David K. Cohen and Heather C. Hill
2001
Based on a long-term research project in California, this book by David K. Cohen and Heather C. Hill of the University of Michigan shows (says the jacket flap) that "[S]tate policy had a constructive influence on education when there was consistency among the tests and other policy instruments; when there was consistency among the curricula and other instruments of classroom practice; and when teachers had substantial opportunities to learn the practices proposed by the policy." But this didn't all come together in many California schools. A series of factors conspired to block these necessary conditions in most places. Among the key inferences the authors draw from this rather gloomy study (which echo those drawn by Dick Elmore above): "For instruction to improve, teachers must have the will to make it improve. Changing professional norms will be essential to reform.... Most California districts and schools dealt with the problem...by offering teachers lists of professional development from which to choose.... That made a certain sense in the professional and political contexts of U.S. schools, but it did not advance improvement in most classrooms....A few policymakers and reformers have tried to remedy this problem, but most administrators know little about teaching and learning, and teachers' norms are especially difficult to change when the profession makes change a matter of individual preference. If the evidence we have presented is at all typical, efforts to improve teaching and learning on a large scale still have a long way to go." To get your own copy of this thoughtful 220-page book, you could contact the Yale University Press by surfing to www.yale.edu/yup/books/089473.htm or you could consult a cooperative bookstore. The ISBN is 0300089473.
