Decisions about practice in contexts of strong external accountability

Current accountability reforms that aim to improve students' academic achievement and teachers' instructional practice are more intrusive than past reforms, limiting teachers' ability to make decisions about implementation behind closed doors. In this context, teachers are often required to simultaneously learn and use new curricula and instructional methods. These reforms make the work of teaching look vastly different from what it did only ten years ago and threaten deeply entrenched occupational norms of privacy and autonomy. Recent research suggests that second-stage teachers--those who have taught 4-10 years--may have expectations for autonomy that differ from those of earlier generations of teachers, and they may identify with and feel part of a larger, more coordinated effort to improve teaching and learning (Szczesiul, 2007). Today's second-stage teachers began their career in this context of strong external accountability. There is evidence that they have high levels of understanding of current reforms, and they may be more inclined to implement them than their more veteran counterparts (Drake, 2002). Consequently, their individual and collective expertise could be harnessed to strengthen current accountability reform efforts at a time when vast numbers of veterans are retiring.

This study was part of a large qualitative study of urban teachers in the second stage of the career conducted by the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers (see http://www.gse.harvard.edu/∼ngt/ ). It included interview data from 85 second-stage teachers in Massachusetts across 14 public schools in 3 low-performing urban districts. Findings reveal that most of the teachers generally accepted external accountability measures as part of their work. However, policies and reforms had varying levels of influence on teachers' decisions about curriculum and instruction (i.e., the autonomy they experienced) as well as on the amount of pressure they felt to improve student performance (as measured by test scores). Variation in teachers' responses from school to school confirms previous findings that their schools' internal norms and systems serve as powerful mediators of national, state, and district-level accountability policies, even when high stakes were attached.