Understanding External Supports for Instructional Improvement in Michigan: The Case of the New Tech Network

• In Event: Turnaround Efforts: Evaluations and Policy Implications

Abstract

This study uses an organizational ethnographic approach to understand the interdependent dimensions of instructional improvement in schools. By examining the first year implementation of the New Tech Network in Michigan, this work illuminates how an educational intervener coordinates efforts to build infrastructure to support improvement in teacher practice. It applies an analytic approach that frames change in practice as a product of the interactions between schools and environments, instructional programs and the models for instruction that the programs espouse, and the infrastructure built out of these interactions. Building on previous work on the organizational complexity of school improvement, this research deepens our knowledge of the impact of external education organizations on teacher practice.

Author

• Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, Michigan State University