1. Leadership Gap Seen in Post-NCLB Changes in U.S. Teachers
- Author
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Sawchuk, Stephen
- Abstract
Amid stepped-up school accountability pressures under the No Child Left Behind Act, many teachers appear to be adjusting how they do their jobs. However, principals and district leaders are not necessarily in control of those instructional changes, a new study concludes. Using data collected through surveys of math teachers, principals, and administrators in three states, a group of researchers at the Santa Monica, California-based RAND Corp. examined educators' responses to a series of questions about tests, their instruction, and their states' accountability systems. In the years following the passage of the NCLB law, teachers, on average, focused more attention on state content standards and seeking new teaching strategies, the researchers found. However, when the data were analyzed for consistency within the same schools and districts, they found that educators' responses varied more within individual schools than they did between schools or districts. Some analysts say the findings suggest that the efforts of many district and school leaders to align educator professional development with content standards have not consistently translated into the kind of instructional changes that standards-based reforms are intended to inspire.
- Published
- 2008