Nested within a 5-year examination of Teach for America (TFA) corps members’ experiences with learning to teach, this article focuses on the salient theme of “Reform Models” found in data collected when a highly publicized testing cheating scandal was breaking in this urban district. Using constructivist grounded theory, researchers analyzed 5,897 daily reflections written during a year-long, initial certification course. Rigorous, comprehensive, and collaborative data analysis utilizing a multirater/multistage/multiyear process, including ATLAS.ti, researchers’ memos, audit trails, and emic perspectives of participant–researchers, assured trustworthiness. Analysis revealed federal accountability policies and education reforms that had profound and negative influences on literacy curriculum, pedagogy, teaching, learning, and classroom practice.
AchinsteinB.OgawaR. T.SpeiglmanA. (2004). Are we creating separate and unequal tracks of teachers? The impact of state policy, local conditions, and teacher characteristics on new teacher socialization. American Educational Researcher Journal, 41, 557-603.
2.
Darling-HammondL.Amrein-BeardsleyA.HaertelE.RothsteinJ. (2011). Getting teacher evaluation right: A brief for policymakers.
AuW. (2007). High-stakes testing and curricular control: A qualitative metasynthesis. Educational Researcher, 36, 258-267.
5.
AyersW. (2004). Teaching the personal and the political: Essays on hope and justice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
6.
BeattyB. (2011). The dilemma of scripted instruction: Comparing teacher autonomy, fidelity, and resistance in the Froebelian kindergarten, Montessori, direct instruction, and success for all. Teachers College Record, 113, 395-430.
7.
BogdanR. C.BiklenS. K. (1992). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
8.
BormanG.SlavinR.CheungA.ChamberlainA.MaddenN.ChambersB. (2007). Final reading outcomes of the national randomized field trial of Success for All. American Education Research Journal, 44, 701-731.
9.
BowlesS.GintisH. (1976). Schooling in capitalist America: Education reform and the contradictions of economic life. New York, NY: Basic.
10.
BritzmanD. P. (1995). Is there a queer pedagogy? Or, stop reading straight. Educational Theory, 45, 151-165.
11.
CharmazK. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. London, England: SAGE.
12.
CroccoM.CostiganA. (2007). The narrowing of curriculum and pedagogy in the age of accountability: Urban educators speak out. Urban Education, 42, 512-535.
13.
CresswellJ. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
14.
Darling-HammondL.HoltzmanD. J.GatlinS. J.HeiligJ. V. (2005). Does teacher preparation matter? Evidence about teacher certification, Teach for America, and teacher effectiveness. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 13 (42). Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v13n42.2005
15.
DatnowA.BormanG.StringfieldS.OvermanL. T.CastellanoM. (2003). Comprehensive school reform in culturally and linguistically diverse contexts: Implementation and outcomes from a four-year study. Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 25, 143-170.
16.
DatnowA.Castellano. (2000). Teachers’ responses to Success for All: How beliefs, experiences, and adaptations shape implementation. American Educational Research Journal, 37 (3), 775-799
17.
deMarraisK.WennerJ.LewisJ. (2013). Bringing Teach for America into the forefront of teacher education: Philanthropy meets spin. Critical Education, 4(11), 1-27.
18.
DeweyJ. (1938). Experience and education. New York, NY: Kappa Delta Pi.
19.
DiamondJ. B.SpillaneJ. P. (2004). High-stakes accountability in urban elementary schools: Challenging or reproducing inequality?Teachers College Record, 106, 1145-1176.
20.
DurdenT. (2008). Do your homework! Investigating the role of culturally relevant pedagogy in comprehensive school reform models serving diverse populations. The Urban Review, 40 (5), 403-419.
21.
EasleyJ.II. (2014). The audacity to teach: An examination of reform policy, school leadership, and their relationships mediated by instructional capacity. Urban Education, 51, 108-137.
22.
EspositoJ.DavisC.SwainA. (2012). Urban educators’ perceptions of culturally relevant pedagogy and school reform mandates. Journal for Educational Change, 13, 235-258.
23.
Fisher-AriT.KavanaghK.MartinA. (2016) Urban teachers struggling within and against neoliberal, accountability-era policies. Perspectives in Urban Education, 13(2), p. 1-13.
24.
Fisher-AriT.KavanaghK.MartinA. (2017). Sisyphean neoliberal reforms: The intractable mythology of student growth and achievement master narratives within the testing and TFA era. Journal of Education Policy, 32(3), p. 255-280. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2016.1247466
25.
Fisher-AriT.AliceaM.MeyersB. (2017). Theorized Pedagogies: Revising Clinical Practices to Foster Dispositions of Reflection in Teach For America Novice Teachers. Professing Education.16(1).60-78.
26.
Fisher-AriT.KavanaghK.MartinA.BlusteinC.BloxsonK.AliceaM.MeyersB. (n.d.).The Critical Ecological Model of Novice Teacher Socialization amid a Testing Scandal: Revealing Transgressive Contexts of Urban Schooling.
27.
FreireP. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum International Publishing Group.
28.
GirouxH. (2006). America on the edge: Henry Giroux on politics, culture, and education. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
29.
GirouxH.LoveB. (2015, March23). A dialog on race, the academy, and the role of critical pedagogy. Panal conducted at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.
30.
GonzálezN.MollL.AmantiC. (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities and classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
31.
HanselmanP.BormanG. (2013). The impacts of Success for All on reading achievement in grades 3-5: Does intervening during the later elementary grades produce the same benefits as intervening early?Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 35, 237-251.
32.
KavanaghK. M. (2010). A dichotomy examined: Beginning Teach for America educators navigate culturally relevant teaching and a scripted literacy program in their urban classrooms. Doctoral Dissertation. Retrieved online from Early Childhood Education Dissertations at Digital Archives@GSU. Paper 12.
Ladson-BillingsG. (2006). From the achievement gap to the education debt: Understanding achievement in U.S. schools. Educational Researcher, 35(7), 3-12.
35.
LewisC.EncisoP.MojeE. B. (2007). Introduction: Reframing sociocultural research on literacy: Identity, agency, and power. In LewisC.EncisoP.MojeE. B. (Eds.), Reframing sociocultural research on literacy: Identity, agency, and powerNew York, NY: Routledge.
36.
LewisC.PyscherT.StutelbergE. (2014). Critical sociocultural perspectives in English education, p 22-29. In BrassJ.WebbA. (Eds.), Reclaiming English language arts methods courses: Critical issues and challenges for teacher educators in top-down times. New York, NY: Routledge.
37.
LincolnY.GubaE. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, California: SAGE Publications.
38.
LubienskiC. (2005). Public schools in marketized environments: Shifting incentives and unintended consequences of competition-based educational reforms. American Journal of Education, 111, 464-486.
McNeilL. (2000). Contradictions of school reform: Educational costs of standardized testing. New York, NY: Routledge.
41.
MeyersB.FisherT.AliceaM.BloxsonK. (2014). Unfinishedness: Striving For a Viable Partnership Between TFA and its University Partner. Teachers College Record, 116(10). 1-32.
42.
MilnerH. R. (2007). Race, culture, and researcher positionality: Working through dangers seen, unseen, and unforeseen. Educational Researcher, 36, 388-400.
43.
MilnerH. R. (2012). But what is urban education?Urban Education, 47, 556-561.
44.
MilnerH. R. (2014). Scripted and narrowed curriculum reform in urban schools. Urban Education, 49, 743-749.
45.
MilnerH. R.LomoteyK. (Ed.). (2014). Handbook of urban education. New York, NY: Routledge.
46.
No Child Left Behind Act of2001, P.L. 107-110, 20 U.S.C. § 6319 (2002).
NieszT. (2010). “That school had become all about show”: Image making and the ironies of constructing a good urban school. Urban Education, 45, 371-393.
49.
OakesJ. (2005). Keeping track: How schools structure inequality (2nd ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
50.
PerryK. (2012). What is literacy? A critical overview of sociocultural perspectives. Journal of Language & Literacy Education, 8, 50-71.
51.
RavitchD. (2014). Reign of error: The Hoax of the privatization movement and the danger to America’s public schools. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
52.
RobertsM. (2012, March7). The testing industrial complex: Standardizing the school to prison pipeline for African American youth. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the 36th Annual National Council for Black Studies, Atlanta, GA. Retrieved from http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p560694_index.html
53.
ShealeyM. W. (2006). The promises and perils of “scientifically-based” research for urban schools. Urban Education, 41, 5-19.
54.
SlavinR. E.MaddenN. A. (Eds.). (2001). One million children: Success for All. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
55.
SleeterC. E. (2005). Un-standardizing curriculum: Multicultural teaching in the standards-based classroom. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
56.
SmagorinskyP.LaklyA.JohnsonT. (2002). Acquiescence, accommodation, and resistance in learning to teach within a prescribed curriculum. English Education, 34, 187-213.
57.
StraussA.CorbinJ. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
58.
SupovitzJ. (2009). Can high-stakes testing leverage educational improvement? Prospects from the last decade of testing and accountability reform. Journal of Educational Change, 10, 211-227.
TochT. (2006). Margins of error: The education testing industry in the No Child Left Behind era. Washington, DC: Education Sector.
61.
WinterC. (2017). Curriculum policy reform in the era of technical accountability: “Fixing” curriculum, teachers, and students in English schools. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 49, 55-74.
