Test Driven

I don't always know [students] by face; I know them by data, an elementary curriculum specialist explains ruefully in this broad examination of how No Child Left Behind impacts schools and shapes teaching practice. Capturing the changes teachers are experiencing, especially in the areas of mathematics and reading, the authors compare and contrast three schools with diverse student populations according to school norms and structures, professional roles and responsibilities, curriculum, staff development, and teaching and learning.Including rich observational data and personal accounts from educators, this inside look at school reform analyzes the effects of policies from multiple levels, examining relationships among initiatives at the federal, state, district, and local school levels, focuses on the impact that high-stakes testing policies have on reading and mathematics instruction in 4th and 5th grades, and provides teacher and principal perspectives on factors that influence how practitioners make sense of, mediate, and construct school policy.