STATE EFFORTS TO IMPROVE STUDENTS READING AND LANGUAGE ARTS ACHIEVEMENT - DOES THE LEFT HAND KNOW WHAT THE RIGHT IS DOING

This study examined officials' efforts to improve third grade students ' reading and language arts performances with newly developed curricul um guides and assessment. We focused on (a) why officials developed th eir guidelines and assessment, (b) how they informed principals, curri culum directors, and teachers of their reform goals, and (c) practitio ners' understanding of how they should change their instruction to pre pare students for the assessment. State officials (n = 4), third-grade teachers (n = 21) from seven schools, their principals (n = 7), and b uilding-level curriculum directors (n = 7) were interviewed. Interview s indicated that officials assumed that the assessment would change te achers' instruction, thereby improving students' performances. Prinici pals, curriculum directors, and teachers did not understand how they s hould prepare students for the assessment because officials failed to inform them of their new expectations. Those practitioners who attende d the state's training workshops discounted their utility because they focused on the assessment's design and scoring procedures with little attention given to the specific types of instructional changes that t eachers needed to make to prepare their students. Moreover, none of th e practitioners received the newly revised curriculum guidelines prior to the first administration of the new assessment. State officials di smissed practitioners' negative reactions and discounted their request s for more assistance: officials did not think that teachers would cha nge their practices until after the first testing. Our discussion focu ses on the sincerity of the state's efforts to inform practitioners an d questions the likelihood of their reform's success.