CTP STUDY DESCRIPTION

Core Study:
Policy Environments & the Quality of Teaching

Principal Investigators:

Michael Knapp, University of Washington
Milbrey McLaughlin. Stanford University
Joan Talbert, Stanford University
Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford University
Jon Snyder, Bank Street College of Education

Overview:

Focusing on four states (California, New York, North Carolina, and Washington State) and a large urban school district within each, this study examined connections between policy environments and teaching practice through fully nested state, district, school, and teacher samples. Analytic work integrated what was learned from each level within and across states into a combined set of insights about the way teachers' work and the way student learning opportunities reflect and are shaped by various policy environments and contexts in which they work.

Main Research Questions:

1. In what ways are policies from governmental and non-governmental sources orchestrated or managed to promote high quality teaching and greater student learning? How is the coordination among strands achieved?
2. How did the policies and policy strategies (if any) come into being? What forces, conditions, and actions sustain them, and what will it take to keep them in place over time?
3. How do teaching policies interact with policies not targeted specifically to teachers or teaching and with the key features or conditions of state and local context to form a policy environment within which teachers work?
4. In what ways, if at all, do teaching policy strategies affect: (a) recruitment and retention of capable people in the teaching profession; (b) improvement in teachers' knowledge, skills, and norms; (c) productive workplace environments for teaching; (d) teaching on a broad scale; and (e) student learning? What trade-offs or relationships are there between progress made in one challenge area and progress made in another?
5. How are resources aimed at teacher improvement conceived, (re)allocated, or "invested" throughout the system? And, with what consequences for teachers' work and student learning?

Method:

Case study research, survey research, document analysis

Status:

Research Completed

Publications to Date:

CTP Research Report: Building Instructional Quality: "Inside-Out" and "Outside-In" Perspectives on San Diego's School Reform, by Linda Darling-Hammond, Amy M. Hightower, Jennifer L. Husbands, Jeannette R. LaFors, Viki M. Young, and Carl Christopher, September 2003.

CTP Policy Brief: Building Instructional Quality and Coherence in San Diego City Schools: System Struggle, Professional Change, September 2003.

CTP Research Report: Reforming Districts: How Districts Support School Reform, by Milbrey McLaughlin and Joan Talbert, September 2003

CTP Research Report: Standards-Based Reform and Small Schools of Choice: How Reform Theories Converge in Three Urban Middle Schools, by Chrysan Gallucci, Michael S. Knapp, Anneke Markholt, and Suzy Ort, July 2003.

CTP Research Report: Triage or Tapestry? Teacher Unions' Work Toward Improving Teacher Quality in an Era of Systemic Reform, by Nina Bascia, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, June 2003.

CTP Policy Brief: What School districts Spend on Professional Development, November 2002.

Related Journal Article: Killeen, K. M., Monk, D. H., & Plecki, M. (2002). School District Spending on Professional Development: Insights Available from National Data (1992-1998) Journal of Education Finance, 28 (1), 25-49. (This article is available on the CTP web site with permission from The Association of School Business Officials International. Any variation in appearance from the printed document is due to technical limitations.)

CTP Working Paper: Connecting Districts to the Policy Dialogue: A Review of Literature on the Relationship of Districts with States, Schools, and Communities, by Julie Marsh, Stanford University, September 2000

Related Journal Article: Killeen, K. M., Monk, D. H., & Plecki, M. (2000). Spending on instructional staff support in big school districts: Why are urban districts spending at such high levels? Educational Considerations, 28, 8-25.