The relations between accountability policy and mathematics classroom practice and its effects on the quality and equality of education

The purpose of this study is to explore two teachers' perspectives on the relationship between the NYS NCLB-based accountability policy and classroom practices and its effects on the quality and equality of education within mathematics classrooms. Two major methods of data collection of ethnographic research were used in this study, participant observation and interview. I observed these two third grade mathematics classrooms in an Asian American dominant elementary school of NYC for a five-month period and conducted interviews on a weekly basis during the period of participant observation.;Findings from the study indicate that while teaching at a high-performing school, the two teachers felt little pressure from the NYS NCLB policy, but faced more pressure from the NYC Progress Reports and school administrators and parents to help their students do well on the state math test. The study also documented the possibility for teachers to find the balance between the requirement of accountability policy and what teachers regard as the best mathematics teaching practices. Teacher's capacities and contextual factors may help explain why the teachers in the study had room to shape their mathematics practices based on their mathematical beliefs under the pressure of accountability policy.;Both teachers in the study viewed the quality and equality of education as if all students have access to the learning of mathematical thinking and explorations, rather than student achievement on standardized testing, but there was variability in their interpretations of the effects of accountability policy on the quality and equality of education within their mathematics classrooms. One teacher thought that accountability policy distanced students from mathematical thinking and explorations and reduced the equality of education because test preparation was more likely to narrow mathematical learning of struggling students toward drill. The other teacher believed the quality and equality of education within her mathematics classroom were not reduced by accountability policy because the way in which she prepared her students for the state math test helped involve students in mathematical thinking.