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Abstract
This qualitative phenomenological research design study sought to explore whether the public education governance accountability system's high stakes standardized testing system in Texas played any role in the wellbeing of elementary school educators during the COVID-19 global pandemic. To explore the essence of the Texas high stakes accountability testing phenomenon as experienced firsthand by educators, fifteen teachers from two urban school campuses participated in hour-long individual interviews, responding to 22 semi-structured interview prompts. The central research question of the study was: “What role does high stakes accountability standardized testing play in the wellbeing of elementary school math as well as reading and language arts teachers at public schools in southeast Texas during a global pandemic?” Anchored in Bakker and Demerouti's Job Demands-Resources Theory, the research aimed to understand the experiences of educators teaching math as well as reading and language arts. Major findings of the study revealed that the emphasis on STAAR testing heightened job demands amid minimal resources, leading to increased stress and anxiety among educators. Educators faced pressure to meet testing standards despite pandemic disruptions, impacting their overall wellbeing and professional evaluation outcomes. The study concludes that Texas's accountability system played a role in educators' sense of wellbeing and evaluation perceptions. This strain also extended to professional evaluation outcomes, emphasizing the need for a reevaluation of standardized testing's role in education to ensure educators' holistic wellbeing and maintain educational integrity, particularly in times of crisis.
