Five case studies of implementation of instructional policy changes at the classroom level by elementary-school mathematics teachers are discussed. The case studies focus on California's new Mathematics Framework. The interaction between teacher practice and policy is emphasized. Teachers' inherited beliefs, knowledge, and existing practices are…

In this essay, the authors discuss what it might take to develop knowledge that can help education policymakers and schools attain their goals. In reading both the research and the current policy environment, the authors identify several fundamental reasons why it is so difficult to develop the knowledge needed to inform policies that might enable…

The relationship between educational policy and instructional practice is explored in this paper, with a focus on the impact of state and federal policies on instruction. The relationship between government structure and policymaking is discussed in the first section, which concludes that conflict between rapidly expanding policymaking and…