Mind the Gap: District, Principal, and Teacher Policy Environments in Texas, Ohio, and Kentucky

• In Event: College- and Career-Readiness Standards Implementation at the National, State, District, and Classroom Levels

Abstract

Objective
Critics of standards-based reform often cite a culture of accountability that disproportionately impacts teachers (Mehta, 2013), but little evidence exists to test teacher policy environments against that of principals and district administrators. Further, teachers experiences may vary in important ways based on what subject or grade or type of students they teach, or whether they teacher in a rural, suburban or urban district. This study aims to understand how district officials, principals, and teachers in Texas, Ohio and Kentucky are implementing college and career-readiness standards and how their policy environments differ. As part of this work, we examine differences between elementary and high school math and English Language Arts teachers, as well as teachers of students with disabilities (SWD) and English Language Learners (ELL).

Theoretical Framework
Our study is grounded in the policy attributes framework, which posits that the more specific, consistent, authoritative, powerful and stable a policy environment is, the more successful implementation will be (Porter et. al. 1988; 1994). This framework has used for decades in education policy research to analyze systemic reform efforts (Clune, 1993), comprehensive school reforms (Berends, Bodilly, & Kirby, 2002; Desimone, 2002) and other education policies (Desimone, Smith, Hayes, & Frisvold, 2005; Polikoff, 2012).

Methods and Data
We administered state-representative teacher, principal and district surveys in three states—Texas, Ohio, and Kentucky. We surveyed elementary and high school teachers of math, ELA, SWD, and ELLs. We created multi-item composite scores of survey responses with high internal validity (Desimone & LeFloch, 2004). We created multi-item measures of the policy attributes using our survey data. We used Wald tests of significance to test policy differences among teachers based on grade, subject, etc., and among teachers, principals, and district officials, and urbanicity. Our response rates averaged 70% across respondent groups.

Results and Significance
Our results are reported in Tables 1-6. In Texas and Ohio, teachers felt they had significantly less specific guidance on how to implement the standards, compared to districts and principals. By contrast, all groups in all states found standards-related material to be aligned (e.g., lesson plans were aligned with the standards) Teachers in all three states thought standards policies were less authoritative than did principals and/or district officials (i.e., teachers expressed less buy-in to the standards). In every state, teachers also experienced significantly more rewards and sanctions (power) related to standards implementation, compared to district and school leaders.

There were relatively few differences between different types of subject-area teachers, except for teachers of SWD. They perceived weaker policy environments in both Texas and Ohio, but not in Kentucky. There were more differences by urbanicity than subject-area. In every state, rural teachers experienced less specificity than urban teachers. These findings fit with prior studies, as rural districts face unique implementation challenges (Yettick et. al, 2014).

This paper provides clarity around teacher policy environments and how they are different from administrators. Identifying gaps between groups is necessary to help target interventions that provide the support needed to improve implementation.

Authors

• Laura M. Desimone, University of Pennsylvania

• Adam Kirk Edgerton, University of Pennsylvania