The Relationship Between District Reading Policy and Teachers’ Instructional Routines

• In Event: Instructional Practice Amid Reform

Abstract

This paper presents findings on the classroom-level implementation of a reading reform in an urban school district. Findings are grounded in observation, interview, and document data on 12 elementary teachers’ responses to Teachers College Reading Workshop. I utilize neo-institutional theory and the concept of routines to explore teachers’ enactment of the reform. First, I explain how the intensity of policy messages impacted the coupling of the reform’s ideas to classroom practice. Second, I use Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to analyze teachers’ instructional routines. This study extends the research on the implementation of instructional policy and provides a new conceptualization of the relationship between policy and routines. The study’s findings have implications for district and school leaders.

Author

• Sarah L. Woulfin, University of Connecticut