Systems for Instructional Improvement: Creating Coherence from the Classroom to the District Office

In Systems for Instructional Improvement, Paul Cobb and his colleagues draw on their extensive research to propose a series of specific, empirically grounded recommendations that together constitute a theory of action for advancing instruction at scale. The authors outline the elements of a coherent instructional system; describe productive practices for school leaders in supporting teachers’ growth; and discuss the role of district leaders in developing school-level capacity for instructional improvement.
 
Based on the findings of an eight-year research-practice partnership with four large urban districts investigating their efforts to enhance middle school math instruction, the authors seek to bridge the gap between the literature on improving teaching and learning and the literature on policy and leadership. They look at the entire education system and make recommendations on improvement efforts with a focus on student learning and teachers’ instructional vision. In particular, the authors offer insights on the interplay among various supports for teacher learning, including pullout professional development, coaching, collaborative inquiry, the most instructionally productive uses of principals’ time, and the tensions that tend to emerge at the district level. They provide a guide for district-level leaders in organizing their work to support significant teacher learning.
 
Systems for Instructional Improvement provides an invaluable resource for school and district leaders, while outlining a clearly focused agenda for future research.

Paul Cobb is a research professor at Vanderbilt University. He is the principal investigator of the MIST study. He received his doctorate in mathematics from The University of Georgia. He has taught courses in elementary mathematics teaching, design research methodology, and the school and district setting of mathematics teaching and learning. His research focuses on improving the quality of mathematics teaching and student learning on a large scale, and on issues of equity in students’ access to significant mathematical ideas.

Kara Jackson is an associate professor of mathematics education at the University of Washington, Seattle. She received her doctorate in Education, Culture, and Society with an emphasis in mathematics education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. Dr. Jackson is a co-principal investigator of MIST. Her research focuses on specifying forms of practice that support all learners to participate in rigorous mathematics and how to organize educational contexts to support teachers to develop such practices.

Erin Henrick is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt University. She is the project manager and is a co-principal investigator on the MIST project, and received her doctorate in Education, Leadership, and Policy from Vanderbilt University. Dr. Henrick’s research interests include district-level design research, researcher practitioner partnerships that support improvements in the quality of teaching, and school and district supports to foster instructional improvement.

Dr. Thomas M. Smith is the Dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside, and is a co-principal investigator of the MIST project. He earned his doctorate in education theory and policy from the Pennsylvania State University. Previously he was associate professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt University. His research focuses on school and district instructional improvement in mathematics, and on research practitioner partnerships.