Chapter 3: Teacher Stress and High Stakes Testing: How Using One Measure of Academic Success Leads to Multiple Teacher Stressors

In a naturalistic study exploring the impact of outcome-based accountability on teaching and assessment practices in 3 school districts, teachers identify increased stress as a prime effect. The teachers’ experiences and their perspectives on stress are analyzed as being the result of transactions between themselves and the workplace environment. This chapter identifies and outlines some of the changes made to the workplace and to the nature of teachers’ work brought about as a result of a high stakes accountability environment.