Investigating meaningful impact in adolescent writing achievement within a high‐stakes testing context.

Background: This case study examined the consequences of a literacy initiative designed to improve writing instruction for a high school under pressure to increase standardised test scores or face government oversight. Realities of underperforming schools, such as interruptions to instructional time, a focus on formulaic essay writing and decontextualised grammar skills, high teacher turnover, and a disproportionately large percentage of students with low ability levels, impact the implementation and sustainability of research‐based practices. Thus, we embarked on a school‐university partnership designed to overcome these barriers. We co‐constructed research to determine the effectiveness of an instructional framework designed by the school's instructional coach (a teacher educator hired by the school district responsible for enacting literacy reform and providing professional development) and her work with four ninth‐grade and tenth‐grade English teachers (Years 10 and 11) in the United States. This engaged scholarship process empowered teachers and the instructional coach to make changes in their approach to writing instruction. Methods: Our case study used the following data sources: teacher and student interviews, professional development and classroom observations, student writing attitude surveys and analyses of student writing. We utilised grounded theory to determine changes in classroom practice and students' academic growth. Results: Our study revealed strengths of the professional development regarding classroom management and student writing dispositions. Yet it also illuminated problems such as continued emphasis on reading instruction, limited opportunities for student choice and lack of writing strategies that transferred to composing extended text. Conclusion: These results raised critical questions, which aided the instructional coach in refining professional development for writing instruction. Highlights: What is already known about this topicBest practices in writing instruction emphasise the need for varied, authentic, relevant and purposeful writing for adolescents. Yet pressures of high‐stakes testing often result in rudimentary writing practices. Teachers in struggling schools are more closely monitored than those in schools which achieve adequate yearly progress. Teachers feel pressure to teach formulaic essay writing and decontextualised grammar skills.Single‐subject and small‐group research designs measured the impact of professional development and instructional initiatives on the writing proficiency of adolescent writers in the short term. These designs are predicated on literacy programmes where researchers provide writing intervention services with the goal of transforming teacher practice.Researchers note that the pressures of testing affect the sustainability of interventions designed to transform teacher practice. In other words, upon conclusion of professional development, teachers revert back to practices they believe will directly affect their students' performance on standardised assessments. What this paper addsThis study adds to research investigating how literacy initiatives utilising elements of engaged scholarship can enable sustainable teacher transformation concerning adolescent writing instruction. Engaged scholarship is collaborative, change‐oriented research that address a community‐identified need. We argue that the shift towards engaged scholarship allowed for a balancing of power, as all stakeholders had a say in the design of the research. Posing critical questions based on the results of our data helped the instructional coach see that more authentic and process‐oriented approaches were needed to increase test scores. This shift towards engaged scholarship allowed the instructional coach to participate more in the design of the research and permitted us to provide input that infused writing instruction into classrooms. This case study speaks to the larger context of how high‐stakes testing has affected writing instruction in 'struggling' secondary English programmes.Our study demonstrates why collaboration of teachers and researchers for meaningful impact (student achievement) is critical for 'underperforming' schools contending with the pressures of testing. Implications for theory, policy and practiceOur work highlights elements of literacy initiatives that help underperforming schools improve adolescent writing achievement. This study provides insights into partnerships that close the theory‐research gap to transform adolescent writing instruction for culturally and linguistically marginalised adolescents, students who have been traditionally disenfranchised by public education.This study also rejects the role of literacy researchers in school‐university partnerships as 'external' experts by inviting school partners to be researchers themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]