Policy-Practice Connections in State Standards-Based Reform

Abstract

In her twenty-one years of teaching in an urban American school district, Martina Reeves has seen educational fads come and go. This seasoned high-school mathematics teacher, like many of her colleagues, has worked under a series of principals and district administrators, each espousing the “new fix” that will magically and dramatically improve student learning. Over time, she has also seen major changes in the characteristics of the students she works with — including declining family support, more complex special needs, and growing lack of readiness to learn. The most recent reforms being implemented in Martina’s school and district appear to be bucking past trends in that they have not faded away. If anything — from a teacher’s perspective — they have only expanded as federal, state, and district initiatives bring pressures to bear on the classroom