Strategic engagement with state reform policies and resources. Any notion that school districts simply implement state reform policies and initiatives does not stand up to recent research on the district role in the context of state reforms (Spillane 1996, 1998, 2002; Corcoran, Furhman, & Belcher (2001). Educators at the district and school levels actively interpret external reform initiatives in light of their own beliefs, preferences, and experiences, and they mobilize resources to fit local reform agendas. In short, district personnel strategically engage with the external policy and resource environment created by the federal government, state governments, foundations, and professional associations.
Not all districts, however, are as committed to doing what it takes for all students to
succeed. Successful districts more actively engage with the external policy and resource context in order to leverage those influences to strengthen support for the district reform initiatives, and for the purpose of influencing the external context in favor of the local reform agenda (Furhman & Elmore 1990; Spillane 1996; Togneri & Anderson, 2003).
The Impact of District-wide Reforms. The recent case study literature reviewed above provides illuminating narratives, portraits, and analyses of district-wide efforts to improve the quality of student learning and teaching in all classrooms and schools. In qualitative fashion, drawing upon interviews, observations, and local documents, the researchers provide convincing accounts of change at the level of district ethos, goals for improvement, and restructured organizational infra-structures to support reforms. They are convincing, in part, due to the similarity in findings across multiple sites and studies.
The empirical linkages between district-level policies and actions and actual changes in teaching and learning practices and outcomes at the classroom level, however, are more logically than empirically demonstrated. The case for impact on student learning outcomes is stronger than the case for impact on instructional activities in the classroom.
For the most part, researchers attribute district effects on the basis of temporal correlations between student results on state/district standardized tests and district reform efforts over time. If the test results show significant wide-spread gains in student results associated with the initiation of district reform plans, if these trends are generalized across all or most schools, and if the performance gaps between previous groups of low and high performing students and schools are seen to be diminishing over time, the argument is made that district reform efforts are having a positive impact on student learning. The empirical links between district policies and the actions of district leaders to gains in student learning at the classroom and school levels, however, remains vague.
If this is so for student learning outcomes, it is even more so for instructional practice.
One of the hallmarks of contemporary district reform initiatives is to emphasize improvement in the quality of teaching, and to focus and invest professional development resources on the implementation of “best practices” in targeted focuses for improvement.
Apart from anecdotal and non-systematic observations, teacher self report, and the interview accounts of local officials and consultants whose vested interest is at stake,
however, evidence of the extent and scope of teacher change in the classroom is wanting.
Togneri and Anderson (2003) found district officials were both challenged and perplexed about how to go about assessing the degree and quality of implementation of teaching and learning strategies associated with district reform efforts on a wide-scale basis.