Comparing Analytic Tools for Investigating Instruction Within Urban Schools

• In Event: Instructional Practice Amid Reform

Abstract

This conceptual paper explains how snapshot analysis, task analysis, and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) enabled us to peer inside the core of urban schools to investigate the relationship between school reform efforts and patterns of instruction. We share findings from our study of how teachers in six schools responded to their reform organization to illustrate how each analytic technique, drawing on both qualitative and quantitative traditions, provided different vantage points for understanding the implementation of instructional reforms. This paper highlights the strengths of QCA, an innovative tool for comparing specific micro-level social phenomena, such as the school- and classroom-level conditions that lead to particular teaching practices.

Authors

• Sarah L. Woulfin, University of Connecticut

• Tina M. Trujillo, University of California - Berkeley