William A. Firestone

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Full) at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

This paper is a preliminary exploration of how doctoral study can increase educational leaders’ capacity to use evidence. Our mixed methods study uses interviews and surveys of graduates from four EdD programs. Methods training linked to students’ work and social capital development among students and with faculty both influenced graduates use of e...

We studied test preparation activity among fourth-grade math and science teachers in New Jersey, using a survey of almost 300 teachers and observations of and interviews with almost 60. New Jersey uses a mix of open-ended and multiple-choice tests; links few stakes to test results, except for publication of scores; and offers limited professional d...

One goal of the education doctorate is to prepare educational leaders who can use research-based evidence to solve complex problems related to education and improve lives. We recently completed a mixed methods study of four EdD programs that showed the kinds of experiences that encourage their graduates to use evidence. This paper uses qualitative...

Teacher evaluation’s relationship with instructional improvement is under-theorized in the literature. To address this gap, this paper uses a conceptual framework rooted in human, social, and material capital to analyze and synthesize findings from research conducted since 2009 on whether and under what conditions teacher evaluation stimulates chan...

This article presents a thematic analysis on cohort-based teaching and learning from four, education doctorate degree (EdD) programs. Recommendations are then presented to other scholars engaging in research on cohort-based, graduate degree programs. Yin’s (2018) embedded, multiple case study approach guided the design of this study. Data collectio...

Schools now face a sea of “evidence”—supposedly validated products, research findings, and test, demographic, and teacher-generated data—that leaders must use. How have recent reforms to educational doctorate (EdD) programs addressed these demands? Case studies of four exemplary EdD programs illustrate how the better ones help graduates learn to us...

Most recent research on teacher evaluation examines evaluation’s measurement properties and accountability uses. Less research studies how evaluation data can improve teaching and student learning. In other contexts, researchers have examined how teachers use data to improve their practice. From general research on teachers’ data use, we apply the...

Because it is not clear that teachers will volunteer for good professional development if it is made available, this study used surveys—including social network analysis—and interviews to examine why teachers did and did not participate in one school’s high-quality study group. While all teachers were motivated by intrinsic incentives, two factors...

This paper describes conceptualizations of loose coupling developed in the 1970s and uses them to trace the tightening of two coupling mechanisms in the succeeding decades. Advocates for both kinds of tightening saw them as ways to increase student achievement overall and reduce achievement gaps in particular. The first is increase in both research...

Current interest in teacher evaluation focuses disproportionately on measurement issues and performance-based pay without an overarching theory of how evaluation works. To develop such a theory, I contrast two motivation theories often used to guide thinking about teacher evaluation. External motivation theory relies on economics and extrinsic ince...

Purpose – Principals face shifting accountability pressures from many sources. The most notable recent change in the USA has been the growing pressure from state and federal government. The purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which the accountability pressures experienced by principals in one American state were the same as those repo...

William Firestone is Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA. He recently stepped down as the Principal Investigator of the New Jersey Math Science Partnership and now serves as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. His research interests include studying the effects...

The accountability movement has focused more districts on improvements in student learning, but that has not necessarily created cultures of student learning in those districts. Moving from an accountability culture to a student learning culture requires a mix of board and community support and leadership from the top.

Purpose This paper aims to explore how teacher leaders help teachers improve mathematics and science teaching. Design/methodology/approach Research focused on a purposive sample of seven teacher leaders selected to vary in their time allocated to teacher leader work and their content knowledge. Each teacher leader was interviewed, as were two teac...

Can a capacity building policy encourage school leaders to engage in professional development that will increase their focus on student achievement and understanding of instructional leadership? To explore this issue, school administrators were interviewed and a content analysis of plans for professional development generated during the first year...

Using case studies of four schools in three districts, this article explores how leadership is distributed in districts and asks about the role of teacher leaders. It proposes that teacher leaders and districts can share three leadership tasks: procuring and distributing materials, monitoring improvement, and developing people. The district and tea...

Teacher learning has been studied in numerous contexts using a variety of theoretical frameworks. Our research examines variation in teacher learning in a school- university partnership. We explore the personal characteristics of social trust and teaching efficacy beliefs in relation to teachers' levels of learning. We classify teachers in the part...

Teacher learning has been studied in numerous contexts using a variety of theoretical frameworks. Our research examines variation in teacher learning in a school-university partnership. We explore the personal characteristics of social trust and teaching efficacy beliefs in relation to teachers’ levels of learning. We classify teachers in the partn...

What are educational indicators? What are the strengths and weaknesses of using such indicators? What do we need to learn about educational indicators?

A comparison of three urban school systems suggests that district offices can influence teaching through professional development. District leaders can structure their programs to provide coherent and content-focused professional development. The district orientation (vision, emphasis on professional development, use of human resources) set by the...

Incl. bibl., index.

As testing becomes more prevalent as a policy tool in the Anglo‐Saxon world, debates continue as to whether it supports central reforms of instruction or leads to a kind of ‘teaching to the test’ that invalidates results and undermines more challenging instruction. This paper reports on a three‐year study of mathematics testing of nine‐year‐olds in...

Conflicting findings about the effects of state testing on mathematics teaching have a number of roots, including the strong ideological positions of advocates and opponents of state tests and the fact that state policies vary such that one is likely to find different results in different states. The pressure that students, teachers, and administra...

We studied test preparation activity among fourth-grade math and science teachers in New Jersey, using a survey of almost 300 teachers and observations of and interviews with almost 60. New Jersey uses a mix of open-ended and multiple-choice tests; links few stakes to test results, except for publication of scores; and offers limited professional d...

A review of 8 years of the history of one school-university partnership and detailed field work for 3 years offers some new insights into this undertheorized organizational arrangement. Although much attention has been given to the advantages and disadvantages of working across the cultural boundaries between schools and universities, this work poi...

This research presents a preliminary overview of the teaching practices of fourth grade teachers throughout the state of New Jersey. These teachers were all involved in professional development experiences designed to help them revise their approach to the teaching and learning of mathematics. In this aspect of the study, we observed at least twice...

Based on fieldwork conducted in England, Wales, and two American states, this paper suggests six themes about "high stakes testing." First, not all stakes are perceived to be equally high. Second, pressure to respond to a test comes from more than just formal stakes. Third, external pressure leads to symbolic responses outside the classroom. Fourth...

This study explored differences between a sample of highly productive scholars and a random sample of more typical scholars. Surprisingly, few demographic differences emerged; neither were large differences found in institutional responsibilities or sup -ports. Productive scholars evidenced a greater orientation toward theory and research, whereas...

Based on fieldwork conducted in England, Wales, and two American states, this paper suggests six themes about “high stakes testing.” First, not all stakes are perceived to be equally high. Second, pressure to respond to a test comes from more than just formal stakes. Third, external pressure leads to symbolic responses outside the classroom. Fourth...

A survey of 245 New Jersey teachers provides a baseline for examining how the introduction of state standards and assessments affects the teaching of math and science in the 4th grade. These policies are promoting teaching of additional topics in both areas. The changes in the delivery of professional development have not yet been sufficient to lea...

Recently, the state has used testing more extensively to influence instructional practice. But how much do assessments actually influence practice? To explore this issue, we observed middle-grade mathematics teachers in England and Wales with their highly aligned curriculum and assessment system and two US states with performance-based assessment s...

Fieldwork conducted in two American states and in England and Wales helps to clarify the implementation of assessment policy at the central, local administrative (school and district), and classroom levels. This article examines implementation from three perspectives. The power perspective suggests that formal sanctions can result in educators atte...

A comparison of assessment policy in England and Vermont suggests the utility of viewing the assessment development process as resulting from the interplay of three loosely related games: policy making, assessment, and teaching. This process is characterized by two universal tensions. The technical one stems from the need to reconcile the goals of...

To examine how performance-based assessment changed mathematics teaching under conditions of moderate and low stakes, we studied middle school teachers in five districts in Maine and Maryland. Our observations suggest that the effects of state testing on teaching may be overrated by both advocates and opponents of such policies. When combined with...

Using interviews with teachers, network staff, and state policymakers as well as direct observation, this article compares state-sponsored teacher networks from Vermont and California. We conclude that state-sponsored networks can improve teachers' knowledge and motivation while empowering them. We offer three recommendations. First, networks shoul...

Using interviews with teachers, network staff and state policymakers as well as direct observation, this article compares state-sponsored teacher networks from Vermont and California. We conclude that state-sponsored networks can improve teachers' knowledge and motivation while empowering them. We offer three recommendations. First, networks should...

Teacher networks are a recent innovation in professional development that are being used in California and Vermont to support state policy initiatives. Our analysis relies on interviews, observations, and document analysis to identify how teachers' program experiences are affected by the fit between their backgrounds and program goals and methods....

Organizational analysis and studies of teacher thinking both contribute to discussion about how to professionalize teaching, but these two bodies of research have not been well synchronized. Teacher-thinking research examines teachers' thought processes and makes recommendations for training. Organizational analysis emphasizes the importance of tea...

School finance reform is contentious. Critics charge that funds states provide to poor districts are wasted on salary increases, administrative featherbedding, and reduction of local property taxes. This paper analyzes the results of New Jersey's most recent school finance reform. The findings show that (a) little money was spent on property tax re...

One recurring debate in education concerns the importance of leaders. In the late 1970s, the effective schools literature suggested that strong administrative leadership is ‘one of the most tangible and indispensable characteristics… without which the disparate elements of good schooling can neither be brought together nor kept together’ (Edmonds,...

In this study we identified a set of change leadership functions, including sustaining a vision for change, encouraging staff, modifying standard operating procedures, and monitoring progress. This study of program change in 8 schools-4 that successfully institutionalized Elias and Clabby's Social Problem Solving (SPS) program, 3 that only institut...

When New Jersey passed the Quality Education Act to equalize expenditures between rich and poor school districts, it increased regulatory oversight of its 30 poorest districts. This article describes that oversight system and the additional burdens it created for those districts. It also explores the political context that contributed to new regula...

Passage of New Jersey's school finance reform law raised questions about whether it would equalize funding between rich and poor districts, whether poor districts would waste their increases, and whether equalization would impair richer districts. Budgetary and interview data from 11 districts of varying wealth suggest that in the first year the la...

Although recent efforts to reform teacher pay through merit pay and career ladders have not been successful, there are good reasons to consider new approaches. However, such changes should be a part of larger reform. This article assesses how changes in teacher pay can contribute to both systemic reform and restructuring agendas. Three specific alt...

A survey ofS500 teachers of sexuality education in New Jersey shows differences between rich and poor districts. Teachers in rich districts get more support from students' families. They also have more access to training, colleagues, curricular guidance, and some materials. They report that sexuality education is somewhat more likely to be required...

Research on leadership for change should focus more on what leaders do and less on who the key leaders are. This study identifies a set of change leadership functions, including providing and selling a vision of change, obtaining resources, providing encouragement and recognition, adapting standard operating procedures, monitoring the improvement e...

Passage of New Jersey's school finance reform law raised questions about whether it would equalize funding between rich and poor districts, whether poor districts would waste their increases, and whether equalization would impair richer districts. Budgetary and interview data from 11 districts of varying wealth suggest that in the first year the la...

The push for more complex, intellectually demanding approaches to teaching suggests that teacher commitment will continue to be important for effective education. This article develops a framework for assessing how differential incentive policies affect teacher commitment. It identifies seven key workplace conditions that contribute to teacher comm...

One criticism about qualitative research is that it is difficult to generalize findings to settings not studied. To explore this issue, I examine three broad arguments for generalizing from data: sample-to-population extrapolation, analytic generalization, and case-to-case transfer. Qualitative research often uses the last argument, but some effort...

Efforts to professionalize teaching may increase teachers' commitment, but reforms may not be entirely successful without attention paid to their pedagogical content knowledge. One hypothetical district adopted a career enhancement plan offering curriculum-specialist and teacher-leader opportunities and encouraged teacher collaboration. The overall...

Based on intensive district case studies, this study presents a comparison of two teacher work reforms. Merit pay gives individual teachers more money to do the same work better. Job enlargement pays them more to do different work. The study suggests that job enlargement is more likely than merit pay to improve teacher motivation. It also enriches...

More state activity aimed at improving public education took place in the 1980s than ever before. State legislators introduced an unsurpassed number of education-related bills, increased state aid, and examined the findings of hundreds of state-level task forces and commissions. Education initiatives spread quickly from state to state. To shed ligh...

One approach to improving education is to restructure teaching to change teachers' roles. This article suggests that such changes should enhance five working conditions: support for teaching& collegiality, influence, recognition and advancement, and time. Five policies are then evaluated in terms of how well they facilitate these conditions and how...

This study looks at three districts that redesigned teaching, two with career ladders and one with shared governance. The reforms took two directions—professional and bureaucratic—that had important consequences for the process and the outcomes of the redesign of teaching. Many factors were encompassed in the direction taken, including how district...

The 1980s were an exceptional period for state educational reform activity. The decade was notable for the breadth and persistence of the movement for educational reform centered at the state and local levels. To learn more about state reform activity, the consortium launched a study to examine policy making and practice in six states (Arizona, Cal...

Using two case studies, this article amends Gouldner's findings about the effects of succession on bureaucracy in three ways. First, the introduction of an outside chief executive does not necessarily lead to increased bureaucracy; increased professionalism can also result. Second, the outcomes of change cannot be unilaterally determined by the sup...

In 1986 the Center for Policy Research in Education began a five-year study of state educational reform implementations and effects in six states (California, Arizona, Texas, Minnesota, Florida, and Georgia) chosen for their diverse approaches. Most efforts (not all successful) concentrated on increased academics, teacher professionalism, and enhan...

Educational policy can be considered as a set of overlapping games. Each has its own winners and losers, but each feeds and is fed by others. This metaphor identifies some of the functions and dysfunctions of the policy process. The time perspective of all players is shorter than the whole process, so no one sees the whole picture. Policies interac...

This paper explores the phenomenon of district use of state reform. Past research suggests that local districts will comply minimally with mandates and respond to inducements with varying degrees of opportunism. Active use entails anticipating state responses or doing more than the state requires. Evidence is presented to illustrate that active use...

More state activity aimed at improving public education took place in the 1980s than ever before. Many of their efforts concentrated on three themes: increasing academic content, upgrading the teaching force, and enhancing state and local financial support for schools. In addition to examining reform activities in Arizona, California, Florida, Geor...

The school effects literature is replete with discussions of whether any factors, beyond socioeconomic status (SES), contribute to an explanation of student achievement. Recent attention has focused on the role of the school administrator. One argument is that a strong, controlling principal is a key to improved student performance. Another argumen...

To break the cycle of alienation experienced by students and teachers in urban schools, we must accompany calls for order and high expectations with respect and relevance for students and professionalism for teachers. (Author/TE)

Incl. bibliographical references

A conceptual framework for understanding student and teacher commitment is presented and illustrated with data from a field study of 10 urban high schools. Three points are made. First, alienation and commitment are multidimensional; teachers and students make a variety of commitments that affect the nature of their work. Second, teacher and studen...

The extent, nature, and sources of alienation among students and teachers in high school are being examined at two inner city comprehensive high schools in each of five large urban districts. Research methods include interviews with staff (over 300 individuals) and collection of statistical data. A conceptual framework for studying these issues is...

Problems of urban high schools, including poor attendance, high dropout rates, low achievement, and poor social relationships, are linked together by a strong sense of alienation among students and teachers. Yet much of the educational research and policy treat these issues separately. In this study a conceptual framework for understanding student...

Norms embedded in a school's culture vary according to their alterability and their capacity to establish meaning for professional identity. Staff tend to be unable to imagine satisfactorily performirg their roles if some condition or event interferes with adhering to the expectations for behavior that reside at the core of their professional purpo...

The current debate about quantitative and qualitative methods focuses on whether there is a necessary connection between method-type and research paradigm that makes the different approaches incompatible. This paper argues that part of the connection is rhetorical. Quantitative methods express the assumptions of a positvisit paradigm which holds th...

This report explores the commitment of students and teachers to the educational enterprise in ten urban comprehensive high schools in Baltimore (Maryland), Newark (New Jersey), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), and Washington (District of Columbia). Data were analyzed from interviews conducted in each school with the principal...

This study addressed concerns of Pennsylvania legislators and government departments by examining coordination between education and other human service agencies in three program areas: early intervention (for preschool handicapped children); student assistance (for drug and alcohol abuse and other teenage problems); and teenage pregnancy and paren...

Research in such fields as population planning, agriculture, and education has demonstrated the importance of intermediaries to ensure the dissemination of innovative practices However, little attention has been given to how organizations serve this function This article reports four case studies of regional educational service agencies in their ro...

Some meanings of the term "loose coupling" are offered, and ties between it and other concepts used to describe organizations are suggested. One research program designed to measure the degree of coupling in schools through survey methods is described, and the methodological and substantive results of that work are summarized. The paper concludes b...

Principals can influence instruction by working through the linkages that govern teacher behavior. What these linkages are, how they affect instruction, and the impact of the principal on them are the focus of this article. Two kinds of linkages are distinguished: bureaucratic and cultural. Past research has attended extensively to bureaucratic lin...

Principals can improve their school's effectiveness by shaping the school's culture, and they play an important role in maintaining the content, symbols, and communication patterns in their schools. (MD)

The finding reported previously in the EAQ that elementary schools conform more to the image of the rational bureaucracy while secondary schools fit that of the anarchy or loosely coupled system is reinforced and extended using a large sample, more reliable measures, and more elaborate analytic techniques. Particular attention is given to explanati...