“Rigor for All”: Teachers’ Understandings of the Common Core State Standards and Equity

• In Event: Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: Considering Teachers’ Perspectives on Reform

Abstract

This qualitative study explores the possibilities and limits of standards-based reform to create educational equity across different schools, and between high and low curricular tracks within schools. Through an embedded case study of two urban, two suburban, and two exurban middle schools within a large, countywide district, the study looks at how classroom teachers in different school contexts understand and enact the Common Core State Standards. The study combines literature on tracking, standards-based reform, and sense-making perspectives of policy implementation. Its goal is to understand the linkage between standards-based reform policies and teachers' classroom practice, and to build theory about how teachers make sense of standards-based reform in ways that help or hinder equitable access to rigorous curriculum and instruction.

Author

• Emily Hodge, The Pennsylvania State University