Education Legislation and Intensification: The Impact on Teachers

Abstract

Decades of federal and state education legislation enacted to increase student academic achievement and enhance school quality have pronounced impacts on teachers and their instructional practice. That impact is captured in the term intensification. Intensification is multifaceted and manifests as additional tasks accomplished simultaneously, with no monetary consideration, constricting the curriculum, losing voice about curriculum, restricting teachers' classroom autonomy, and de-professionalization. This research had the three-fold purpose of determining (a) teachers' perspectives about Florida's educational standards relative to curricular autonomy, instructional autonomy, and professional expertise, (b) the extent to which teachers' experiences meet the criteria of intensification of curricular autonomy, instructional autonomy, and professional expertise, and (c) the degree to which teachers experience pressure from increased accountability to years teaching English Language Arts, Mathematics, Reading, Science, Social Studies, and Technology. Four research questions were framed to guide the inquiry, and data were collected from 356 high school teachers. Data were analyzed using Pearson's chi-square (χ2) test of independence and multinomial logistic regression. Results revealed that teachers' instructional experiences meet the criteria of intensification to instructional autonomy, curricular autonomy, and professional expertise.