RR 95-2 Marshaling Resources for Reform: District Administrators and the Case of Mathematics.
Abstract
Contemporary reforms lobby for deep changes in mathematics teaching and learning and yet classroom practice continues, in many places, to be as conventional as ever. This publication examines how one midsized urban district marshaled resources for change in mathematics instruction. In contrast with literacy where staff, experience, and concern were extensive, mathematics lacked parallel resources for change. Considering the magnitude of the changes envisioned in teaching, learning, and knowledge, as well as key district players' ideas, understandings, and agendas, we argue that there is a paradoxical inversion of resources needed to tilt the system in the direction of mathematics reform.