Logics of Local Control: State Educational Agency Coordinators Balance Bureaucracy and Democracy in Standards Implementation

• In Event: Comprehending Curriculum Implementation During the Common Core Era

Abstract

This project focused on understanding the perspectives of English language arts (ELA) coordinators working in state educational agencies (SEAs). Through analysis of in-depth interviews with 18 of these individuals, representing about 30% of SEAs, we describe how two institutional logics active in the organizational environment—bureaucracy and democracy—represent a core tension in ELA coordinators’ efforts to support teachers. Coordinators tried to enact the state’s reform agenda and the norms of a bureaucratic organization, while encouraging democratic teacher participation and leaving curricular decisions to the local level. We explain how these tensions were evident in coordinators’ view of the relationship between the SEA and the local education agency (LEA) and shaped coordinators’ decisions about teacher support.

Authors

• Emily Hodge, Montclair State University

• Serena Jean Salloum, Ball State University

• Susanna Latham Benko, Ball State University