North Carolina Survey: High-Stakes Testing Hurts Teacher Morale

Andrew Ujifusa writes at the Education Week (3/9) "State EdWatch" blog that a North Carolina teacher survey shows "that more than half those polled say they devote over half their classroom time to preparing for high-stakes tests. ... The North Carolina survey of more than 600 teachers statewide and an accompanying report from the North Carolina NAACP, Advocates for Children's Services, and the Advancement Project (a civil rights group that tackles community inequities), also showed that nearly 90 percent of teachers thought the state's end-of-grade and end-of-course tests damaged teacher morale." Ujifusa notes that the tests are designed for state and NCLB accountability assessment.