Creating Coherence, Negotiating Fit: The Competing Demands of Two Professional Learning Initiatives

• In Event: 75.014 - Organizational Improvement, School Climate, and Educational Reform: Inspiring Hope, Massaging Tensions, and Encouraging Reflection

Abstract

This case study investigates how educators in one northeastern school district understood two reform initiatives—lesson study and data-driven instruction. Each initiative made sometimes competing demands on educators’ time and attention, so they considered whether the initiatives were compatible or in conflict with their beliefs about professional learning and larger school goals. During this process of negotiation, the two most common responses were to prioritize the data teams initiative or propose a hybrid between the two approaches. To create a successful hybrid and to achieve coherence, educators must incorporate different theories of change while retaining the core principles of each reform.

Subsection 3A: School & District Improvement Approaches.

Author

• Candice Bocala, WestEd