Archived Information

Building Capacity for Education Reform

by Jennifer O'Day, Margaret E. Goertz, and Robert E. Floden

Robert F. Floden is a professor of teacher education and educational psychology at Michigan State University and codirector of the National Center for Research on Teacher Learning. Active in the design and conduct of teacher education programs, he has written extensively on teaching and teacher education.

This crucial question is being examined from a variety of angles by those involved with reform in this country. Many debates focus on resources such as money and adequate staffing levels. Others focus on professional development for teachers. However, these debates often fail to consider the many factors that interact to determine educational capacity.

This issue of CPRE Policy Briefs argues that discussions of capacity should be broadened to include factors such as the relationships between individual, or teacher, capacity and the abilities of schools, and districts to accomplish standards-based, or systemic, reform. It provides a framework for thinking about capacity and suggests ways that systemic reform strategies could help increase capacity. It also describes how two such strategies--professional development and state assessment--were used to enhance educational capacity in states examined by CPRE.

The brief reports findings of a three-year study of systemic reform conducted by CPRE researchers.* Researchers conducted case studies of 12 schools in 6 school districts reputed to be active in reform. The districts are located in three states taking somewhat different approaches to reform--California, Michigan, and Vermont. The brief also draws from research conducted by others looking at teacher and organizational capacity.

• Dimensions of Capacity
• Using the Reform Process to Build Capacity
• Continuing Challenges
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• More on the Subject from CPRE
• Recent Reports and Briefs

The Consortium for Policy Research in Education

The CPRE Policy and Finance Centers are part of a nationwide network of university-based research and development centers whose mission is to strengthen the performance of American students by providing useful and sound information. The research agenda for both Centers is built around three goals:

• To focus research on policies that foster high levels of learning for all students, regardless of social or economic background.

• To conduct research that will lead to more coherence of state and local policies that promote student learning.

• To study how policies respond to diversity in the needs of students, schools, postsecondary institutions, and states; and to learn more about the connections between student outcomes and resource patterns in schools and postsecondary academic departments.

The views expressed in CPRE publications are those of individual authors and are not necessarily shared by the Consortium, its institutional members, or the U. S. Department of Education.

For further information on CPRE publications contact Dawn Weniger at CPRE, Carriage House at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University, 86 Clifton Ave., New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1568; 908/932-1331.

CPRE Management

Allan R. Odden
Co-Director, The Finance Center
Wisconsin Center for Education Research
University of Wisconsin-Madison

William H. Clune
Wisconsin Center for Education Research
University of Wisconsin-Madison

David K. Cohen
School of Education
University of Michigan

Richard F. Elmore
School of Education
Harvard University

Michael W. Kirst
School of Education
Stanford University

[Dimensions of Capacity]

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