Impact of Georgia's Pre-K Program on Kindergarten through Third Grade Teachers

The Georgia Prekindergarten Program (Pre-K), established in 1993, provides Georgia's fouryear-old children with high quality preschool experiences in order to prepare them for kindergarten. Immediate gains resulting from Pre-K can be lost if teachers in later grades are not prepared to capitalize on the increasing capabilities of students. To sustain the positive effects of the Pre-K program, teachers in later grades need both to recognize that students are better prepared for school and to adapt their instructional practices to take advantage of their students' increasing capabilities. Research implies that teachers adopt practices in their classrooms relative to how their beliefs match assumptions inherent in new programs. Thus, this study investigates teacher awareness of the impact of Pre-K on students, teacher beliefs about instructional practices, current instructional practices, and the relationship between beliefs and practices.The Council for School Performance launched this study to examine the implications of the Pre-K program for teachers of children in kindergarten through third grade. Through a survey of teachers in Georgia, the Council has found that teachers believe that the Pre-K program has positively affected students in elementary school, despite observations that students are, overall, changing for the worse. The majority of teachers believe in child-centered instructional practices, but this belief has not been adopted into their own instructional practices. Overall, teachers are as likely to use child-centered practices as they are to use teacher-directed activities

The District Effect: Systemic Responses to High Stakes Accountability Policies in Six Southern States

High stakes accountability (HSA) reforms were enacted in state after state and federally through the No Child Left Behind law, based on the belief that incentives that have consequences attached are effective ways to motivate educators to improve student performance. Our focus for this article is on school district level responses to HSA reforms that could produce positive changes in teaching and learning. We set out to determine whether a district effect was present in the implementation of HSA systems in six southern states and whether that effect was accompanied by the types of activities previously identified in the research literature as being associated with changes in teaching and learning and student achievement. We tested a theory of action that assumed that HSA would cause school districts to develop coherent instructional strategies that would be evidenced by the provision of coherent, high-quality professional development and the alignment of district policy and resources in support of school improvement. These activities on the part of districts would then improve student achievement as measured by state tests

Evaluating equity: A framework for understanding action and inaction on social justice issues

This article relies on a case study of a policy evaluation to illustrate how issues of social justice arise for action or inaction in a political environment. The article uses the case study to show that social justice issue formation is shaped by the personal beliefs of the actors, the prevailing political culture, the evolutionary path of the issue, and the larger context of the social environment. These multiple, overlapping, and sometimes contradictory systems interact in ways that make action on injustice and inequity by political actors more or less likely

Conceptualizing Teacher Professional Learning

This article adopts a complexity theory framework to review the literature on teachers ’ professional development practices, the generative systems of these practices, and the impact that learning experiences have on their knowledge and changes in classroom practices. The review brings together multiple strands of literature on teacher professional development, teaching and learning, teacher change, and organizational learning. In doing so, it illus-trates that process–product logic has dominated the literature on teacher professional learning and that this has limited explanatory ability. The review demonstrates the ways the elements of three subsystems (the teacher, the school, and the learning activity) interact and combine in different ways and with varying intensities to influence teacher learning. The limitations of stud-ies focusing on specific elements or subsystems are highlighted. The article concludes that to understand teacher learning scholars must adopt method-ological practices that focus on explanatory causality and the reciprocal influences of all three subsystems

A tri-state pilot study of instructionally effective school districts

This symposium features research reports on, and interactive discussion of, results from tri-state pilot study of how unusually effective local school districts improve and equalize student outcomes in the contexts of federal and state accountability systems. The study, funded by the Hewlett Foundation, was designed to broaden the evidence base and to advance theory about district instructional effectiveness through in-depth study of a single pilot district in each of three states: Ohio, North Carolina, and Texas

A tri-state pilot study of instructionally effective school districts

This symposium features research reports on, and interactive discussion of, results from tri-state pilot study of how unusually effective local school districts improve and equalize student outcomes in the contexts of federal and state accountability systems. The study, funded by the Hewlett Foundation, was designed to broaden the evidence base and to advance theory about district instructional effectiveness through in-depth study of a single pilot district in each of three states: Ohio, North Carolina, and Texas

Coherent, instructionally-focused district leadership

This session explores how school district leadership contributes to the improvement and equalization of student learning, based on an exploratory study of four mid-sized school districts located in Texas (1), North Carolina (1), and Ohio (2). Theory based on an extensive review of prior literature guided the inquiry. Cases were selected via examination of a series of outcome indicators within each state. Data gathered via repeated visits to each district include interviews with administrators, teachers, and community members; observations of classrooms and meetings; and document analysis. The symposium includes a theoretical overview, presentation of individual case results, cross case thematic analysis, and discussion by the studys primary funder. The aim of the session is to advance understanding of how districts contribute to instructional improvement and student learning through comparison of theoretical priors with case data and cross-case analysis

Coherent, instructionally-focused district leadership

This session explores how school district leadership contributes to the improvement and equalization of student learning, based on an exploratory study of four mid-sized school districts located in Texas (1), North Carolina (1), and Ohio (2). Theory based on an extensive review of prior literature guided the inquiry. Cases were selected via examination of a series of outcome indicators within each state. Data gathered via repeated visits to each district include interviews with administrators, teachers, and community members; observations of classrooms and meetings; and document analysis. The symposium includes a theoretical overview, presentation of individual case results, cross case thematic analysis, and discussion by the studys primary funder. The aim of the session is to advance understanding of how districts contribute to instructional improvement and student learning through comparison of theoretical priors with case data and cross-case analysis