Beyond Adoption: How organizational factors shape curriculum implementation dynamics in Chicago schools

• In Event: Supporting Students Through Educational Disruptions: State and District Strategies for Post-Pandemic Education Renewal

Abstract

Objectives
The UChicago Consortium and Chicago Public Schools have partnered to study CPS’ first-ever universal K-12 curriculum, “Skyline.” Launched in school year 2021-22, Skyline encompasses comprehensive, culturally-relevant, standards-aligned instructional materials, assessments, and embedded professional learning for teachers. While available to all CPS teachers, Skyline adoption remains optional. Drawing on teacher interviews and survey responses, classroom observations, and administrative data from the first three years of curricular implementation in K-2 literacy, this paper examines how school organizational factors, including instructional leadership, teacher collaboration, trust among staff and quality of professional learning before adoption, influence the nature and scope of Skyline implementation within the school.

Perspectives
Research finds organizational capacity in schools influences curricular adoption in several ways. Strong instructional leadership fosters teacher buy-in for new instructional materials, balancing teachers’ autonomy with goals of implementation fidelity. By establishing routines, expectations, and opportunities for professional development - leaders equip teachers with tools and knowledge to implement new practices. Collaboration, facilitated by professional learning communities and structured planning time, enables teachers to share best practices and collectively address challenges, better positioning them to identify and implement instructional strategies that meet students' needs. Robust organizational capacity and instructional leadership create an environment where curriculum changes can be effectively integrated and sustained, leading to improved teaching practices and student outcomes.

Methods
We conducted teacher interviews and classroom observations in eight Skyline-adopting schools, in addition to analyses of K-2 teacher surveys and district-wide administrative data, to examine the relationship between schools’ organizational capacity and practitioners’ experiences with Skyline curricular materials and professional learning resources. Hierarchical linear models mirror qualitative analyses examining the relationships between these three domains during the first three years of Skyline adoption.

Results
Though teachers in most schools reported sustained engagement with Skyline over time, considerable variability emerged in how teachers integrated new instructional resources, their satisfaction with those materials, and the consistency of curricular implementation across classrooms within schools. Schools whose leaders established clear expectations for fidelity in implementation; conveyed trust in teachers’ expertise and professional decisions; and proactively assigned resources to promote teacher collaboration, participation in professional learning, and planning saw broader Skyline adoption (i.e., more teachers using a greater percentage of Skyline resources) and higher levels of knowledge-sharing among grade-level teams, particularly in years two and three of implementation. Schools that hired or assigned instructional coaches to support curricular adoption, instituted teacher-led Skyline co-labs, and those with established routines for grade-level or grade-band collaboration also saw capacity increase as teachers acquired familiarity with Skyline resources and teams distributed planning efforts. Teachers’ perceptions of the curriculum appeared to modulate over time - with more reporting moderate levels of satisfaction in subsequent years of adoption.

Significance
Findings from this study shed light on school conditions that facilitate adoption of new curricular resources and aligned professional learning. Given the study’s central focus on the role of curriculum-specific, school-embedded professional learning in teachers’ learning and implementation of standards-aligned instruction, we anticipate insights from this work might inform other initiatives focused on expanding instructional capacity.

Authors

• Laura Davis, UChicago Consortium on School Research

• Elaine M. Allensworth, University of Chicago

• Julia A. Gwynne, UChicago Consortium on School Research