Anysia Peni Mayer

Negotiating Site- Based Management and Expanded Teacher Decision Making: A Case Study of Six Urban Schools

Purpose: This article presents findings from a study of six schools in the Together Initiative (TI), which facilitates increased school autonomy from districts and expands teacher decision-making authority. This study aims to understand how TI’s theory of action changed structures, cultures, and agency as the concepts of site-based management and expanded teacher decision making were interpreted and implemented by district and school leaders and teachers. Research Design: Data were collected over the first 2 years of the initiative using a concurrent mixed-methods design. Field notes from more than 200 hours of observations and transcripts of 231 semistructured interviews with stakeholders were coded using the constant-comparative method. Findings from qualitative data were triangulated with annual teacher survey findings. Findings: Implementation of TI varied across the six schools and depended greatly on school staffs’ existing relationships the district, principal support for decision-making structures, and the extent to which school cultures reflected trust and teachers were able to enact greater agency. Only two schools experienced moderate increases in site-based management and expanded teacher decision making; those that did not were missing at least one of these structural or cultural supports. Conclusions: At a time when charter schools are touted as an effective reform model, this article informs policy and practice on the original charter concept—autonomous, innovative district schools. Our findings suggest that creating contexts where site-based management can flourish is far more complicated than changing structures or establishing supportive school cultures.

Factors Influencing the Implementation of an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program in a Diverse Urban High School

This article identifies factors that promoted the successful implementation of an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program in an urban high school. The study draws on data from an in-depth case study at a large high school serving an urban community in a Western state. The study investigates seven implementation mechanisms that research suggests encourage local-level stakeholders to eschew existing practices and adopt practices supported by the model. Data suggest six of the seven research-based best practices were present in the IB program. These were staff selection, preservice training, coaching, staff evaluation, program evaluation, and administrative supports. These practices were instrumental in moderating contextual factors that might have hindered model implementation. It is possible for high-quality academic programs to operate in low-performing schools and for a wide range of students to benefit from this type of program.

Misinterpreting School Reform: The Dissolution of a Dual Immersion Bilingual Program in an Urban New England Elementary School

This article explores local state bilingual-education policy vis-à-vis pervasive dominant-language ideologies about language-education policy and practice. State-level language-education policy, especially for English Language Learners (ELs), spans a wide range, from states that through policy legally require some form of bilingual education to states that have made bilingual education virtually impossible in lieu of English-language immersion. This research is part of an ongoing ethnographic case study of a large urban elementary school in Connecticut that explores the dissolution of a dual-language immersion program due to a school reconstitution, despite the state policy requiring bilingual education. This article examines the interwoven contexts of Connecticut bilingual-education policies, the language-education policies of the school, and how they are interpreted and enacted by teachers. We find on the one hand, official state policy calls for transitional bilingual education in specific EL contexts; on the other, the teachers within the school exhibit deficit perspectives toward bilingual education and develop erroneous perceptions about how to implement that policy, including their use of languages other than English in their classrooms.

Situating teacher inquiry: a micropolitical perspective

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have become a popular strategy in various forms (e.g., data teams, grade-level teams) and with various champions (e.g., district leaders, university researchers, teacher advocates). Although well-implemented PLCs have been shown to distribute leadership, the tension between democratic inquiry processes and the demands of accountability remain understudied. This study asks how teacher inquiry is situated within conflicting school priorities and the impact of competing power structures on PLCs through a case study of a teacher inquiry initiative at 6 urban elementary and middle schools in the US. Data were collected over 3 years of PLC implementation. District officials, principals, reform coaches, and teachers at each setting participated in more than 300 interviews, regular site visits, and annual teacher surveys. The influences of power structures – such as district mandates, accountability pressures, and principal leadership – emerged as strong themes in teacher narratives of what it means to “do” inquiry in their PLCs.

Contested Terrain: Principal and Teacher Leadership at Grove Street Elementary School.

This case describes dilemmas faced by a second-year principal whose urban school received a major grant to encourage teacher leadership, expand decision making, and promote school-based autonomy. This case focuses on the principal’s efforts to negotiate his work with multiple stakeholders, including the coach, teachers, and district leadership. The principal struggles to balance his desire to cede authority to teachers and foster teacher leadership with his responsibility to raise student performance.

An Ed.D. Program Based on Principles of How Adults Learn Best

The evolving research on how adults learn best holds promise for improving the design of programs leading to the doctorate of education (Ed.D.). Specifically this body of research suggests that an effective Ed.D. program (a) builds upon the experience-based mental models learners use to guide their thinking, (b) engages learners in rich experiences that expand their mental models, and (c) involves learners in settings where they have opportunities to use the knowledge and skills they gain in courses to address problems of practice.

The Structure of Tracking: Instructional Practices of Teachers Leading Low- and High-Track Classes

Tracking remains a pervasive sorting mechanism in US high schools. Anthony Giddens’s theory of structuration provides a useful framework for understanding how tracking is enacted and how its inequities might be interrupted. This study examines whether teachers reify tracks by systematically structuring generative rules differently for students in low and high tracks. Using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, we observed 26 teachers in low- and high-track classrooms in spring 2012. We found that teachers, on the whole, structured generative rules that communicated lower expectations and provided less support to students in low-track classes than they did to those in high-track classes. However, we also found that a small number of teachers structured supportive environments for low-track students, suggesting implications for the transformation points of tracking.