As schools across the country begin implementing the Common Core State Standards, a new study from the UChicago Consortium on School Research shows that teachers in Chicago Public Schools with high levels of organizational capacity, such as teacher collaboration, instructional leadership and teacher influence, are more likely to report feeling prepared to teach the new standards.
In addition, researchers find elementary school teachers feel more prepared than high school teachers. In 2015, 56 percent of elementary school teachers and 41 percent of high school teachers in Chicago Public Schools reported feeling “very” prepared to teach the new standards, while only one percent of elementary and five percent of high school teachers reported feeling "not at all" prepared. Chicago Public Schools began implementing the Common Core standards—one of the most significant national education initiatives of the last decade—in K-12 classrooms in 2013-2014 for English language arts and 2014-2015 for math.
“Common Core is a state-led, nationwide effort to define clear expectations for student learning and mastery,” said report co-author Jennifer R. Cowhy, research analyst at the UChicago Consortium on School Research. “The standards establish guidelines for what students should learn each year in math and English language arts in order to be college- and career-ready, although the standards do not dictate how these expectations should be met.”
The study used responses to the annual My Voice, My School survey from spring 2014 and spring 2015 to explore teacher and administrator experiences preparing for the Common Core standards and their perceptions of how the new standards would affect teaching and learning. The two years of data included in this study occurred during the implementation of Chicago Public Schools’ multi-year professional development strategy to prepare teachers and administrators to implement the new standards. The Common Core standards represent a considerable change in the expectations for teaching and learning across all grades.
“Two questions that matter for whether or not CPS can successfully implement the Common Core standards are: Have there been adequate professional development opportunities to equip CPS schools with the skills and resources to be successful in the first years of implementation and how do teachers and administrators view the new standards—to what extent do they believe the standards will affect teaching and learning?” Cowhy said.
Additional findings
The study found that in 2015, more than two-thirds of elementary school teachers felt that the Common Core standards would have a great deal of impact on what they would teach and on how they would teach it, while less than half of high school teachers felt this way. Teachers at all levels felt the new standards would impact their teaching more than they would impact student achievement.
Some teachers reported receiving much more Common Core standards-related professional development than others. On average, elementary teachers reported participating in more sessions than high school teachers, but about 15 percent of elementary teachers and 25 percent of high school teachers reported having no formal Common Core standards-related professional development in 2014 or 2015.
Many teachers also met regularly outside of formal professional development to talk with their colleagues about the Common Core standards, with two-thirds of elementary teachers and just over 40 percent of high school teachers meeting at least monthly to do so.
Administrators did not report feeling as prepared as teachers in their ability to support implementation of the new standards, particularly in their ability to evaluate teachers’ implementation of the Common Core standards.
Overall, teachers in schools with high levels of general organizational capacity reported receiving more extensive Common Core standards professional development. Even after taking into account more extensive professional development, teachers in these schools reported feeling more prepared to teach the standards, suggesting that the schools may have employed additional strategies to ensure teachers were prepared.
“It stands to reason that teachers in schools with stronger organizational capacity feel more prepared for a new initiative,” said study co-author Julia A. Gwynne, managing director and senior research scientist at the UChicago Consortium on School Research. “What we can learn from this is the critical role organizational capacity can play in school success.”
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart
