I Know This To Be True...: Perceptions of Teachers in One Rural Elementary School Regarding Writing Scores

This close attention is set in an elementary gymnasium located in a rural, Appalachian area and considers the reasons that teachers attribute to pupil success on state writing assessments as well as to what reasons they attribute their students' lack of succes in moving beyond an average ranking, in considering these reasons, patterns rise in the data that substantiate intriguing. For example, one pattern indicates that teachers link the lack of learner success to aspects beyond their rule These aspects include student abode life, socioeconomic levels, and parental attitudes toward seminary The second emerging pattern displays that teachers couple their be in possession of leaching practices with student achievement. of that kind indications have great implications for futurity studies in that the perceptions of teachers may be lock opener in utilizing the results of standardized assessments.

At three o'clock upon a Tuesday afternoon, teachers in a small, rural, elementary gymnasium located in the Appalachian region of Tennessee gather in the library for the result of the latest standardized trial scores. Although the results have notwithstanding to be announced, some teachers scowl others glare, a few gaze at their feet, and single nationally recognized teacher dabs at her organ of sights The new principal addresses her faculty and recommends them for all of their hard work. While recognizing their dedication she is confused as to the hostility mounting in the room: a certain quantity of direct their anger toward her and others toward each other. A fourth grade teacher pets that third grade teachers ne to overspread more in their curriculum, and upon down the line the accusations step quickly

During the weeks that tread on the heels of teachers have grade level meetings, on the other hand are reluctant as a cluster to address any of the targeted areas for improvement by means of the state department of testing. In individual discourses with the principal, teachers whose pupils consistently do well on standardized experiments explain that they keep their teaching strategies to themselves for fear others will assume they are bragging. a certain quantity of even contribute their success to accident while insisting that they are "not really that good" upon the other hand, teachers whose pupils have consistently scored low upon standardized tests for five or more years find fault with the proof the test procedures, the scholars and even the school schedule. In fact, several teachers, who have consistently depressed test scores over a period of years, use this information as evidence to exhibit that the "low" students are always assigned to their classrooms. I know this to be genuine because I was their principal.

With similar an experience firmly planted within my background, I was intrigued when neared with the opportunity to eye in Kentucky, where the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has played a major character in not only the reform of writing assessments, on the other hand writing practices as well. To closely consider reasons for which teachers, in single elementary school, give for their students' writing succes upon state mandated tests as well as to reasons wherefore their student writing scores have not mov beyond an average state ranking, I interviewed twenty-seven educators and observ in a rural Kentucky elementary gymnasium This elementary school, also located in the Appalachian area, had similar demographics to the single where I served as principal.

Education Reform in Kentucky

Research involving literacy and rural pupils particularly Appalachian students, is significant because other research involving minority learners generally excludes mention of the Appalachian population, concentrating instead upon African-American students, English as a next to the first Language (ESL) students, or learners in urban locations. Perhaps the greatest in quantity important of these studies, managemented by Heath (1983), took a shut look at language development in an Appalachian setting and provided a foundation to better understand parental and community influence upon children's literacy. With this in mind, it is important to note that according to the Appalachian Research Center at the University of Kentucky parts of Kentucky many within the Appalachian region, have an illiteracy rate as high as 48% (U Department of Treasury, 1999) Maybe in reply to or in spite of this finding, KDE has played a significant character in deciding the following: (a) what writing standards are adopted, (b) in what manner students' writing is assessed, and (c) what teaching practices are engageed in teaching writing. These decisions regarding writing are mirrored if not initiated, by the 1990 legislative act known as the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). As a former KERA board member, a member of Governor Wilkinson's task force upon education reform, and the secretary of the Education and Humanities Cabinet in 1988 sustain (1999) argued that the changes activeed by KERA were based upon the premise that "we wanted educators to understand that the education policy of Kentucky is to place high standards for all children and then find creative ways to help them fit these high standards regardless of their social, economic, ethnic, or racial background" (p 65)