Statewide Standards Adoption and Teachers' Experiences With Implementation

• In Event: 72.047 - New Tools for Monitoring Teacher and School Leader Responses to Policy Reforms

Abstract

This paper highlights key findings from the spring and fall 2014 ATP surveys, focusing on teachers’ responses to statewide standards adoption. This paper summarizes results from the ATP survey, which, as noted in the first paper in this symposium, is a longitudinal, nationally representative survey administered to teachers across the United States three to four times each year. In the spring 2014 wave, eighty percent of respondents came from states that have adopted CCSS for mathematics, and 83% (n=153) came from states that have adopted CCSS for English language arts (ELA).

Nearly 90% of the teachers in CCSS states reported that their school district expected them to embed mathematics and English language arts (ELA) standards in their instruction by 2014-15, with the remaining 10% responding that they did not know when they would be expected to embed standards in their instruction. The majority of teachers also indicated that their district expected them to embed mathematics and ELA standards in their non-mathematics and non-ELA instruction. For example, of the social studies teachers in our sample, 58% reported that their district expects them to embed mathematics standards in their instruction and 83% reported that their district expects them to embed ELA standards in their instruction. Among science teachers, corresponding percentages were 64% for mathematics and 85% for ELA.

Most teachers expressed support for their state standards. Over 75% in both CCSS and non-CCSS states agreed that these standards will increase student learning and prepare students for college and the workforce, with slightly higher percentages of agreement in non-CCSS states. At the same time, slightly fewer than half of teachers in both CCSS and non-CCSS states agreed that their standards limited their ability to make their own decisions about how to best meet students’ needs.

At least some teachers are developing curriculum materials in mathematics and ELA to help students meet state standards. Almost 20% of mathematics teachers in CCSS states reported developing their own mathematics curriculum materials, and 17% reported developing mathematics curriculum materials in collaboration with others. About 25% of ELA teachers reported developing their own ELA curriculum materials, and 22% reported developing ELA curriculum materials in collaboration with others.

Additional findings regarding teachers’ perceptions, knowledge and implementation of state standards over time, based on findings from the both the spring and fall 2014 surveys, are forthcoming and will be discussed in this presentation. These findings have implications for understanding the challenges that educators face as new standards are rolled out, and for identifying approaches to supporting teachers effectively in the context of standards-based reform. No other survey panel has the potential to provide such in-depth, nationally representative information about what teachers are thinking and doing in response to CCSS and other education policies. We hope that survey panel results will encourage more dialogue about how such policies are being translated within schools and classrooms.

Authors

• Laura S. Hamilton, RAND Corporation

• Julia Heath Kaufman, RAND Corporation

• Scott Naftel, RAND Corporation