The purpose of this study is to explore high school students’ understandings of achievement and opportunity through their lived experiences which are constructed under a high-stakes testing environment in Korea. This study undertakes a critical analysis of high-stakes testing and its intersectional effects in terms of structure and culture, attending to students’ everyday experiences in testing practices as these are embedded in certain discourses. Recent scholarship reveals that high-stakes testing reinforces a correspondence between socioeconomic status and educational attainment under the neoliberal educational policies of school choice, privatization, and high-stakes testing. In the analysis of educational policies such as the accountability movement, some studies contend that the political and economic discourses underpinning high-stakes testing are effectively hidden behind educational practices ostensibly aimed at raising standards. To date, however, there has been little attention to how students internalize the logic of neoliberal competition and how they experience educational achievement and opportunity structure within a high-stakes testing environment. Drawing on in-depth interviews of high school students from varying economic and academic backgrounds, this study found that students’ experiences of the high-stakes testing environment are influenced by their social class and achievement levels. High-stakes testing does not contribute to reducing achievement gaps between classes but rather reinforces educational alienation as well as opportunity gaps. Furthermore, high-stakes testing, as a cultural practice which affects students’ daily lives and their experience of curriculum and instruction, contributes to the ideological construction of students’ understandings of achievement and opportunity structure. While students experience structural constraints in achievement, they believe in testing as being a fair and equal opportunity. Concealing students’ struggles within structural barriers as well as their contradictory experiences in relation to ideologies of achievement and success, high-stakes testing becomes the medium through which students’ social desires are reproduced. An intersectional analysis in terms of culture and structure of students’ experiences in relation to high-stakes testing can help us to understand how the achievement ideology responds to students’ aspirations and also how those aspirations help this ideology persist. This study urges educational policies to focus on opportunity gaps and to look at contradictions and struggles that students experience in high-stakes testing. / text

J’avais dix ans. C’était après la guerre et l’Iran était sous embargo. A l’école je n’avais que deux crayons pour écrire mes devoirs, un noir et un rouge. Les deux étaient ornés du symbole d’une marque, un crocodile noir. Cela était aussi un gage de qualité. Mes crayons crocodiles écrivaient bien. J’étais habituée à les voir, mes crocodiles. Puis je passais beaucoup de temps avec ma tante. Elle faisait de la couture. Je jouais avec les restes des tissus. J’étais fascinée par les couleurs et par des formes que je créais avec ces bouts de tissu. J’ai sans doute commencé mes premiers collages à ce moment-là. Plus tard quand je suis devenue peintre, les animaux et les couleurs étaient la base de mes peintures. Parmi ces animaux le crocodile surgissait sans que je sois consciente de la raison de cette apparition. Un jour en réfléchissant je me suis souvenue de mes crayons d’enfance ! Quand j’ai commencé à peindre, les limites et les contraintes en Iran ne me permettaient pas de m’exprimer librement. Alors le jeu d’enfance que j’avais repris dans le style de ma peinture, me rendait celle-ci agréable et ludique. J’avais mes couleurs et le jeu, et j’exprimais ce que je voulais ; j’avais réussi à trouver un langage d’expression ludique et fort et j’en étais ravie. Je n’étais pas la seule à prendre le jeu comme moyen de contourner les limites et la censure. Déjouer les limites par le jeu était le centre de notre travail. La réflexion sur l’irruption du jeu dans l’art visuel contemporain et en particulier en Iran est devenu le sujet central de ma réflexion et de mon interrogation sur les raisons qui nous ont conduit à nous exprimer ainsi. Je l’ai donc choisie comme le sujet de ma thèse. [...] / I was ten years old. It was after the war and Iran was embargoed. At school I only had two pencils to write my homework, one black and one red. Both were decorated with the symbol of a brand, a black crocodile. It was also a guarantee of quality. My crocodile pencils wrote well. I was used to seeing them, my crocodiles. Then I spent a lot of time with my aunt. She was sewing. I played with the remains of the fabrics. I was fascinated by the colors and shapes that I created with these pieces of fabric. I probably started my first collages at that time. Later when I became a painter, animals and colors were the basis of my paintings. Among these animals the crocodile arose without my being aware of the reason for this apparition. One day while thinking I remembered my childhood pencils! When I started painting, the limits and constraints in Iran did not allow me to express myself freely. Then the childhood game that I had taken in the style of my painter, made me this one pleasant and playful. I had my colors and the game, and I expressed what I wanted; I had managed to find a language of playful and strong expression and I was delighted. I was not the only one to take the game as a way to get around the limits and the censure. Breaking the boundaries through play was the center of our work. The reflection on the irruption of the game in the contemporary visual art and in particular in Iran became the central subject of my reflection and my interrogation on the reasons which led us to express ourselves thus. I chose it as the subject of my thesis. [...]

The intense focus on standards and accountability is rapidly altering the education environment. Often the gauge for measuring school effectiveness is performance on high- stake state tests. In this retrospective cohort comparison study, I observe the relation between the use of curriculum-based measures (CBMs) for reading and change on a state test for reading after implementation of systematic decision making (SDM). Over a span of three years, two student cohorts in two elementary schools were observed. In each two-year cohort, students began in third and then moved to fourth grade: Cohort One (2009 - 2011) and Cohort Two (2010 - 2012). Both cohorts participated in fall, winter, and spring [F-W-S] benchmark screening for Passage Reading Fluency (PRF) and took a state test. Additionally, during the 2011-2012 academic year, SDM was implemented for Cohort Two using reading CBMs. This study addressed three questions: (a) What is the affect on reading growth (OAKS-Reading) in the context of SDM with CBMs? (b) What is the correlation between [F-W-S] PRF and OAKS Reading? and (c) What is the relation between within-year growth rates for students at risk and not at risk in the context of SDM with CBMs? I used an independent samples t-test to examine the across year change in reading for both cohorts (OAKS-Reading) to determine whether the implementation of SDM resulted in a significant difference between cohorts. For Cohort Two (using a SDM model), I correlated benchmark screening within-year measures (easyCBM) and OAKS Reading. Finally, I calculated growth rates for at-risk and not-at-risk students within a SDM model to examine whether that model demonstrated evidence of accelerated growth in at-risk students relative to their not-at-risk peers. Results did not indicate a strong relation between SDM and the large-scale, outcome assessment (OAKS-Reading). A Pearson product-moment correlation indicated a strong positive correlation between the formative measure PRF and the large-scale, outcome assessment OAKS-Reading. Results showed both risk categories had accelerated growth in reading fluency between fall and winter compared to between winter and spring. Implications for school practice and research are discussed.

Atualmente no Brasil a utilização de perfis metálicos em fundações profundas vem aumentando consideravelmente. A produção padronizada de acordo com normas específicas recentes tem influência direta nessa mudança de cenário, visto que o uso de perfis metálicos apresenta algumas vantagens quando comparado com outros tipos de estacas para certas características de subsolo. A NBR 6122:2010 - Projeto e Execução de Fundações recomenda que o sistema de transferência dos esforços (de compressão, horizontais, de tração e momento) do bloco de coroamento para as estacas metálicas deve ser estudado e detalhado juntamente com o projetista da estrutura. O tipo de ligação pode ser por chapas, fretagem ou através de vergalhões soldados com a finalidade de efetuar transferência de esforços por aderência. O modelo de bielas e tirantes pode ser utilizado para o dimensionamento do bloco sobre estacas. Onde admite que a carga recebida pelo bloco originária do pilar é transmitida internamente até as estacas por elementos de concreto comprimidos delimitados pelos caminhos das tensões principais de compressão. Levando em conta que a seção transversal de um perfil metálico possui pequena área quando comparado com os demais tipos de estacas a solução de ligação por contato direto pode resultar em elevadas tensões entre os materiais envolvidos na ligação. Com o objetivo de analisar o comportamento dessa ligação, foram modelados através de elementos finitos, dois blocos sobre quatro estacas metálicas com ligações através do uso de chapas auxiliares sobre as estacas do bloco 1 e por contato direto das estacas no bloco 2, além do cálculo de um modelo pelo método analítico. Os resultados obtidos mostram a viabilidade na segurança estrutural no uso da ligação de perfis metálicos com bloco de coroamento em concreto armado por contato direto, ao menos para os modelos adotados, e sua compatibilização com o modelo de bielas e tirantes utilizados no dimensionamento estrutural de blocos. / Currently in Brazil the use of metal profiles in deep foundations is increasing considerably. The standardized production according to recent specific rules has a direct influence on this change scenario, since the use of metal profiles has some advantages when compared to other types of cuttings for certain subsurface features. The NBR 6122: 2010 - Design and Execution of Foundations recommends that the stress transfer system (compression, horizon, traction and momentum) of the crowning block for the metal stations should be studied and detailed together with the designer of the structure. The type of bond may be a bars, or by haulage rods welded in order to make efforts for adhesion transfer. The strut and tie model can be used for sizing the pile cap on which admits the load received by block originating internally of the pillar is transmitted to the piles by compressed concrete elements delimited by the paths of the main compression stresses. Taking into account the cross section of the metal profile has small area when compared to the other types of cuttings binding solution with plate can compensate for this lower area of value increasing contact between the metal materials and the concrete pile cap. With the objective of analyzing the behavior of this connection, two pile cap on four metal stakes were modeled through finite elements with connections through the use of auxiliary plates on the stakes of pile cap 1 and by simple soaking of the stakes in pile cap 2, besides calculation of the model by the analytical method. The results show the feasibility of structural safety in the use of bonding of metallic profiles with crown pile cap in reinforced concrete by simple embedding, at least for the models adopted, and its compatibility with the model of rods and tie rods used in the structural design of pile cap.

abstract: Much research has been conducted regarding the current state of public education within the United States. Very little of that research bodes well for the system’s current circumstances or for the direction our system is headed. The debate stems around two opposing ideologies. One believes that there needs to be more accountability via high-stakes testing and the continuum of the status quo that the country has maintained for centuries, regardless of the effect it may be having on the students’ well-being. While the opposing view sees high-stakes testing as a contributing factor to the seemingly unproductive, chaotic, and even harmful conundrum of bias and hegemony that shows a positive correlation of deleterious effects to student well-being. Although this paper references the research of highly esteemed scholars, it asserts that the voices of those that are most relegated to that of undervalued and ignored are precisely the voices that need to be gleaned most relevant. This paper’s purpose is to hear what the ‘experts’ in the field of education, the students themselves, have to say. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social and Cultural Pedagogy 2018

abstract: This study examined the intended and unintended consequences associated with the Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS) as perceived and experienced by teachers in the Houston Independent School District (HISD). To evaluate teacher effectiveness, HISD is using EVAAS for high-stakes consequences more than any other district or state in the country. A large-scale electronic survey was used to investigate the model's reliability and validity; to determine whether teachers used the EVAAS data in formative ways as intended; to gather teachers' opinions on EVAAS's claimed benefits and statements; and to understand the unintended consequences that occurred as a result of EVAAS use in HISD. Mixed methods data collection and analyses were used to present the findings in user-friendly ways, particularly when using the words and experiences of the teachers themselves. Results revealed that the reliability of the EVAAS model produced split and inconsistent results among teacher participants, and teachers indicated that students biased the EVAAS results. The majority of teachers did not report similar EVAAS and principal observation scores, reducing the criterion-related validity of both measures of teacher quality. Teachers revealed discrepancies in the distribution of EVAAS reports, the awareness of trainings offered, and among principals' understanding of EVAAS across the district. This resulted in an underwhelming number of teachers who reportedly used EVAAS data for formative purposes. Teachers disagreed with EVAAS marketing claims, implying the majority did not believe EVAAS worked as intended and promoted. Additionally, many unintended consequences associated with the high-stakes use of EVAAS emerged through teachers' responses, which revealed among others that teachers felt heightened pressure and competition, which reduced morale and collaboration, and encouraged cheating or teaching to the test in attempt to raise EVAAS scores. This study is one of the first to investigate how the EVAAS model works in practice and provides a glimpse of whether value-added models might produce desired outcomes and encourage best teacher practices. This is information of which policymakers, researchers, and districts should be aware and consider when implementing the EVAAS, or any value-added model for teacher evaluation, as many of the reported issues are not specific to the EVAAS model. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2012

Les professions libérales sont définies par la loi du 22 mars 2012 et sont caractérisées par leur degré de qualification, leur indépendance et leur grande ancienneté pour certaines comme les médecins ou les avocats. En effet, leurs racines peuvent remonter jusqu' à l'Antiquité gréco-romaine et de ce fait, elles sont profondément ancrées dans nos sociétés occidentales.Les professions libérales ont surmonté les grandes crises des siècles passés tout en conservant les règles et traditions qui leurs sont intrinsèques comme l'indépendance ou le respect de règles déontologiques. Néanmoins, ces professions se sont peu à peu rapprochées des modèles classiques du monde des affaires en s'assimilant elles-mêmes à des entrepreneurs et en se regroupant pour exercer. Actuellement, elles font face à de nouveaux changements initiés par la volonté des institutions de l'Union européenne de les rendre plus compétitives et de les soumettre aux règles du droit de la concurrence. La récente et difficile adoption de la loi dite "Macron" en est la parfaite illustration. Ainsi, l'étude de leurs origines et de leur développement permet, d'une part, de comprendre les raisons de l'existence de structures d'exercice qui leurs sont propres et d’autre part, de se questionner sur leur nature, la préservation de leurs caractéristiques et les potentielles limites à l'évolution de leurs modes d'exercice en commun. / Independent professions, which are called in french « professions libérales », are a certain type of professionals highly qualified such as lawyers or medical doctors, for instance.Their common roots are deeply attached to the long history of occidental societies starting from the Greek and Roman Antiquity.They faced and overcame several crisis during their evolution but they managed to preserve their main features such as independence or specific codes of ethics.Indeed, step by step, they started to merge with the common classic business structures and adapt their specificities to the modern economy.Nowadays, they still have to adapt themselves to new major economic stakes including those coming from the European Union requirements of becoming more competitive and follow the rules of competition law.On the one hand, studying the origins of those professions and the way they built themselves, allow us to understand why they needed their own structures and ways of working together. On the other hand, this approach leads us to the following question: Are the independent high qualified professions, or liberal professions, doomed to reach limits in their evolution toward modernity because of their own nature?In France, it seems like they are, and will be, undergoing changes for years to come and maybe their legal definition will also have to evolve with them.

This qualitative multi-method study investigates potential construct-related outcomes of using a high-stakes standardized literacy test that is based on a limited construct. This study presents comprehensive construct and outcomes analyses of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT), as one example of a high-stakes literacy testing program, focusing on critical literacies in particular. Critical literacies are shown to be underrepresented in the test’s construct sample despite being valued in the relevant educational domain being measured. The two central research questions shaping this study are as follows: (1) What are students learning about critical literacies in an educational context that includes the OSSLT?; (2) How do students perceive the OSSLT to be contributing to, and/or hindering, their development of critical literacy skills? This study is structured as an arts-informed multiple case study. Participants included ten Grade 11 and 12 students who contributed to the study through multiple research activities, including interviews and group conversations, questionnaires, activity handouts, as well as journaling, photography, and graffiti walls activities. The findings of the outcomes analysis (1) identify limitations with regards to students’ understandings of literacy, including being unfamiliar with a concept of critical literacies; (2) demonstrate that students align their understandings of literacies with the reading and writing skills that are valued on the high-stakes literacy test while also wondering what else might count as literacy; and (3) suggest that the OSSLT is perceived by students to be influencing their literate identities, their relationships with literacies, and their learning trajectories. As an original contribution to knowledge, this study demonstrates how an in-depth analysis of a test’s literacy construct can be performed, and this study presents a qualitative multi-method methodology for conducting research into the outcomes of literacy education in an educational context that includes a high-stakes literacy test.

Accountability in education has been expanding for the past twenty years. As standards for curricular areas continued to develop, educational shareholders desired a way to measure student achievement contextualized by the established standards. Since 1964, policies expanded federal involvement with education, and with the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, high-stakes testing became a significant part of public education. In Texas, testing transitioned in 2003 to the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skill (TAKS) test, an assessment that determines grade advancement for students, ratings for school districts, and additional compensation for some teachers. Along with the increasing expectations for student achievement, the need for effective instruction also increases. This dissertation studies how English language arts (ELA) teachers in four North Texas suburban high schools perceive instructional change following the implementation of TAKS. One hundred twenty-one teachers (n=121) were surveyed using an instrument broken into seven categories: student-centered instruction, student interest, instructional communication, time, classroom environment, teacher knowledge, and assessment. Participants were separated into two groups, teachers with one to six years of experience with a district or seven or more years with a district. Using a rating scale for each statement on the survey instrument, participants indicated the direction and magnitude of change or indicated no change occurred. When comparing an overall average frequency percentage for each possible rating for each category, the two highest percentages for both surveyed groups indicated no instructional change since the implementation of TAKS. However, when considering specific statements about professional growth and instructor knowledge, both groups were likely to rate a change as positive. Whereas, if the statement suggested instructional areas constricted by time, participants for both groups were likely to rate a change as negative. Additionally, an ANOVA indicated no significant difference between either of the participating groups.

The issue of teacher accountability has been a part of the educational conversation for three decades, but only recently has this conversation been translated into policy as states begin directly tying teacher evaluation scores in part to student achievement on standardized tests. This qualitative study focuses on a group of teachers who are participating in this new form of evaluation (containing both qualitative and quantitative elements including test scores and lesson observations) and examines how they perceived the process. In particular, the study looks at how their personal reactions to a high-stakes evaluation impacted their instructional decision making in their literacy classrooms. Findings demonstrate that teachers had varying levels of change in instructional practice and that these changes were impacted by a variety of factors including personal beliefs and contextual issues. Additionally, findings demonstrated that participants found the qualitative portion of the model to be highly subjective which was considered especially problematic because of the high stakes nature of the evaluation.