"Data Is [G]od": Influence of Policy Reforms on Urban, Middle School Teachers

• In Event: Teachers' Narratives Exploring Changing Landscapes

Abstract

This narrative inquiry centers on teachers’ longitudinal experiences of policy-related reforms systematically introduced to a campus located in the fourth largest, most diverse city in America. T.P. Yaeger, one of the oldest and most venerable mid-southern educational institutions, is attended by some of the richest and poorest teens of all races. The embedded research study, with roots tracing back to 1997, uses five interpretive tools: 1) broadening, 2) burrowing, 3) storying and restorying, 4) fictionalization and 5) serial interpretation. Six mandated changes form the story serial. Special research attention is afforded pay-for-performance, the last standardized reform. The deeply lived consequence of receiving bonuses for teaching performance prompted Daryl Wilson, Yaeger’s long-term literacy department chair, to proclaim “data is [G]od.”

Author

• Cheryl J. Craig, Texas A&M University - College Station