Standards are intended to foster excellence and equity in student learning by institutionalizing high expectations for all students while allowing educators to have professional discretion in determining how to meet these goals. Recent studies suggest that principals play an essential role in interpreting and communicating the implications of…

Designing infrastructures to support instruction remains a challenge in educational reform. This article reports on a study of one school system's efforts to redesign its infrastructure for mathematics instruction by promoting teacher leadership. Using social network and interview data from 12 elementary schools, we explore how the district's…

This case study reports the feasibility of the Partnership Schools Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) model for school improvement in a Title I elementary school. Interviews were conducted and documents were collected for 3 years to study whether and how the school implemented key policy attributes--specificity, consistency, authority, power, and…

This case study describes two experienced teachers' attitudes and actions during implementation of a new mathematics curriculum in California. It focuses on their attentiveness to learners' needs. One teacher viewed learners' needs largely through the prism of a fixed set of curricular demands, while the other focused on an equally rigid set of…

Used case study of an urban elementary school to examine connections between educational research and practice at the school level. Compared the school's new "protocol" process for group discourse to the research orientations within discipline-based, institutional, and teacher research. Uncovered the key role of discourse conventions in…

Examines the efforts of an elementary private school principal to create a motivating school climate. Discusses four ecological principles: (1) the development of activities that recognize individuality and demand involvement and adaptation; (2) the expansion of resources to the whole school community; (3) the interdependence of activities at each…

Examined the reported nature and consequences of teachers' joint work on the implementation of school priorities, educational innovation, and curriculum policy in three exemplary Canadian elementary schools. Found that instrumental use of knowledge and support for teacher decision making tended to be limited to information exchange, joint…

Employs the image of "contested ground" to characterize tensions surrounding the evolution of teacher leadership in order to illuminate the ways in which traditions of subject specialism shape assumptions about the exercise of leadership among secondary teachers. Challenges the stereotypes of the "subject-centered" teacher and…

Identifies a set of change leadership functions including sustaining a vision for change, encouraging staff, modifying standard operating procedures, and monitoring progress. Suggests that these functions do contribute to change, but are also performed redundantly by persons in a variety of overlapping roles, including central office personnel,…

Describes the rationale for and the methods used in four case studies of mathematics teaching in California which are discussed in subsequent articles. The case studies were designed to elicit relationships between teachers' knowledge of mathematics and beliefs about the nature of mathematics teaching and learning and their mathematics…

This case study illustrates an important change in one fifth grade teacher's views about mathematics teaching that occurred over the course of a year as a result of California's movement to reform mathematics teaching. However, the change did not appear to be reflected in the teacher's classroom practices. (BB)

Discusses teachers' knowledge and beliefs about mathematics and how mathematics is best taught and learned. Considers interrelationships between beliefs and teachers' classroom practices. Argues that instruction is shaped by teachers' knowledge and beliefs and that meaningful change in instruction will entail fundamental changes in what teachers…

Examined the instructional reform process in 17 middle schools. Reforms included heterogeneous grouping, cooperative learning, active learning, and interdisciplinary instruction. All reforms relied on teachers' willingness to change daily instructional content or strategies. Heterogenous grouping and interdisciplinary instruction posed the…

Suggests that a school environment that stresses learning or task goals is more conducive to cognitive engagement than an environment that emphasizes the demonstration of ability. The initial results of a case study in a middle grades school illustrate how stress on task or ability goals affects the school learning environment and student…

Suggests a new conceptualization of homework as a task that infiltrates family and peer dynamics and the nature of teaching in community organizations and in school. Argues that homework has important benefits for peer communication, thereby increasing a sense of community. Asserts that students can develop an aptitude for future homework from the…