STATE TESTING AFFECTING TEACHER INSTRUCTION AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT 1

State Testing Affecting Teacher Instruction and Student Engagement

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Eric Quinde Tamay

Manhattan College

Education 206

Sr. MaryAnn

November 7, 2022
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Abstract

In this research, I will look at how state testing is affecting teacher instruction along with

student engagement in social studies. Many teachers seemed pressured to have all their students

pass state tests and that can have dire consequences on the way they teach. In New York State the

issue is even worse with the regents state exams which are required for many students in order to

graduate high school. This affects many teachers’ lesson plans and instruction and in the end,

affects the student’s learning. This in turn creates a problem when students become so

disengaged in learning they eventually drop out. By looking at the fieldwork I did and

peer-reviewed research articles we will be able to find one of the many answers to help our

students remain engaged in learning, especially in social studies.

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Introduction to the Study

In recent years students have shared their opinions regarding their interest in social

studies. Teachers have been burdened with students’ disinterest and that is affecting efficiency in

the classroom. In high school, I have seen my fellow peers lose interest in the class and

effectively give up on learning. Why are our students so frustrated with social studies and

history? During my fieldwork experience at Ossining High School observing Mr. Velez’s

classrooms, I figured out the answer, state testing. Mr. Velez in the 2021-2022 school year taught

Global History, US History, and Participation in Government (P.I.G), all required courses for

graduation. The difference is that two out of the three classes he taught were New York State

Regents classes. Global History and US History are courses that have a state test tied together.

Students must pass the regents exam to receive the regents credit to graduate High school. The

teaching styles in each class were entirely different but the Global History and US History

classes had a more direct instruction, also known as explicit instruction, style of teaching while

the Participation in Government classes had a more indirect instruction, also known as

inquiry-based instruction, style of teaching. In this research, I will study the effects state tests

have on teacher instruction, especially in social studies but also how this affects our students'

engagement.

The Research

S. G. Grant, a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, studies the effect

of state testing on teacher instruction. In his study “An Uncertain Lever: Exploring the Influence

of State-Level Testing in New York State on Teaching Social Studies” he makes compelling

points that can give us an almost definite answer. His findings certainly do support that state tests
STATE TESTING AFFECTING TEACHER INSTRUCTION AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT 4

do have an influence on instruction. At the beginning of his study Grant mentions, “Popular

opinion holds that tests drive classroom instruction…a lot of research on the relationship

between students and tests…relatively few empirical studies explore the relationship between

teachers and the tests” (Grant, 2001). In student-focused research, the common finding and

opinion are that state tests do drive what a teacher teaches but Grant argues that we should hold

off on that answer because we need to look at the teacher, not the student. The other research

done for the most part doesn’t focus on the teacher which is ironic because the teacher is the one

running a classroom, not the student. In the popular opinion mentioned by Grant, it is commonly

argued that teachers’ lectures and instruction are influenced by state testing. In high school that is

what we mostly saw in the classroom. Teachers would practically teach to the state test and

mostly through direct instruction. Not only that but state testing also affects teachers’ passion for

teaching. According to Sarah Burroughs, “State-mandated testing has, at least for some, ‘taken

the fun and joy out of teaching.’" (Burroughs, 2002). The effect of state testing is causing

teachers to lose interest in their desire to teach. This is a major problem because as we know

unmotivated teachers are more likely to not meet the needs of their students when it comes to

learning. Going back to my fieldwork experience Mr. Velez is certainly very passionate about

teaching even with the constraints of the state testing standards. It is obvious how the state tests

have influenced his teaching and how students react to them. Students seem disengaged and lack

concentration during his Global History and US History classes. Direct instruction is boring to

them and we know that a student’s attention span is about 15 minutes. Anything that is longer

than that is practically thrown out of a student's mind. Students in Participation in Government

classes enjoy their classes and the teaching style is more indirect. There is more group work and
STATE TESTING AFFECTING TEACHER INSTRUCTION AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT 5

conversations within the classroom, in this environment, students seem motivated to actually

learn and actually want to be part of the class.

Getting deeper into the research we find that we can’t solely blame state testing for

altering teacher instruction. We also need to take a look at students' behaviors. In recent years the

United States has been having a crisis with its graduation rates. In “An Early Warning System”

by Ruth Carran, Robert Balfanz, and Liza Herzog they look at how we can stop these students

from disengaging from school. In the study, they find that students don’t simply give up but it’s a

process of sending signals from different grade levels that are indicators of a student’s

disengagement which eventually results in dropping out of school. The research looks at many

factors to determine a student’s probability to drop out. The authors write, “The school districts

data that we examined included test scores, report card grades, behavior marks, attendance

records, special education status, English language learner status, and demographic categories”

(Neild, et al. 2007). The research looks further at why these signals are going unnoticed and it

found that school districts do not take it seriously when students send these signals of distress in

middle school. The researchers suggest, “Although all distress signals should be taken seriously

in the middle grades, schools should pay special attention to students who send signals in 6th

grade” (Neild, et al. 2007). Teachers should look out for these distress signals in our students

when they first recognize them in the classroom. Although this research focuses on school

dropouts this can be linked to students’ disinterest in school because of teacher instruction.

Going back to the topic of state testing we can see how the studies suggest that students will

become disengaged in high school when they question the purpose of what they are learning. The

way in which teachers teach is making students question the importance of learning.
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The research so far goes over the negatives of state testing and how they affect teacher

instruction and how that eventually affects students’ engagement in the learning process. In S. G.

Grant’s study, he observes two different classrooms. In a class, taught by George Blair, there is a

specific quote that can show how state tests affect the instruction given to students. Grant cites

Blair, “During his explanation of the Cold War…With the mention of Bradley’s name, Blair

immediately adds, ‘That name is of no significance, however. It’s never on the Regents.’” (Grant,

2001). Although it is not the teacher’s intention to lose the interest of their students it is clear

how a student who is already disengaged or disinterested will completely want to stop putting

any effort into learning if what they need to learn are only specifics. The regurgitation of

information is what for the most part loses the interest of students. If a teacher tells students to

disregard information because it’s not part of the test, students will soon feel like what they are

learning is for nothing and just to pass an exam.

Research Plan

My plan is to try to implement as much indirect instruction as possible into my lesson

plan. My students need to feel engaged and part of the lesson to better illustrate their knowledge

of the material they are going to learn. In the first week of class, I will do an icebreaker where I

can get to know my students better like their likes, dislikes, or interesting facts about themselves.

From that information, I will do my best to adapt my teaching methods according to what works

best for each class. It is important to note that each class is different so the type of teaching

method in each class will fluctuate depending on what works for the students in that class. My

main idea for indirect instruction is to have more group work among students. Social studies or

history is a course that has many differing opinions and perspectives. I believe that my students
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need to be given a chance to share and hear out different perspectives in order to better

understand a topic that they are learning. Hearing one perspective gets too repetitive and boring

and will lose the interest of students. I will like to do activities like Kahoot, Quizlet live, or group

jeopardy to let my students have fun but also recall what they have learned in class. These

activities, I found, activate students’ competitiveness which a lot of high schoolers have. The

questions in these activities will reflect questions that could be asked in the NYS regents exam.

For the DBQs and essay questions on the regents, I believe letting students first work together on

one example will help students figure out what they are supposed to do and what kind of

methods they can use in their writing. Then after for next example, they will work alone and use

what they learned in the group work in their independent work. After a month of teaching, I will

look back and reflect on how things are working out in my classroom. I will anaylze the

assessments that students have been given for the class to see if students actually understood the

key concepts of the unit. If students did not do as well as I expected I will have to alter the way

the lessons were taught but also consider my teaching methods for the classes. I will also want to

get students’ opinions on the way I am teaching. I want to get my students’ feedback on what

things worked and what didn’t. Teaching is an art and a science that is always changing there is

always room for improvement and change. This plan is not set and stone I anticipate change will

happen often in class.

Although I do not have a classroom yet to see how my plan works it’s important to lay

out at least the basics of my plan. The most important thing I believe to help students remain

engaged in learning is to immerse the student into the lesson. Having more indirect instruction in

our classrooms that involves the students can make a huge difference in student engagement.

Many students feel left out in direct instruction. Teachers need to allow their students to be part
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of the lesson. Group work in general is a great way to have students engaged in class. The

classroom is the place where students need to make mistakes in order for us as teachers to correct

that. If we do direct instruction all the time teachers won’t be able to catch any misconceptions

students make. It also benefits students because teachers are able to help them learn by correcting

their mistakes. We need to have better interactions with students to help them learn better. As

teachers, we also have a duty to help our students the moment we see them struggle but by just

doing direct instruction we can not do that. Again, looking back at Mr. Velez’s classes and his

teaching style I observed that students enjoyed a more inquiry-based or student-led approach to

teaching.

Inquiry-based instruction allows students to work together and share their ideas and

thoughts. This sharing can help students understand a topic better and can even help them

illustrate proficiency in the topic. Students need to be immersed in our lessons or they will

become disengaged and disinterested in school. Social studies are all about perspectives and

conversations about the past. Group work is the best way to do that for students. This is just one

of the many solutions teachers can use when it comes to instruction. That is why teachers need to

implement indirect instruction into their lessons as much as possible to help our students.

From all the research we come to the conclusion that state testing influences teachers to

create lesson plans that are direct instruction. These direct instruction lessons are important to the

learning process but they can’t be done every day. Direct instruction is good for introducing a

new topic but doing it every day just having students copy what the teacher says and does every

day is not learning. This disengages students from wanting to learn. Although I am no longer in

high school I still experienced what many students experience today with disengagement and

disinterest when teachers only used direct instruction. Although there is nothing we can do about
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state tests as teachers we have control of our method of instruction. We need to use that control

to do the best for our students and help them succeed academically and in the outside world.
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References

Burroughs, S. (2002). Testy times for social studies. Social Education, 66(5), 315–319.

file:///Users/ericquinde/Zotero/storage/VF3VBBIM/i.html

Grant, S. G. (2001). An Uncertain Lever: Exploring the Influence of State-Level Testing in

New York State on Teaching Social Studies. 29.

Neild, R., Balfanz, R., & Herzog, L. (2007). An Early Warning System. 7.

https://new.every1graduates.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Early_Warning_System_Neild

_Balfanz_Herzog.pdf

Quinde Tamay, Eric (2021) Fieldwork Notes