MIXED-METHODS STUDY OF THE FACTORS AFFECTING T EACHER IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COMMON CORE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS STANDARDS AND THE IMPACTS OF IMPLEMENTATION

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2019-05

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Abstract

The Common Core has been at the center of contention for many years; research have both hailed its apparent virtues and condemned its perceived shortcomings (Conley, 2011; Eilers & D’Amico, 2012; Krashen, 2014a; Ravitch, 2016; Tienken, 2011). However, the standards themselves cannot be evaluated if implementation has not been effectively carried out. This study addresses the necessary topic of implementation in the Common Core context. The aims of this study were to describe the implementation of the Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS-ELA) while highlighting the impacts, barriers and supports experienced by teachers in the process, to examine the differences in teachers’ implementation of CCSS-ELA instructional practices and teacher leadership in various school contexts, and to find the impact of teacher transformational leadership dimensions on the implementation of CCSS-ELA instructional practices. This study follows a sequential mixed-methods design where a survey based on The Survey of Enacted Curriculum (Council of Chief State School Officers SEC Collaborative Project, 2005) and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Avolio & Bass, 2000) was administered to ELA teachers in six schools, a title I and non-Title school at the elementary, middle and high school level of study in a school district in Southern California. Forty-eight teacher participants answered the survey with the highest percentage, 39.6%, teaching at the elementary level or being employed in non-Title I schools, 64.4%. Follow-up interviews were subsequently conducted with 22 of the 48 teacher participants. A variety of analytical techniques including inferential statistics, content analysis and grounded theory were used to analyze the data collected. The study showed that teachers’ implementation of CCSS-ELA aligned instructional practices and teacher transformational leadership differed by level of study but not by school Title I status. It also brought to the fore, two specific transformational leadership dimensions and the confounding variables that affected teacher implementation of CCSS-ELA instructional practices. This study also led to the development of a grounded theory of teacher implementation of the CCSS-ELA standards. Quantitative and qualitative findings were combined to address the research objectives of this study and posit recommendations for practice.

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Common Core State Standards, implementation, teacher leadership

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