School Context and the Implementation of Rigorous High School Curricula

• In Event: Moving Advanced High School Courses to Poverty-Impacted Urban Settings: Multidisciplinary Research on Rigor, Access, Learning, and Engagement

Abstract

Purpose: This paper examines the challenges that arose as our project-based AP courses, AP Government and Politics and AP Environmental Science, migrated from suburban to poverty-impacted urban schools in year three. Specifically, this paper looks at the ways in which school contexts–school culture, leadership, and the school’s history with AP courses–shaped how the PBL-AP courses were implemented and received by students and teachers across urban schools in two urban districts.

Perspectives: In studying the effects of curricular changes on student learning, we know to frame the study within the context of the school (Goodlad, 2004, Nieto, 1999). Too often conclusions about schools are based on studies that focus exclusively on teachers, students, or particular classrooms, failing to take into account the school setting or its community. As social institutions, schools have their own unique cultures, histories, and characteristics. These not only influence classroom practices and student achievement but also school improvement processes. Drawing on the perspective that school context matters, this paper examines the challenges that different urban schools faced as they implemented the PBL-AP courses.

Methods & Data Sources: This mixed method study was conducted across five schools in two urban school districts in year three of our study. School and classroom observations and interviews with teachers and students helped to provide a sense of the school culture and history. We transcribed field notes and audiotaped interviews, and then analyzed the data in an on-going and comparative process (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996). We also included information on the schools’ academic records, students’ graduation rates, students’ college admissions rates, and standardized test scores.

Findings: Preliminary data analysis reveals three main findings. First, each school worked with the same curriculum; the data indicated that the level of course implementation varied widely across the five schools. Schools that had greater support from the administration, a culture of high expectation and teacher collaboration tended to have better implementation plans compared to schools that lacked leadership support and a coherent culture of achievement. Second, even though the curriculum materials were already developed, teachers’ implementation of the courses varied depending on the school context and student population. For instance, some teachers completely revised the curriculum—adapting, not adopting, it--as a way to incorporate students’ lives into the classroom context. And third, while the majority of the students responded positively to the course, their interpretation of what made the course successful also varied depending on the context of their school, community, and their immediate lives.

Significance: As greater numbers of urban schools adopt rigorous curriculum—certainly a trend today—unanticipated problems arise, most notably student failure, which can impact negatively not only students’ school achievement but their learner identity and their own sense of college readiness. The findings from this on-going design experiment suggest directions for this work.

Authors

• Diem T. Nguyen, University of Washington

• Lise Whitfield, University of Washington

• Amy M. Sharp, University of Washington