Pushed Out of High School: Narratives of Teaching Under the Testing Regime

Author

Sheila Alexis-Fabius, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow

Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences – Department of Conflict Resolution Studies

First Advisor

Cheryl L. Duckworth

Second Advisor

Richard Louis

Third Advisor

Urszula Strawinska-Zanko

Keywords

adultification, conflict resolution, dropout prevention, pushed out, school discipline, testing regimes

Abstract

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was enacted as an education intervention to close the achievement gap by increasing student attendance, graduation, and standard testing rates. NCLB held teachers and administrators accountable for successfully meeting adequate yearly progress gains. However, the emerging NCLB research uncovered a culture of conflict with academically at-risk students being pushed out of the public school system and rise in disciplinary actions towards minority students. This study employed John Gultang’s structural violence, John Burton’s basic human needs theory, and adultification theory to highlight the significance of understanding the conflict in high-stakes testing regimes. This research employed qualitative narrative analysis to explore how federal education accountability measures influenced the experience of high school teachers and students from the tri-county South Florida area.

The findings concluded the best protective measures for students in high-stakes testing regimes was to incorporate a curriculum that supported the use of more time for teachers to establishing relatable and supportive relationships with students by building a sense of community in the classroom. The implication of this study included encouraging a student and teacher relationship-building curriculum. This study also recommends embedding mandatory teacher professional development training on structural violence, adultification of minority youth, and push-out syndrome to commitment to exposing secret pipeline to prison.

NSUWorks Citation

Sheila Alexis-Fabius. 2021. Pushed Out of High School: Narratives of Teaching Under the Testing Regime. Doctoral dissertation. Nova Southeastern University. Retrieved from NSUWorks, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences – Department of Conflict Resolution Studies. (190)
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/shss_dcar_etd/190.