| Chapter 1: | Story of the Research |
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Setting the stage for an argument against the research-based trends set forth by NCLB, the authors stated that no one method would work as a cure for teaching children who have struggled to meet minimum proficiency standards for mathematics and literacy. According to the authors, the answer was not in the policies or in the prescribed research-based methodologies, but in the teachers. By extolling the virtues of the individual teacher as a professional decision maker (especially in terms of pedagogy), Duffy and Hoffman argued that the only solution to solving the complex problems presented by today’s students is for the individual teacher to make thoughtful, careful decisions when assessing students.
Although Duffy and Hoffman (1999) provided excellent arguments against some of the premises of recent education policy and practice, Shulman (1983) went deeper and addressed the complexity of the current state of education. Shulman addressed this complexity in an article in the Handbook of Teaching and Policy. According to Shulman, the issues surrounding educational reform are very complex. Specifically, Shulman cited five impediments to reform: conflicting policy mandates, limited resources, limited teacher expertise, working conditions, and top down delivery (Shulman, 1983). The first impediment is described as conflicting policy mandates. For example, the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act requires 100% of students to meet proficiency levels as set forth by the individual states by 2014. Federal laws also require that students with learning disabilities and students who demonstrate limited English proficiency perform to the same standards on the same tests as those with advantages. This conflicts with special-education legislation that requires students with learning disabilities to have individualized instruction and assessment plans.
Specifically, one of Shulman’s defined impediments is particularly relevant to this study on teacher autonomy.