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This book is part of a series of case studies that demonstrate better ways to educate Ohio's students. The case study is part of the Transforming Learning Communities (TLC) Project, designed to support significant school-reform efforts among Ohio's elementary, middle, and high schools. This report describes the implementation of an innovative program at an elementary school in northern Ohio. The text focuses on the school's efforts in mathematics-instruction reform. It examines the research that structured the reform and its impact on school change. The reform efforts are further elaborated through a series of five vignettes that portray the changes occurring in mathematics instruction. The report then provides background information about the two principals who played significant parts in reform efforts and the dialectical relationship between tensions and reform that developed. It looks at the emergence of a critical mass of reform-minded teachers and the effort required to change the structure of leadership, instruction, and assessment. The last chapter describes the complexities of change, the alterations to epistemology, the presence of chaos, and the need for teachers and principals to believe in the reculturing of the school. Two appendices provide the study methodology and samples of performance tasks. (Contains 52 references.) (RJM)

This paper presents a study that examined the processes used by a school community and school leaders in a K-4 elementary school to implement reform mathematics instruction. The research, based on a case study, explored the changing nature of classroom environments, where teachers created learning opportunities, and the transformation in leadership strategies and changes in teachers' roles and relationships. Overall, the paper discusses the creative tension between two cultures within the school--tension that seemed to foster continual renewal and professional growth. The report looks at the switch from behaviorism to constructivism in the classroom and how constructivism recognizes students and teacher as a community of learners. It provides a number of vignettes of how reform measures operated in practice and how teachers came to understand the diversity of strategies and procedures students "invented" to solve problems. The paper also describes the creative tension between teachers who employed reform strategies and those who did not, and it discusses the principal's role in reform. New roles and relationships grew out of the collaborative decision-making between teacher-leaders and principals, and teachers began to realize that teacher leadership was necessary for instructional reform. Ultimately, success hinged on the teachers' willingness to take risks. (Contains 10 references.) (RJM)

This paper reports on a case study that explored the process K-4 educators encounter as they attempted to implement recommendations from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Standards. The primary research questions of the study asked: what triggers major school change? what complexities surround school change? and what sustains the reform process and allows/encourages it to evolve? Data sources for the study included transcripts of audio-tapes from long interviews and followup interviews of key informants, field notes of university researchers, and related documents. Results show that initial changes in implementing the standards were mechanical--the lessons and materials did little to change teachers' existing beliefs and practices about mathematics. However, the reform took a different direction when some K-4 teachers "reinvented" mathematics instruction around key ideas and processes within a relevant context for children. Tensions emerged as some teachers' instructional practices began to look different from those of other classrooms, and teachers began to write lessons to supplement the district curriculum. Chaotic situations challenged conventional leadership strategies, interrupted stability of the school climate, and suggested an uncertain future. The reform seemed to depend on educators who believed in the need to restructure and reculture schools. (Contains 36 references.) (RJM)