Title: Aligning teacher preparation, professional development and evaluation : the orthodoxy of TAP teachers and teaching
Source document: Studia paedagogica. 2020, vol. 25, iss. 2, pp. [117]-137
Extent
[117]-137
-
ISSN1803-7437 (print)2336-4521 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/SP2020-2-6
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/142790
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
This paper looks at one of the most popular teacher accountability systems in the USA, TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement, which is a comprehensive program that meets the requirements of multiple large federal grants schemes. The paper shows that, after consortia in Arizona and Texas won multimillion-dollar grant awards, thousands of teachers in these states have become engrossed within a TAP circuit that shapes multiple domains of their professional identity and growth. TAP's ubiquitous presence helps build system alignment, but it also means that teachers are increasingly limited in their exposure to alternative philosophies, practices, or measurements of teaching. Therefore, I challenge the assumptions of alignment and illustrate how such alignment flattens and overly-simplifies the plurality and complexity of teaching, even though present times require adaptability within schools. What I ultimately argue is that the precise and comprehensive alignment of this system enforces and reinforces TAP as the orthodox reality of what it means to be and become a teacher.
Note
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [grant number DE190101140].
References
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[2] American Statistical Association. (2014). ASA statement on using value-added models for educational assessment. https://www.amstat.org/policy/pdfs/ASAVAMStatement.pdf
[3] Amrein-Beardsley, A., & Collins, C. (2012). The SAS education value-added assessment system (SAS® EVAAS®) in the Houston Independent School District (HISD): Intended and unintended consequences. Education Policy Analysis Archives/Archivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas, 20(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v20n12.2012 | DOI 10.14507/epaa.v20n12.2012
[4] Anderson, G., & Herr, K. (2015). New public management and the new professionalism in education: Framing the issue. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23(84), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v23.2222 | DOI 10.14507/epaa.v23.2222
[5] Arendt, H. (1958). The human conditions. Doubleday.
[6] Arendt, H. (2009). The origins of totalitarianism (2nd ed.). Benediction Books.
[7] Bacchi, C. (2000). Policy as discourse: What does it mean? Where does it get us? Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 21(1), 45–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596300050005493 | DOI 10.1080/01596300050005493
[8] Bacchi, C. (2012). Why study problematizations? Making politics visible. Open Journal of Political Science, 2(1), 1–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojps.2012.21001 | DOI 10.4236/ojps.2012.21001
[9] Ball, S. J. (2003). The teacher's soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Education Policy, 18(2), 215–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/0268093022000043065 | DOI 10.1080/0268093022000043065
[10] Ball, S. J. (2015). Education, governance and the tyranny of numbers. Journal of Education Policy, 30(3), 299–301. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2015.1013271 | DOI 10.1080/02680939.2015.1013271
[11] Bradbury, A. (2019). Datafied at four: The role of data in the 'schoolification'of early childhood education in England. Learning, Media and Technology, 44(1), 7–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2018.1511577 | DOI 10.1080/17439884.2018.1511577
[12] Bradbury, A., & Roberts-Holmes, G. (2017). The datafication of primary and early years education: Playing with numbers. Routledge.
[13] Collier, K., & Ura, A. (2015). Texas public schools are poorer, more diverse. Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2015/12/09/new-schools-explorer-shows-changing-face-schools/
[14] Collins, C., & Amrein-Beardsley, A. (2014). Putting growth and value-added models on the map: A national overview. Teachers College Record, 116(1), 1–32.
[15] Connolly, W. E. (2013) The fragility of things: Self-organizing processes, neoliberal fantasies and democratic activism. Duke University Press.
[16] Connolly, W. E. (2005). Pluralism. Duke University Press.
[17] Connolly, W. E. (2017). The challenge to pluralist theory. In W. E. Connolly (Ed.), Pluralism in political analysis (pp. 3–34). Routledge.
[18] Courtney, S. J., & Gunter, H. M. (2015). Get off my bus! School leaders, vision work and the elimination of teachers. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 18(4), 395–417. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2014.992476 | DOI 10.1080/13603124.2014.992476
[19] Creno, C. (2016). Arizona's changing demographics and the academic divide. Helios education foundation. https://www.helios.org/blog/part-i-arizona%E2%80%99s-changingdemographics-and-the-academic-divide
[20] Daley, G., & Kim, L. (2010). A teacher evaluation system that works. National Institute for Excellence in Teaching. http://www.niet.org/assets/Publications/teacher-evaluationsystem-that-works-working-paper.pdf
[21] Daley, G., & Kim, L. (2012). TAP research summary. National Institute for Excellence in Teaching.
[22] Danielson, C. (2007). Enhancing professional practice: A framework for teaching. ASCD.
[23] Davies, B., & Bansel, P. (2010). Governmentality and academic work: Shaping the hearts and minds of academic workers. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 26(3), 5–20.
[24] Dean, M. (1995). Governing the unemployed self in an active society. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(4), 559–583. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085149500000025 | DOI 10.1080/03085149500000025
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[26] Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972–1977. Pantheon.
[27] Foucault, M. (2000). Truth and juridical forms. In J. D. Faubion (Ed.), Michel Foucault: Power (pp. 1–89). The New Press.
[28] Foucault, M. (2002). The order of things: An archaeology of the human sciences. Routledge.
[29] Garver, R. (2019). Evaluative relationships: Teacher accountability and professional culture. Journal of Education Policy, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2019.1566972 | DOI 10.1080/02680939.2019.1566972
[30] Hardy, I. (2019). The quandary of quantification: Data, numbers and teachers' learning. Journal of Education Policy, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2019.1672211 | DOI 10.1080/02680939.2019.1672211
[31] Hewitt, K. K., & Amrein-Beardsley, A. (Eds.). (2016). Student growth measures in policy and practice: Intended and unintended consequences of high-stakes teacher evaluations. Springer.
[32] Holloway, J. (2019). Teacher evaluation as an onto-epistemic framework. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 40(2), 174–189. | DOI 10.1080/01425692.2018.1514291
[33] Holloway, J., & Brass, J. (2018). Making accountable teachers: The terrors and pleasures of performativity. Journal of Education Policy, 33(3), 361–382. | DOI 10.1080/02680939.2017.1372636
[34] Hursh, D., Henderson, J., & Greenwood, D. (2015). Environmental education in a neoliberal climate. Environmental Education Research, 21(3), 299–318. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2015.1018141 | DOI 10.1080/13504622.2015.1018141
[35] Komatsu, H., Rappleye, J., & Silova, I. (2019). Culture and the independent self: Obstacles to environmental sustainability? Anthropocene, 26, 100198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2019.100198 | DOI 10.1016/j.ancene.2019.100198
[36] Lee, O. (2019). Aligning English language proficiency standards with content standards: Shared opportunity and responsibility across English learner education and content areas. Educational Researcher, 48(8), 534–542. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X19872497 | DOI 10.3102/0013189X19872497
[37] Lingard, B., & Rizvi, F. (2010). Globalizing education policy. Routledge.
[38] Martone, A., & Sireci, S. G. (2009). Evaluating alignment between curriculum, assessment, and instruction. Review of Educational Research, 79(4), 1332–1361. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654309341375 | DOI 10.3102/0034654309341375
[39] McWilliam, E., & Jones, A. (2005). An unprotected species? On teachers as risky subjects. British Educational Research Journal, 31(1), 109–120. https://doi.org/10.1080/0141192052000310056 | DOI 10.1080/0141192052000310056
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[41] NIET. (2013a). Planting the SEED. Grant application for Supporting Effective Educator Development Grant Program, Santa Monica CA. https://www2.ed.gov/programs/edseed/2013/nietasu.pdf
[42] NIET. (2013b). TAP Connect National Pilot. Grant application for Supporting Effective Educator Development Grant Program, Santa Monica CA. https://www2.ed.gov/programs/edseed/2013/nietttu.pdf
[43] NIET. (2013c). TAP system prepares teachers for common core. National Institute for Excellence in Teaching.
[44] NIET. (n.d.) Rubric and observation systems. National Institute for Excellence in Teaching. https://www.niet.org/our-work/our-services/show/rubric-and-observation-systems
[45] Perryman, J. (2009). Inspection and the fabrication of professional and performative processes. Journal of Education Policy, 24(5) 611–631. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930903125129 | DOI 10.1080/02680930903125129
[46] Sachs, J. (2001). Teacher professional identity: Competing discourses, competing outcomes. Journal of Education Policy, 16(2), 149–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930116819 | DOI 10.1080/02680930116819
[47] Saldaña, J. (2015). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Sage.
[48] Savage, G. C., & Lewis, S. (2018). The phantom national? Assembling national teaching standards in Australia's federal system. Journal of Education Policy, 33(1), 118–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2017.1325518 | DOI 10.1080/02680939.2017.1325518
[49] Savage, G. C., & O'Connor, K. (2019). What's the problem with 'policy alignment'? The complexities of national reform in Australia's federal system. Journal of Education Policy, 34(6), 812–835. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2018.1545050 | DOI 10.1080/02680939.2018.1545050
[50] Scott, J. (1998). Seeing like a state: How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. Yale University Press.
[51] Sloat, E., Amrein-Beardsley, A., & Sabo, K. E. (2017). Examining the factor structure underlying the TAP system for teacher and student advancement. AERA Open, 3(4), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858417735526 | DOI 10.1177/2332858417735526
[52] Subedi, B., & Daza, S. L. (2008). The possibilities of postcolonial praxis in education. Race Ethnicity and Education, 11(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613320701845731 | DOI 10.1080/13613320701845731
[53] Taubman, P. M. (2010). Teaching by numbers: Deconstructing the discourse of standards and accountability in education. Routledge.
[54] The Danielson Group. (n.d.). The Danielson Framework website. https://danielsongroup.org/
[55] US Department of Education. (2016). Every student succeeds act. https://www.ed.gov/essa?src=rn
[56] Zeichner, K. (2010). Competition, economic rationalization, increased surveillance, and attacks on diversity: Neo-liberalism and the transformation of teacher education in the U.S. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(8), 1544–1552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2010.06.004 | DOI 10.1016/j.tate.2010.06.004