Building Knowledge of Practice and Improvement Within Schools and Systems: The Shelby County iZone

• In Event: "Moving Knowledge Around" Within and Between Schools: The Role of National Contexts and Institutional Environments

Abstract

Objective
This paper shows how organizational structure and culture mediate efforts to establish a system of knowledge management and use within a subsystem of 23 schools. The Shelby County iZone is an ambitious effort to construct a coherent system of instruction based on shared theories and practices of teaching, learning, and improvement. The iZone has constructed interdependent systems at the classroom, school, and district level while managing accountability pressures and students’ substantial academic and non-academic needs.

Theory
Our perspective highlights the interdependence of practice, school organization, and that of the larger district. This framework illuminates how organizational structures and routines facilitate the generation, exchange, and use of knowledge in ways attentive to context yet rooted in a common set of theories and practices (Cobb et al., 2018). The framework supports inquiry into how the interplay between organization, culture, and practice support ambitious instruction in highly challenging circumstances (Ball et al., 2009).

Methods
This paper draws on data from an longitudinal, mixed-methods study that has conducted 150 interviews, surveyed 200 teachers in 30 schools, and surveyed 120 school leaders. Five case study schools afford an understanding of how iZone tools and ideas are interpreted and used in multiple settings, the problems of practice that emerge, and the nature of organizational responses. Surveys were administered in all 23 iZone schools as well as seven comparison schools, with greater than 80% response rates. The teacher survey poses scenarios about math instruction that provide perspectives on teachers’ beliefs and dispositions towards mathematics instruction. Analysis of results allow for identifying teachers’ proclivity to teach in one of four quadrants - defined by different combination of being high or low on EAC and SOS (Stein et al., 2017). 

Findings
The iZone has established a solid but partial infrastructure for supporting the transmission and use of knowledge in and among schools. Shared theories of instructional and leadership practice have been introduced into schools through common tools, specified instructional leadership roles, and structures that facilitate shared problem-solving. For example, the district has adopted an ambitious math curriculum that challenges traditional norms of teaching which it supports with a system of professional learning that includes coaching, collegial learning, and district-wide PD.

However, intersecting tensions of teaching for conceptual understanding, supporting a student body with substantial needs, and improving state assessment results attenuate consistent interpretation and use of knowledge. For example, the iZone emphasizes grade-level instruction, but some leaders and teachers “recontextualize” the materials in ways that reduce rigor. Similarly, while the iZone calls for distributed leadership and collegial learning, some principals cling to traditional leadership practices that buffer teachers from interference.

Significance
Despite the increase in school operators (Peurach, et. al., 2019), widespread educational improvement in the US still runs through traditional school districts, and finding ways to enhance their effectiveness remains a priority. This raises the question as to how the same districts on whose watch failure occurred can mobilize knowledge resources so as to be the agents of their own improvement.

Authors

• Joshua L. Glazer, The George Washington University

• Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, Wayne State University

• Adrian Mohamed Larbi-Cherif, Manhattan Strategy Group