The Influence of Socialization Factors on Physical Educators’ Conceptions of Assessment and Perceived Quality of Assessment

Purpose: Framed by occupational socialization theory, this study examined relationships among teachers’ perceived quality of assessment practices, workplace factors, and their conceptions of assessment. Methods: Ninety in-service physical education teachers from Alabama completed an online survey that attended to perceptions of organizational support, marginalization, valuation toward assessment, assessment quality, and class size. Associations were estimated using ordinary least squares regression. Results: In contrast to our initial hypothesis, no significant relationships were found between perceived assessment quality and perceived organizational support, marginalization, and class size. However, our regression analysis yielded significant results when assessment’s importance for education was the outcome variable. Discussion/Conclusions: The results indicated that teachers’ valuation of assessment included holding students and schools accountable, but was irrelevant to improving education. In addition, marginalization and perceived organizational support impacted teachers’ valuation toward using assessments to improve education. Research on assessment quality may depend first on widespread adoption of physical education teacher education assessment practices.