Challenging Instruction
for "All Students":
Policy, Practitioners, and Practice
James
P. Spillane
Abstract
"All students" is a prominent headline in recent instructional
reforms as professional associations and federal and state policy-makers
argue for more academically rigorous instruction for all students.
In this paper, the author analyzes these reform aspirations from
the perspective of reformers and from the perspective of practitioners
in four schools. Spillane explores what local teachers and administrators
make of these proposals, especially for students who have traditionally
not succeeded in school. Based on this analysis, he argues that
to understand teachers' and administrators' response to policies
that challenge the conventional wisdom about poor students, it is
necessary to understand how their beliefs about these students are
situated in a network or web of beliefs including beliefs about
teaching, learning, and classroom management: This network of beliefs
supports local inattention to reform proposals that advance a more
intellectually challenging curriculum for all students.
James P. Spillane, School
of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University
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