From National Movement to Local Action: The Status of Standards-Based Science Instruction in Middle School Classrooms. Report No. 64

摘要

This study contributes to the growing body of research on classroom instruction by exploring the possibility of measuring a specific instructional strategy using statistical methods based on item response theory (IRT). We seek to measure teachers instructional practices using the same rigorous statistical techniques that are now applied to most large-scale assessments of student achievement. We focus specifically on teachers use of pedagogical techniques consistent with those espoused by the national standards-based reform movement in science. We use data for a nationally-representative sample of public school eighth graders and their teachers from the 1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Since NAEP is an omnibus study of student achievement, this database does not offer detailed information regarding the specific reform programs and interventions in which the sampled schools might be actively engaging. Consequently, we are not able to directly examine the relationship between engaging in such explicit reform efforts and implementing a standards-based model of instruction. From a methodological perspective, however, a direct link to reform activities is not necessary. Instead this study takes advantage of the naturally existing variation in the classroom practices of a national sample of teachers and the features of IRT measurement models to address several important questions. First, do we find evidence that a coherent style of instruction akin to the standards-based model actually exists in practice in middle school classrooms. If so, which specific practices appear to be part of, and which are inconsistent with, this standards-based approach. Is there evidence that these practices tend to be incorporated into classroom instruction in a systematic manner or even in a predictable order. Finally, how prevalent is a standards-based approach to science instruction for this national sample of teachers. This study has an admittedly methodological focus. However, we believe that the kind of solid measurement strategy being explored in this study represents an essential foundation and necessary precursor to subsequent studies of a more substantive and policy-relevant nature. Before it is possible to explore inequities in access to standards-based instructional opportunities for students who are educationally or socio-economically at risk, or to examine the impacts of standards-based instruction on student achievement, it is necessary to first devise a methodologically rigorous strategy for measuring the use of standards-based instruction.