The impact of teacher attitudes and beliefs about large-scale assessment on the use of provincial data for instructional change

Abstract

Abstract:In the quest to improve measured educational outcomes national governments across the The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and beyond have instituted large-scale assessment (LSA) policies in their public schools. Controversy almost universally follows the implementation of such testing, related to such topics as: a) the uncertain quality of the tests themselves as psychometrics measures; b) the uses to which the data can and should be put; c) the unintended consequences of test-preparation activities and resulting score inflation; and d) the effects of high-stakes tests on students. Debates of this nature naturally involve and impact the attitudes and opinions of teachers related to their collection and use of these data. This paper examines the impact of these attitudes using both the qualitative and quantitative data from a large-scale research study on Canadian provincial assessment. Data were collected from nation-wide teacher surveys as well as interviews with teachers, administrators and district-level staff. Results show that teacher attitudes about these assessments are strongly correlated to classroomlevel instructional change. Three attitudinal factors have significant effects on teaching (to) the provincial curricula, yet none significantly affects the use of less constructive instructional strategies also known as 'teaching to the test.' Specifically, the belief that large-scale assessment data have Education Policy Analysis Archives Vol. 24 No. 109 2 more appropriate uses and the belief that these data could lead to school improvement were significant factors in facilitating change. The implications of these findings are profound in that large-scale assessment policy cannot succeed even by its own standards without more buy in from teaching professionals. Keywords: Teacher attitudes, teaching to the test, large-scale assessment, reactivity, Canadian provincial assessment, data-informed decision making El impacto de las actitudes y creencias de los profesores sobre la evaluación a gran escala y el uso de los datos provinciales de cambios en la instrucción Resumen: Para mejorar los resultados educativos Organización de los gobiernos nacionales para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económico (OCDE) estableció la evaluación a gran escala de las políticas (LSA) en sus escuelas públicas. La controversia por lo general sigue estas pruebas debido a: a) la calidad incierta de las pruebas psicométricas como medidas; b) los usos previstos y deseados de los datos; c) las consecuencias no deseadas de las actividades de preparación de la prueba y la inflación resultante puntuación; y d) los efectos de las pruebas de gran importancia en los estudiantes. Estos debates afectan las actitudes y opiniones de los profesores sobre la recopilación y uso de estos datos. Este artículo examina el impacto de estas actitudes que utilizan tanto la cualitativa y cuantitativa de datos a partir de un estudio de investigación a gran escala sobre la evaluación de cada provincia del Canadá. Los res...

Policy incentives in Canadian large-scale assessment: How policy levers influence teacher decisions about instructional change

“…There were several themes from the literature examined: test design and data; teacher attitudes; supports for data use; and policy incentives. Each of these is treated separately in one paper in a series from the author (Copp, 2016a(Copp, , 2016b(Copp, , 2017. The complete survey is shown in Appendix 2 alongside the values assigned to different responses for analysis.…”

“…Coefficients are from multivariate regressions for the nationwide dataset, which allows one to see which scale variables had the most significant effects on different types of reactivity. For detailed analysis of lines of inquiry other than incentives, see Copp (2016aCopp ( , 2016bCopp ( , 2017. The variables with the greatest correlation with TTC, based on beta scores, are the attitudes variables (Copp, 2016a).…”

“…For detailed analysis of lines of inquiry other than incentives, see Copp (2016aCopp ( , 2016bCopp ( , 2017. The variables with the greatest correlation with TTC, based on beta scores, are the attitudes variables (Copp, 2016a). They have no significant impact on TTT effects.…”

The European Union, education governance and international education surveys

“…However, one of the most important deficiencies of large-scale testing remains the difficulty teachers often experience in utilizing these measures to help inform their future pedagogical practice (Copp, 2015; Volante and Cherubini, 2010).…”

Classroom Assessment Data Use Practices Among Basic School Teachers in Ghana

“…The study further discovered that teachers' attitudes had a significant and positive relationship with assessment data use, suggesting that teachers with a positive disposition toward the utility and value of certain types of data were more likely to use those data to inform their own instructional practices. Copp (2016) investigated teacher perception and use of assessment data for instructional purposes. After taken survey responses from 1963 Canadian teachers, results showed that teachers had good conception about assessment data and indicated that, they use often to alter classroom instruction.…”