Interactions Between Bullying and High-Stakes Testing at the Elementary School Level

Abstract

Bullying, a prevalent form of school violence, threatens development and learning. This article reports the findings of a qualitative study conducted in an elementary school, designed to gain an ecological understanding of bullying perceptions of this school community. The three research questions were: (a) How do individuals and groups within this community define school safety and violence? (b) How do concepts of school safety and violence affect behaviors? and (c) How might this community increase the safety of its children? Emergent from the data were the adults' preoccupation with improving results on the state-mandated high-stakes achievement test in contrast to the children's identification of largely unchecked bullying and its negative impact on their school experience and learning. Suggestions for future inquiries into bullying in an era of high-stakes testing are given.