Promoting Ambitious Reform

School Administrator, Oct, 1997

A new study on the instructional reform process in local school districts has found that a district's capacity to promote ambitious instruction depends largely on their leaders' ability to learn new ideas and to help others learn these ideas.

The study, published in the Summer 1997 issue of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis is based on data from a five-year study of policy and practice that examined how state and local policy systems affected mathematics and science education in Michigan.

The study found that while districts were working to ensure their curricula matched the state's standards, the district reforms were not well aligned "substantively" with core ideas from the state and national standards.

The study suggests that while states are paying more attention to curriculum, little is being done to increase the knowledge and skills needed to support ambitious reform.

Free single copies of "Reconstructing Conceptions of Local Capacity: The Local Education Agency's Capacity for Ambitious School Reform" are available from the American Educational Research Association by calling 202-223-9485.