Teachers' Decision-Making about Place-Based Education and State Testing

TJu,, qualitoth~ JfiM..ht::rmNined tht ~fft.'tlJ of a lugh-~s. swnddrJc:M 1es1 on tNC.·htTs' m~tn~Ciiofl4.11 plonntng at a rural ~drool. TM tUCclrc-h addressed tim qut"flion· Ho-.. ci.J fftandmeJ currlculctr standards affect l4..'rJt..:h~rs· m.\ff"Utltnnal planning unJ content sel«UOIJ '? Ethnographic' mlt'r\'lt'1H (CreS'K·e/1, l'i9HJ examined four $t\"Urtdttl)' lt·,Khtn' perception.!/ ofthtt ~lfiv:I.S ofhigh·.,·taktl wandarr.liud ltc.\l\' on their H-'Ork. Ca,e MIUI)' methodology fYitt, /994) J!.uldnl the analysis of th.tlatn. Each portidpum had several yeor$.' cvwric>nce teacltlnJl at Mollusk Island St.lum/, nnd cad1 u:acher had pr~uomly ;,rfuded pkK4t-btucd lessons (e.g .. fm•lnmmental :mulit•.t;, t·ultural history) m hi$1her rt.'pt·nom! Ultimatdy. thewu~~· explored hrm d rommunin· molmcnann fimcrwn of rmolf I'Urul sr-hoob mrxhr be u/(cd«< b)' state legulutitm for s tondardizN ua mmwbiliry S,~ciolthonk:s to Dr Dan~l P Holluhd11. Omr. l>eportmt.,l of Curriculum. /n(tf1M.·tNm, and Spec-ial £Junll101t. Cu,.,· School of EduC41tiun. t,.'nn·ersuy Qj rrrgmw.fnr o.f..-ttstu''« rn fondtng the researclrrr·., occeu to \follr~.•k Island School

The t<lucational standards mowment is a global one. An accountlbihty effort that ga1nt<l prominence on the US during the 1990> c:choed a <1m1lar trend oocumna on Bntish 1997; Silvemall.1996) and Australian (Macpherson. 1990) c lassrooms, us well as in other school systems across the world. R.-eorch in the United States by Smylie ( 1996) and by Porter. Archbald. and Tyree (1990) re>ealed • trend among Mate educational poltcu:< to" ard increased "temal regulanon al the local level 10 enact school refoom Smylie interpreted the~c policies as mdicators of a prevailing, hegemonic view that local school systems lacked chrection and appropriate rollll!> of accountability. Cantlon, Rushcamp. and Freeman ( 1990) round that >tate·level policies ruwe a npple effect 1n local school manngemem. W1th add111onal le-.·els of accountabihty pmt11t in "'lo Child Left Behmd," local educators can expect conunut<l external 80\'Cmtmce.
For rurol schools, the chullcngcs are grent. The very existence of some schools is Lhreatened under current accountability enorts. even cclipsmg a school's effortS to increase •<udt111 success on stand>rdizt<l tesb (Willioms. 2003). Howley (2003) noted that ugh1 budgets facmg <tate lcgislarures may require a school di;lrict to dose lb >mallest schools. ln order to oveTCQme assues of survival and )uccess.
Williams contendt<l that rural schools should remake lhemsclvcs into institutions thnt ~ter\'C and monitor both school and community (p. 70). Sch\\ab called thi' ne,u; of school and community milieu. the ... context withm \\lhicb learrung takes place". By Schwab'< defmition. mihc:u was a concept connected to all curriculum decisions, and encompassed the relationsh1ps and values held by t<lucntors and otl1cr members of the communi1y (in McCutcheon. 1995, p. 13).
One outcome of states' standnrdued testing b teachers' rurreoder of their control of curriculum content. Madaus ( 1988) 1dcnufied significant effects of Standardlled tesnng on a school"!) curriculum, including the transfer of curricular control from classrootru. to the state agency that produce, the t"'t (p. 97-98). "lodau5 also found thai the taught curriculum, the topics thllt are no1 planned for instnlchon to student~. nlso commumcatc'i notions of value This bidden cumculum e.ists m web pedestrian deta1l~ of school as bell schedules, seating charts. and reading list>. nuough their re<eareh findings, anthropolOgists echo a con,!,istcnt point, that 1eochcrs are not "neutral dispensers of infonnulion," but instead ore "'active cultural beings. suffu<t<J With orientations or the culhltc" (WilCOX. 1982. p. 463-464) Two shldi<> about schools and the It communities emphawed Ibis role of teachers. Peshlm ( 1978) wrote about the 1mpae1 that the tlosmg of a b1gh school bad on the residenLs of Mansfield. I llS findings indicated that schools have o role io muinloining communities, and lhat communities may sun"cr ns schools are c lorred. Peshkin suggestt<l that a "factor of communi1y good" be considered along wllh issues of linancial and educational good "benever officials debolt the closing of a rum! school (p. 208). King (1982) investigated the lack of academic success among Native Canadian students at a church·run state school in the Yukon Terri1.ory. Tbe curriC-ltlum did not reflect Native auimdes. heritage, or perceived needs. Instead, tbc curriculum and methods of the school seen'led ·'Euroccntric" (p. 50). As a response to teachers' overt rejection of their Native cuhural identities, King found tha1 students created artificial classroom personas to avoid participating in instnJction. Student academic progress was ultimately inhibited as the hidden curriculum hobbled the educational aims of the ex.plicll curric. ulum. King recommended tbat local conununili(.'S be involved in curricular doc is ions at the residential school (p. 91 ).
Educational researchers have noted the value of community involvement in the educational mission of schools. Peshkin (1978) wrote, "Given a school's contriburion to personal identity and community maintenance [ ... ] it is appropriate to stress the importance of schools to their ~uppor1 con:,CiU.lencics, particularly those located in seuings with already fragi le communities" (p. 195). Of particular interest to rural schools, however. are instructional effects associated with standardized testing: tbese effects include a reduc6on in curricular variety and a decrease in teachers' opportunities to engage students in topics of local interest ·ntis study sought to discern decisions that teachers make when planning instruction within a standardized c. 'nte specific phenomenon that this smdy investigated is a standardized test, the Accountability Assessment (AA) Test, given throughout the state of Atlantic' during the Spring of t 999. The AA Standards were inu·oduced to Atlantic's educators during the 1994-95 school year, and the tests themselves were unveiled during 1997. According to state le~isJation, these high-stakes tests are given statewide in 3'd.
S' , and 8., grades as well as at dte conclusion of core high school courses (e.g., Biology. Chemistry, US History). The state's target is for 70% of test·takers to pass dte tests by the 2006-07 academic year. Test-takers who fail to pass a designated number of tests will not graduate beginning in

The Rural Educator · 20
D01·ing the state·s initial administration of dtc AA Tests in Spring 1998, only a small number of the schools statewide ach ieved a "pas..">ing" score on the tests. Such a poor initial perfonnancc fueled rhetoric on botb sides of the debate. Critics complained that creativity in both teaching and learning was trickltng away as teachers taught to the test. Advocates of lhe assessment said that designating a minimum standard for student performance was requ ired 10 determine d1e level of progress S>Chools were making in ins1ruction.
[n obtaining a research setting ro investigate teacher dccision .. making in a srondardi?.ed educational climate, one guiding question for the researcher became wbo among teachers would be most concerned about losing the ability to teach content replaced by the mandated curriculum'! Teachers who select topics from outside of textbooks and state standards might have the greatest uncertainty about the AA Tests. Because anthropological research bas revealed tl1c importance of small schools to community adentity. the researcher established the research seuing at an isol&1ed sma II school on Mollusk Island. Anotl1cr facto r that made Mollusk lslaoc.l irresistible as a research setting was the fact that teachers on the island had previously taught studenl< about their milieu. Local topics that teachers address<.-d included studies of local history, genealogy and environmental health. Because these teachers previously bad included an instructional focus on local topics, the researcher theorized these teachers would face particular challenges in implementing a standardized curriculum.
Additional intercsc about the signilicancc of local topics in school arose because it was appareol to an observer that the traditional way of life on the island was diminishing. A combination of factors resulted in an inc.reasingly limited yield of commercially viable species available in Ullswater Sound. Pollution was regarded as a significant fac tor, as was overfishing. State legislators curtailed the number of fishing licenses issued in an attempt to imp1 ·ove the heahh and productivity of the sound. This ban threatened Mollusk Island's legacy of SODS following fathers into the fishing industry.
Mollusk Island is located in the middle of Ullswatcr Sound, a 45·mimue boat ride from the mairlland. Tbe thin. three·mile long island off the US Atlantic coast is homo to approximately 700 residents. In the past, the island's population bad been larger, but current inhabitants squeezed onto just over I 00 habitable acres. The populmion was homogenous. almost entirely of European descent.
Among locals a distinct identity was evident and was something that islanders sought to protoct. For years, linguists from across the world had traveled to study the unique dialect spoken by island residents. More recently, town fathe rs had turned away a Hollywood srudio (and the dollars it would bring) intent on filmtng on the island. FJim producers were told dte script did not relloct the islanders' mora1ily, so lhc project wouJd be unwelcome lltere.
Interview guides dictated the themes ror CllCh tnterview' 1\ Oct· the interviews were completed and tran~cribcd. participants inspected the transcripb. The researcher annly1..ed each participant's series of interviews accordtng to the framework for case study analysi' (Yon, 1994) ond wrote a case about each particopant. Fonally. the researcher analy?.ed tbe four cases to~ethcr and odentilied themes tllot emerged from the four testimonio>.
Cross-case analysis seeks "to build o general explanation chot fits each of the individual cases, even though the cases will vary in their details" (Yin, 1994, p. 112). Pattern

matching tS a technique for analyling datu d\lring cross-case
analysis. Yin compared this process to performing multiple experiments. The researcher conlpare, an cmptricnlly based pauern \\ith a predicted one If the pouems cooncidc. the re.ult> streogthen the study's mtemal 'ahdtl). The procedure invohe> no precise pouem<. and on thl> srudy, findings frorn each of the ca>C> were compared against the proposnions.
Porucipants displayed a mix. of prooms ing and unsatisfactory educational practices related 10 their m~tructional plunnmg. The state standardized te~ung imposed u limit on the amount of time teachers bad for 1nMruct100, Q!) \\ell~ ltmits on the instructional resource~ and the type' of a:;.srumenb tcacbc"' employed. Participant' e.pre,..eu their cogntLance of a growing e.<pectarion for them to tca.:h more rapodly and ro CO\ er more contenl cJunntt thc•r 1nsrrucrion. The requorementS for preparing Mudcnt> for a manda1ed assessment called tOr a quick mention of all content, not deep coverage of any academic topic.
To guide insti'Uctional planning. panicipants noted their increased reliance on conventional curriculum .sources, particularly lists of instniCtional standards and standardized tests themselves. Some part1c1 pants expressed an appreciation for the guidance the AA Test offered in helping their selection of appropriate content for instruction -if lhc material appeared on the test then it was important enough to teach. Tbe I ist of standards helped these teachers "weed out" topics that would not be tested and permitted greater focus on what srudcnts would be expected to know on test<. Panlcipants' routine classroom lests and quizzes increasingly featured only multiple·cboice questions whiJe eliminating essay questions and other modes of discourse. David noted that while he bad previously included essay questions on his tests. currently he was shifting all bis test questions (as well as review questions to prepare students for tests) to a multiple-choice fonnat that mirrored the fomtat of questions on the state's test. In fact, MIS adminisuators encouraged teachers to usc multiplc~choice questions to familiari7.e students with the test's format.
As predicted by the literature, participants' priority in planning instruction was meeting the perceived individual needs of students. Titis priority ranked ahead of meeting state standards or teaching local topics. However, the dimmutive size of dte MIS faculty held no advantage for helping teache. rs to plan instruction across grade levels. While participants expressed an awareness of a need to collaborate with other faculty members at the school, these teachers appeared to collaborate across grade levels less frequently than dtey had before tbc arrival of the AA Tests. Some participants noted that they would probably increase their collaboration across grade levels lf ~>e school scored poorly on the AA Tests.
Wltile the literarure (Ayers, 1992;Thornton. 1992) indicates that rdlection is a profess1onal practice rhat is rare among classroom teachers. participants displayed evidenc-e lhat they were more reflective about tlteir practice. These teachers increased weir reflection as a result of standardized testing. Teachers inspected which parts of their instruclionaJ practice were effective and what changes they needed to make in order to improve test scores.

TI1is sntdy revealed findings about teachers' inclusion
ol'local iopics within a standardized curriculum. Participants expressed a robust involvement in content selection.
Teacbe1 ·s indicated that dtey must be purposeful in their content selection because the AA Test; preS(!t'ibed a great number of topics. Participants abo expressed an awareness of some risk they entailed in straying from the tested curricuJum to address local topics. Most participants indicated they would abandon local topics if srudents achieved Jow scores on the AA Tes1s. However. Dawn The Rural Educator -22 (science teacher) indicated she would continue to teach local environmental topics because the. health of the Ullswatcr Sound was too vit<ll to tbe island's well-bemg for ber to igJ~ore that topic.
Dawn had discerned that the traditional practices of many fishermen were not scienritically sound. For example, she found thai fishermen eschewed the grasses that grew in shallow sections of the sound, when ln fact these &rasses were necessary habitats for lhe nascent stages of the mature species fishermen later sought. Because her students would not learn "good science" from the traditional practice, Dawn saw her role as csscn1ial in developing accurate knowledge and sustainable practices within ll1e community.
The presence of local topics '" tlte taught curnculum was also affected by factor.; other than tbc AA Tests. Clark•s curriculum focus switched tfom wood shop to computer applications. His exclusion of local wpics was clearly linked to the construction of a new school building. The new building contained no wood •hop space. Certainly, this curricular change was not lhe direct result of standardized curriculum. but was dictated by the economic demands embodkd in r.he vocational curriculum. With the lost shop space disappeared opportunities to construct nets and crab traps. Clark's cunent srudents took part in a curriculum that included robotics and smaU engine repair.
Despite the local topics the participants had chosen to address with sntdents, these teachers said that transmitting local beritage was not 'heirs or d1e school's exclusive responsibiUty. They suggested local groups who could be better equipped to provide sntdents opportUnities to study local topics. These groups included the island•s museum> Lhc county historical association. and the Ullswater Sound Society, an environmental group that had educational outreach a!'; a primary mission.
Throughout tl>e study, paniclpants expressed a common hope that students would attain commumty mores, an .. identity... through their experience at .school. The community mores d iscussed by participants included hard work> honesty, ~-md practicing religious faith.

Contexuwl factors related to size and location
While Howley (2003) proposed that tight budgets faced by state legislatures threaten a conunuoity's ability to maintain a small nnal school. other factors can affect a school's viability. A loss of local control of the taught curriculum could negatively affect small scbools and communities. Standardized testing creates a scl of requirements that may not include the needs of the local school, and the participants' experience suggests considerations for managing local accountability efforts.
The availability of effective textbooks and other curricular materials (equivalent to materials used by other schools in the district) may not be a consistent priority outside the local classroom, and ultimately may not align the school with state requirements. Dawn and Clare both told of instances in whach 1he districl provided the wrong textboOk.) or provided no materials at nil for requ1red courses.
AI Mollusk Island School. staff members expended coo~idcrable effort to maintain 3 cominued tn\·olvement m di'lrltt·le,el de<:~>lon makmg \liS staff membets oficn required half a day 10 fiy 10 01e mainland 10 panictpalc m dJ!ttrict meetings. llowcvcr. stay IllS engaged 111 district-level decisions assured that lnfonnation was delivered accurately and efficiently for arpropnalc lrnplementlliOn back on the island. Also, th" ln\'Oh emcnl o<suted thai meeting the needs of t11e small. remote school could conunue 10 be a pan of the dis1rict•s vis1on.

Concluding 'I bought>
Because sma11 rural school, ~crvc such on C'C.C1usive clientele, these lllfiUtutions should have the Jlcxibility tO ta1Jor their instnact1011 to meet ~pccific smdent need.\. School leader> •bould lram faculty members to mterptet test data and dc)ign and 1mplemen1 mMruction that mecb lhe needs of individual studcm.s. This tencher training could make u school less dependent on out~ide inlcrprclation and could result in immedtate m-hoU!C response.) to studenb · acadcm1c neecb n10ccted in te>l S<:ores.
Addmonally. school leader. must barnes< opponumllc> for lcachers acrol'ls grade levels [0 communicate and slralcgi>e togcthtr. An easy assumption is tl10t ~mall school would naturally have regular, formal communicallon amongst grade IC\el teachers AI MIS thts ""' not lhe C8>C dc>plle the small >i>e. Teachers were aware of the need to communicate~ bul :,imply had nOt done :,o fommlly or regularly. Sma II nual :.ehools are a foundanon.1l part or the commun111es they serve. In a high-slakes educahon•l chmatc, howe"er· teachers are hard-pres~cd to presenl o curricu hun thac meets the needs o f their studcms and the m1heu A rural school's longevity under >landardiLcd accountability may benefit from slronger academic l.C. lO tbe community llowC\cr. the demands of the academiC standards on teachers* instructional pracuce muy prohibit nn inslructional link 10 lhe community. Coordinated steps by classroom teachers, school admmistrators. und communit) partner< are rcqu1ted lo meet \tate rcqultementS wh1le outtimng srudcnb with an 1den111y rooted in the commumly.
Add111onal local measures may be required 10 order for smull schools to outlast any ex1emal supervision that rnay not honor the intere~1s oflbe s.chool or the community.