Objective

            School climate can influence students’ motivation to learn and achieve (Deal & Peterson 2009). Yet, a schools’ accountability climate may lead teachers to alter their teaching practices, influencing student-level outcomes. In previous work using the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data, we found a significant negative moderating effect for cumulative school accountability policies on the relationship between teacher practices and student outcomes (reading motivation and achievement). The proposed study builds on our previous findings and utilizes new variables from the 2012 PISA administration, which measure students’ opportunity to learn in the classroom. The goal of the proposed study is to better understand the interaction between students’ opportunity to learn in the classroom, test-based teacher evaluation policies, and student-level outcomes (achievement and self-efficacy) from an international sample of students.

Theoretical Framework

School Climate and Accountability

            Students’ motivation and achievement have been shown to be positively related to teacher instructional practices (Wenglinsky, 2002). Yet, the positive influence of teacher classroom practices may be influenced and perhaps altered by school climate (Deal & Peterson, 2009). In particular, the evaluation practices used within a school have the potential to influence both teachers’ and students’ motivation by leading teachers to alter their practices, which may subsequently influences student outcomes.

Reliance on test-based accountability systems is becoming increasing popular in educational reform efforts (Hamilton, 2003). Test-based accountability policies are especially prevalent within the United States, but are also supported in other countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia (Rustique-Forrester, 2005). Test-based accountability in education presents a complex inter-relationship between the pressures of reform efforts and unintended consequences for students, teachers, and schools. When there is a strong emphasis on accountability and measuring performance via student achievement results, teachers may feel pressured and motivation may become extrinsic as they act upon fear or threat of consequences (Santiago & Benavides, 2009; Cruz & Brown, 2010). Research from across the globe has demonstrated negative outcomes including, but not limited to: a narrowing of the curriculum; test-centered rather than student-centered environments; heightened stress; and a marginalization of low-performing students (e.g., Jaeger, Merki, Oer, & Holmeier, 2012; Pedulla, Abrams, Madaus, Russell, Ramos, & Miao, 2003; Polesel, Rice, & Dulfer, 2014; Rustique-Forrester, 2005).

 Current Study

The current study expands our previous analyses with 2009 PISA data with the most up-to-date version of the PISA assessment (2012 administration), where additional expanded questions were added measuring teaching practices via opportunity to learn. The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the moderating effect of test-based teacher accountability policies on the relationship between opportunity to learn and student outcomes (mathematics achievement and self-efficacy) using data from the 2012 PISA.  

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