacher education are also well known, including practical challenges…

Since constraints on time, resources, and even energy often come into play in finding opportunities for meaningful discussions about pedagogy between the novice teacher (NT) and the supervisor, post-lesson conversations at the school site can often be brief, superficial, lacking reflective self-analysis, narrow in focus, interrupted, or even…

During 2 decades of debate about teacher preparation education practitioners and policymakers have called for a more skilled professional teaching force (Darling-Hammond, 2010). Of particular concern has been poverty's impact on education--specifically in struggling urban schools--prompting legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB),…