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UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title When Highly Qualified Teachers Use Prescriptive Curriculum: Tensions Between Fidelity and Adaptation to Local Context Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/85w2j5fb Author Maniates, Helen Publication Date 2010 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California When Highly Qualified Teachers Use Prescriptive Curriculum: Tensions Between Fidelity and Adaptation to Local Contexts By Helen Maniates A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Jabari Mahiri, Chair Professor P. David Pearson Professor Robin Lakoff Spring 2010 1 Abstract When Highly Qualified Teachers Use Prescriptive Curriculum: Tensions Between Fidelity and Adaptation to Local Contexts By Helen Maniates Doctor of Philosophy in Education University of California, Berkeley Professor Jabari Mahiri, Chair Learning to read marks a critical transition in a child’s educational trajectory that has long term consequences. This dissertation analyzes how California’s current policies in beginning reading instruction impact two critical conditions for creating opportunity - access to qualified teachers and rigorous academic curriculum – by examining the enactment of a prescriptive core reading program disproportionately targeted at “low-performing” schools. Although prescriptive curricula attempt to ensure achievement, classroom implementation is mediated by teachers exercising professional prerogative. The quality of these mediations may be determined by a teacher’s expertise in negotiating the tensions between fidelity of implementation and adaptation to local context. Through classroom observations and teacher interviews, this multi-case study illuminates fundamental issues of teacher quality as they are realized by experienced teachers exercising professional prerogative with prescriptive curriculum in order to be more effective with their students. The findings indicated that instructional decisions and strategies of effective teachers were driven by a clear definition of equity based on a theory of action that included mechanisms for both expanding access and achieving desired outcomes. These theories of action allowed teachers to exercise professional prerogative to utilize content and pedagogy both within and beyond the prescribed curriculum. i Dedication To the memory of my mother, Aileen T. Maniates ii Table of Contents List of Tables and Figures ……………………………………………………………...iii Preface ……………………………………………………………………………………iv Acknowledgements ……………………..………………………………………………..v Chapter 1: Introduction ………………………………………………………………...1 Policy Context of Prescriptive Reading Curricula………………………………...1 Prescription and Equity……………………………………………………………4 Prescription and Professional Prerogative………………………………………...6 Research Questions………………………………………………………………..7 Dissertation Overview……………………………………….……………….....8 Chapter 2: Literature Review …………………………………………………………..9 Theoretical Framework……………………………………………………………9 Relevant Literature in Curriculum Implementation……………………………...20 Policy Implementation Research at the Micro Level…………………………….20 Chapter 3: Methods of Data Collection and Analysis ………………………….……..31 Research Design………………………………………………………………….31 Data Collection…………………………………………………………...……………..39 Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………….43 Limitations……………………………………………………………………….48 Chapter 4: Prerogative and Equity …………………………………………………...49 Teachers’ Desired Outcomes and Their Conceptions of Equity…………………51 Teachers’ Stances Towards the Curriculum……………………………………..63 Exercising Prerogative Through Variations in Implementation…………………67 Findings and Discussion…………………………………………………………74 Chapter 5: Adaptation Through Invention …………………………………………..79 Engagement and Participation in Second Grade…………………………………79 Reinventing Comprehension Strategies Instruction in Third Grade……………..84 Findings and Discussion…………………………………………………………89 Chapter 6: Conclusion …………………………………………………………………94 Implications………………………………………………………………………97 References ……………………………………………………………………………...103 Appendix A: Invitation to Participate in Preliminary Interview ………………….111 Appendix B: Teacher Questionnaire ………………………………………………...112 iii List of Tables and Figures Table 3-1. School District and School Enrollment by Group (2007-08)……………33 Table 3-2. Tally of Teachers Recommended by Literacy Coaches…………………36 Table 3-3. Characteristics of Case Study Teachers………………………………….38 Table 4-1. Adaptations Using Pedagogical Knowledge (PK) or Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)………………………………………………64 Table 4-2. Elements of OCR Directly Implemented (Not Changed)……………….74 Figure 1-1. Equity as a contested space………………………………………………..5 Figure 2-1. Pedagogical consequences of contrasting approaches to literacy………..11 Figure 2-2. Models of reading and learning………………………………………….14 Figure 2-3. Kintsch’s Construction-Integration Model………………………………16 Figure 2-4. The gradual release of responsibility…………………………………….18 Figure 2-5. Policy imposed on teacher-student-text triad…………………………….21 Figure 3-1. Funneling process used to determine strategic cases…………………….35 Figure 3-2. Dynamic view of curriculum adapted from Doyle (1992)……………….40 Figure 3-3. Conceptual framework for descriptive coding…………………………...44 Figure 3-4. Conceptual framework for analytic coding………………………………45 iv Preface Ten years prior to this study, I worked as an outside support provider in the school district under study, which adds to both my knowledge and curiosity about the evolution of their reading program. I worked intensively with one school in the district through the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative, and then served under the Assistant Superintendent for Title 1 Programs where we launched a cadre of site-based literacy coaches in the fall of 1999. The purpose of the coaching program was to directly impact the achievement gap in reading proficiency between Title 1 and non-Title 1 students. I designed and facilitated the literacy coach program using what was then referred to as a balanced literacy approach based on the Fountas and Pinnell model (1996). Although the literacy coach program was successful at some sites, implementation was uneven across classrooms and schools. In the fall of 2002, the literacy coaches were recommissioned as Reading First coaches to support the implementation of OCR. I continued to work intermittently with Reading First coordinators to design professional development for the reading coaches. This experience caused me to wonder about how experienced teachers sorted out the similarities and differences between approaches to reading instruction, how they addressed student needs using OCR and what was actually enacted in daily classroom practice. v Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude for the guidance and insights of my advisor, Jabari Mahiri, and the support of my dissertation committee members P. David Pearson and Robin Lakoff. In addition, I would like to acknowledge the encouragement of my colleagues and friends Ena Harris, Kaye Burnside, Dafney Dabach, Sarah Woulfin, Paula Kavathas, Shaquam Edwards, Tina Jelcich-Clements and Yael Davenport. I deeply appreciate the patience and unflagging confidence of my family as I pursued this project; Larry, Zoe and Lia Garvin and my father, George Maniates. 1 Chapter 1: Introduction “Equity to me as an educator is you have to go to them, not them come to you… access is bringing it to them.” - Third grade teacher Learning to read marks a critical transition in a child’s educational trajectory that can determine future personal, academic, and professional opportunities and choices (Ladson-Billings, 2006). Success in academic learning depends upon students being able to access increasingly sophisticated curriculum content as it unfolds over time. Early reading skills bootstrap subsequent reading skills so that students who have understood concepts and mastered each step along the way have an advantage over those who have not (National Research Council, 1998). Lack of access to quality beginning reading instruction can result in a “burst of inequality” nested in a system of “dynamic inequality” that compounds ever-widening differences in educational outcomes over time (Grubb, 2007). Early differences in reading proficiency that first emerge in the elementary classroom mean that some students do not learn to read with the ease and depth of understanding needed to engage in the literacy practices that will be required to be successful in the future. This dissertation analyzes how California’s current policies in beginning reading instruction impact two critical conditions for creating opportunity - access to qualified teachers and rigorous academic curriculum – by examining the enactment of a prescriptive core reading program disproportionately targeted at “low-performing” schools. The challenge of connecting reading instruction and students can be visualized as a fulcrum with the teacher in the center, balancing students’ individual, cultural, and linguistic resources with curriculum content. The purpose of this study is to investigate the tension between teacher prerogative and prescriptive curriculum in a policy environment that calls for more equitable student outcomes. Using a multi-case study design, I explore the ways in which three experienced teachers exercise prerogative as they balance policy mandates with