Tammy Mayer
North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
Dr. Tammy Mayer works for the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction-Office of Special Education in the United States. She has 25 years of teaching and leadership experiences in special education in North Dakota schools. She has extensive knowledge of policies, procedures, assessment, and curriculum and instruction for students’ with varying degrees of disabilities as a Special Education Teacher and as a Special Education Regional Coordinator for the state of North Dakota. She has been with the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction since, 2015 and has recently completed her dissertation research in 2017. Her current role is to train and support special education teachers, district/local level special and general education administrators in special education policy, procedures, special education law and assessment. She also serves on several state wide committees that involve the implementation of Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015) and is most recently the state lead on Quality Instruction for Personalized Learning initiative for North Dakota.
In the context of US policy change in the field of educational leadership, this is the second of three research presentations exploring the sustainability of three specific change initiatives in the state of North Dakota.
During this presentation the author will share the findings of a qualitative study examining the impact high stakes testing places on curriculum and instructional practices for students with disabilities. High-stakes testing has generated numerous challenges for educators, administrators, parents, and students across the nation. Increased pressure has been placed on schools to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), based on participation and proficiency rates in English language arts and math for all students, including students with disabilities. Perceptions of content high school teachers was explored. How do federal legislation requirements of high-stakes testing impact 11th grade general education teachers’ curriculum and instructional practices for students with disabilities and their performance on high-stakes/accountability testing? How do federal regulations impact the use of Universal Design of Learning in general education classrooms?
This research study was designed to gain a better understanding of the impact on how general education teachers in two North Dakota School districts perceived and adapted to federal high-stakes testing and to ensure that all students, including students with disabilities, have a fair and equal opportunity to obtain a high-quality education, and reach a level of proficiency as defined by the local, state, and federal government’s challenging academic achievement standards. The research subjects were 10 high school content area teachers from two North Dakota school districts. The researcher conducted 10 face-to-face open-ended interviews. Codes and themes were distilled from transcribed interview data. Initial findings suggest that teachers felt pressured into making instructional decisions based on high-stakes accountability testing. As a consequence, teachers were spending more time on test preparation, students with disabilities were exposed to a less rigorous curriculum, and teachers felt restricted in their choice of curriculum and instructional practices they wanted to deploy in their classrooms.
This session will be of particular interest to policy makers at the local, state, and federal levels in an era of high stakes accountability testing, and who are looking to improve the quality of instruction for all students, including students with disabilities. Participants will be invited to discuss potential continuous school improvement initiatives in order improve the quality of curriculum and instruction during a rapidly changing period in education.
