CTP Publications Related to this Core Substudy:

Reforming Districts: How Districts Support School Reform

Building Instructional Quality and Coherence in San Diego City Schools: System Struggle, Professional Change

Building Instructional Quality: "Inside-Out" and "Outside-In" Perspectives on San Diego's School Reform

Connecting Districts to the Policy Dialogue: A Review of Literature on the Relationship of Districts with States, Schools, and Communities

CTP STUDY DESCRIPTION

Core Substudy:
District Policy Environments & the Quality of Teaching

Principal Investigators:

Milbrey McLaughlin, Stanford University
Joan Talbert, Stanford University

Overview:

This project examined the district policy context as a critical setting and opportunity for the improvement of teaching. In two sets of districts, the study explored how district actors interpret and mediate policies from outside district boundaries and how, at the same time, they construct a consequential local policy context for teaching through routines (e.g., personnel policy and practices) and through innovative ventures (e.g., collaborating with non-formal education actors outside the district).

The project included two components and samples. One component focused on districts within the four Core Study states (CA, NY, NC, and WA), and afforded a comparative look at districts within diverse state and regional policy contexts. OERI and the Spencer Foundation, which underwrote the comparative survey, jointly sponsored this component. Another component was limited to California and 118 districts in the six-county Bay Area region and afforded an intensive look at how districts mediate conditions in a common state and regional context. It built upon and extended these researchers' work on the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative (BASRC), including regional surveys of district administrators and principals and intensive case studies of diverse districts reputed to be strong policy contexts for teaching excellence. These components complemented one another and provided different opportunities for breadth and depth of analysis.

Main Research Questions:

1. How (if at all) are priorities for teaching and learning established at the district level? What are they? Who participates in defining them? What is their authority? Are these priorities connected by a strategic vision regarding their joint relationship to teachers' work and careers?
2. How do core district functions (hiring, professional development, evaluation, communication, accountability, etc.) support these priorities or not, both in conception and in practice? Do district policies, taken together, focus or diffuse espoused priorities for teaching excellence? Are various district policies consistent with one another as supports for teaching excellence?
3. How does the district mediate and manage its surrounding policy environment? How does the district interpret and implement state and federal policies and programs? How does it interact with parents, the community, and the private sector around issues related to teachers and teaching? To what extent has the district built coalitions with the unions, the business community, higher education, and others in support of a teaching excellence agenda?

Method:

Case study research, survey research, document analysis

Status:

Research Completed

Publications:

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

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

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: San Diego City Schools: Comprehensive Reform Strategies at Work, Policy Brief 5, February 2002.

CTP Research Report: San Diego's Big Boom: District Bureaucracy Supports Culture of Learning, by Amy M. Hightower, January 2002.

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