A critical pedagogy perspective of the impact of school poverty level on the teacher grading decision-making process

This dissertation examined the effects of school poverty level on the teacher grading decision-making process. Utilizing two theoretical frameworks----a critical pedagogy framework primarily based on the work of Paulo Freire (1996) and a teacher grading decision-making framework from the work of McMillan (2003)----the study sought to compare teacher grading practices, the influences of teacher grading, and teacher grading rationale by low-, mid-, and high-poverty schools in order to determine poverty's impact on the process. A small, yet significant number of studies have found grades in high-poverty schools to be less accurate and more subjective than low-poverty schools in communicating student achievement. This study contributes to the literature by helping to establish the link between high-poverty schools and inaccurate student grades. Additionally, this study is novel in being the first (to the knowledge of the author) to combine the concepts of teacher grading, poverty, and decision making.;Set in an ethnically and economically diverse high school district in California's South San Joaquin Valley, this study employed a transformative explanatory sequential mixed methods design to answer a guiding research question: How does school poverty level affect the teacher grading decision- making process? A 36-item grading survey was used to collect quantitative data from 251 teachers and additional qualitative data from 121 of these teachers. Focus groups were conducted at four schools sites to collect qualitative data from a total of 15 teachers. Quantitative data were analyzed with one-way ANOVAs, a MANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis tests, and descriptive statistics, while qualitative data were analyzed with a constant comparative analysis method.;Results indicated that the direct effects of school-poverty level on the teacher grading decision-making process are intricate and nuanced, yet existent and influential. The findings explained that teachers seek to grade in objective, pedagogically-sound ways that align to their own philosophy, but influences---- both internal and external to the classroom----cause them to stray from these practices. These influences occur more often in high-poverty schools, and this leads to greater subjectivity and less accuracy of student grades. Models for interpreting teacher grading rationale and the impact of poverty on teacher grading decision making are presented.