LCT-5002

Auslander, S.S., Smith, S. Z., Smith, M. E., & Myers, K. (2020). A Case Study of Elementary Teacher Candidates’ Preparation for a High Stakes Teacher Performance Assessment. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 23(3), 269–291.
Increased accountability demands are being placed on teacher preparation programs across the USA to demonstrate the competencies of their teacher candidates. As a means of evaluating teacher candidates' instructional effectiveness and readiness for their own classrooms, some programs are using standardized teacher performance assessments, with faculty navigating how to respond to these requirements while maintaining a focus on desired learning outcomes of methods courses. This study focused on an elementary teacher preparation program located in one of the states recently requiring successful completion of the Elementary Education edTPA, which includes four tasks, with one focused on mathematics. The findings indicate that expected shifts toward cognitive alignment and increased teaching efficacy beliefs were not achieved.

Fan, X. (2023). Accountability in the Evaluation of Teacher Effectiveness: Views of Teachers and Administrators. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 35(4), 585–611.
Student learning outcomes have been used to measure a teacher's accountability for student learning in the evaluation of teacher effectiveness. This study investigated the views of teachers and administrators regarding using student learning objectives (SLOs) and classroom observations in the evaluation of teacher effectiveness in one southeastern state in the USA. The results revealed that administrators had significantly more positive views than teachers regarding the impact of SLOs and the classroom observations. Educators reported various concerns regarding the issues of using students' assessment results, assessment methods, subjectivity in goal setting, and lack of feedback.

Kantos, Z.E., Özdemir, B., & Tasdan, M. (2023). Investigating the Relationship between Teachers’ Organizational Identity Perceptions and Accountability Levels in School Climate and School Development Dimensions. Shanlax International Journal of Education, 11(1), 201–214.
This study aimed to unravel the complex dynamics among accountability, school climate, and teachers' organizational identity perceptions in three different types of schools: elementary, middle, and high schools. The authors examine the relationships among accountability, school climate, and teachers' perceptions of organizational identity. The findings revealed that accountability has a differential impact on organizational identity across these school levels, with the strongest direct effect observed among elementary school teachers. School climate plays a significant mediating role in the relationship between accountability and organizational identity, with middle school teachers experiencing the strongest indirect effect.

Liebowitz, D. D. (2022). Teacher Evaluation for Growth and Accountability: Under What Conditions Does It Improve Student Outcomes? Harvard Educational Review, 92(4), 533–565.
Most teacher evaluation policies in the United States seek to improve student outcomes by providing developmental support to grow teachers' skills and by imposing accountability pressures to increase their efforts. In this article, Liebowitz argues that proper policy design has been understood as successfully balancing the accountability and growth dimensions of teacher evaluation. He details six conditions that determine whether joint-aim teacher evaluation policies will improve student outcomes and assesses the extent to which they are likely to be met given the causal evidence from the education, economics, social psychology, and management research literature.

Puhani, P. A., & Yang, P. (2020). Does increased teacher accountability decrease leniency in grading? Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 171, 333–341
To improve comparability compromised by lenient grading, the authors compared exit exam results in the same schools before and after a policy change that increased teacher accountability through centralized grading scales.