Performing parent dialogues on high-stakes testing: Consent and resistance to the hegemony of accountability

Assessment-driven accountability has altered the way schools deliver their services to children, and their relations with parents. Listening to how parents talk about their experiences with testing fosters an understanding of the discursive power found in the state's accountability rhetoric about learning, achievement, and assessment and how this discourse is accepted or rejected by parents. Focus groups with parents were conducted as part of a naturalistic study examining state-mandated testing and teaching and learning in two New York State school districts: one suburban and one urban. In four dialogic acts, we bring to life the questions, concerns, and understandings parents have of the impact state testing has on their children's educational experience. These acts represent areas of struggle for parents as they make sense of the new accountability discourse. They can be thought of as a performed critique of this discourse and its exemplification.