ERIC Number: ED609338
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 66
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Exploring Coherence in English Language Arts Instructional Systems in the Common Core Era. Research Report. RR-A279-1
Polikoff, Morgan; Wang, Elaine Lin; Haderlein, Shira Korn; Kaufman, Julia H.; Woo, Ashley; Silver, Daniel; Opfer, V. Darleen
RAND Corporation
Coherence among components of an instructional system is key to changing teachers' instructional practices in standards-based reforms. Coherence involves working across traditional silos--or system components (e.g., curriculum, professional learning, assessment)--to integrate components to avoid fragmentation of experiences for educators and students. The authors set out to understand how districts and schools are activating various policy levers (i.e., instructional components) to drive instructional coherence and student learning in English language arts (ELA) in the Common Core era. The authors investigate the coherence of teachers' instructional systems using survey data from state-representative samples of teachers and smaller samples of district leaders across three states: Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Specifically, in spring 2019, the authors asked state-representative samples of teachers in these states about the extent to which their curricula, assessments, and other components of their instructional systems cohered with one another and aligned with state standards. The authors examine the alignment of curriculum to standards, as well as the extent to which four components of instructional systems hypothesized as key to supporting instructional coherence are aligned to standards or the curriculum: curriculum-related resources (e.g., lesson plans, pacing guides), professional development, teacher evaluation, and student assessments. Using these findings, the authors build a measure of the overall extent of coherence in teachers' ELA instructional systems.
Descriptors: English, Language Arts, Common Core State Standards, School Districts, Educational Policy, Teaching Methods, Teacher Attitudes, Alignment (Education), Curriculum Design, Evaluation Methods, Lesson Plans, Guides, Student Evaluation, Teacher Evaluation, Faculty Development, Elementary Secondary Education
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Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Authoring Institution: RAND Education and Labor; University of Southern California (USC), Rossier School of Education
Identifiers - Location: Louisiana; Massachusetts; Rhode Island
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A