The Dilemma Between Ideal and Reality: A Grounded Theory on High School Teachers' Adaptation Process to the Achievement Standards-Based Assessment System

This study explores how high school teachers adapt and continue education amidst the dilemmas of the Achievement Standards-Based Assessment System (ASBAS). Twelve high school teachers with three or more years of ASBAS experience were interviewed, and the data were analyzed using grounded theory approach. The central phenomenon emerged as “the paradoxical process of adapting and coexisting with unresolved assessment dilemmas”, with the core category as “surviving as a high school teacher in the ASBAS dilemma.” The dilemma was triggered by the system's mixed structure and teachers' skeptical views, and sustained by insufficient peer collaboration, lack of guidelines, and excessive workload. The key finding is the identification of three adaptive mechanisms: curriculum and assessment expertise, educational beliefs and assessment philosophy, and situational awareness and judgment. Based on these mechanisms, teachers were differentiated into three types: Formal Acceptance, Practice Maintenance, and Creative Reconstruction. The outcomes were paradoxical, showing both positive results (expertise expansion, emotional fulfillment) and negative ones (burnout, fatigue), indicating that the dilemma transforms and cycles rather than being resolved. The study revealed teachers as adaptive implementers who reinterpret and reconstruct policy. Theoretically, it extends Berman's (1980) policy adaptation typology with a ‘mechanism-centered’ approach, explaining why and how teachers adapt differently. It conceptualizes the ASBAS dilemma not as an object to be solved but as a continuous tension that teachers must coexist with and manage. The study suggests reforms in entrance exam structure, clear separation from relative grading, reduction of administrative burden, and practical qualitative support.