Teacher-Based Policy Analyses of the Title I School Improvement Grants Program: How Time, Timing, and Policy Intentions Are Understood by Teachers

• In Event: Roundtable Session 57
  In Roundtable Session: Educators and Policy Reform, Translation, and Analysis

Abstract

This study is based on six urban high school teachers’ experiences in and meaning-making of historical contexts that have influenced the condition of their work environment and their school’s overall levels of academic success. The teachers’ reflections are based on their employment at a school placed under the Title I School Improvement Grant program’s Transformation and Turnaround models but it is their institutional knowledge and professional expertise that are considered as critical elements of their teacher-based educational policy analyses. Findings indicate district responses to local demographic shifts can have long term effects on urban schools’ ability to avoid policy sanctions. The fallout of these local and federal policy decisions contributed to the teachers concerns about the impetus behind educational policies.

Author

• Tuesda Roberts, University of Pittsburgh