This article details the experiences of four teacher education faculty members as we navigated the consequential implementation of a state-mandated high stakes teacher performance assessment in our educator preparation program. By shifting our perspective from simply complying with an assessment mandate to considering how we can leverage implementation of high stakes performance assessment as a vehicle for program inquiry, we were able to gain significant insight into our practice.

This study evaluated through an analysis of baseline data whether Stockton Unified School District's board decision to transition from middle school settings to K-8 settings result in: increased student achievement as measured by performance on the California Standards Tests (CSTs) in English language arts and Mathematics, and decreased problem behaviors as measured through the number of suspensions at the 7th grade level in its first year of implementation for the 2006-2007 school year. Four former middle schools and thirty nine K-8 elementary school's achievement and suspension data comprised the purposeful sample for this one shot case study. Former middle school populations averaged 684 to 747 students per school while the average number of 7th grade students attending the newly formed K-8s averaged 85 students per site. Categorical variables were controlled for ethnicity, gender, second language learner, socioeconomically deprived and school wide. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to create a time analysis of 7th grade student performance and behavior as measured by number of suspensions through the use of time trend analysis over a four year period 2002-2003 through 2005-2006. In order to find performance and suspension levels for each categorical variable, scores were derived as the difference between each categorical variable and the growth rate of White (the omitted category). Chow Test (1960) was applied to test for change in setting from the middle school to K-8. Results determined no significant growth in academic achievement in English language arts or mathematics for any subgroup following the move to a K-8 setting. Second language learners demonstrated a statistically significant drop at -6.8 percent from Far Below Basic in English language arts over the four year period of attending a middle school setting. No other subgroup showed any statistical significance in performance over time when compared to the growth of their White constituents. Statistical significant findings were found for number of suspensions for all subgroups over time and with the move to a K-8 setting for Hispanic, Black and Asian males and females. Implications for educators and future research are discussed.