Marshaling Resources for Reform: District Administrators and the Case of Mathematics. Research Report 95-2 (original) (raw)
Contemporary reforms lobby for deep changes in mathematics teaching and learning, yet classroom practice continues, in many places, to be as conventional as ever. This study examines how one mid-sized urban school district marshaled resources for change in mathematics instruction. The study involved a 3-year observation of a small group of teachers, an analysis of the allocation of resources, and interviews with principals and central office staff to explore the impact of administrator attitudes and agendas on change in mathematics instruction. Teacher observation found that, though all eleven focal teachers were using new "reform-oriented" mathematics textbooks and most added some manipulatives and problem solving to their teaching, only one teacher seemed deeply involved in the ideas of the mathematics reforms. Resources available for reading and language arts were found to be dramatically more extensive than for mathematics. Interviews with six principals found that each had a personal agenda where mathematics reform fell deeply into the backdrop of daily concerns. Interviews with central office staff suggested that their familiarity with reforms was modest and often represented in slogans. Central office staff justified resource allocation to literacy efforts because they believed reading was prior to everything else. The paper closes by arguing that relatively ignorant of mathematics reforms, administrators are less inclined to allocate the significant resources necessary to effect real change. (Contains 24 references.)
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