Kindergarten Teachers Making “Street-Level” Education Policy in the Wake of No Child Left Behind

Abstract

Research Findings: New demands emerging from U.S. education policies—such as accountability and student mastery of predetermined learning outcomes—have had a dramatic impact on the professional experiences of public school kindergarten teachers. For many, freedom and flexibility in matters involving curriculum and instruction have been replaced by regulation and standardization. This article presents findings from a recent qualitative study documenting 4 kindergarten teachers' experiences responding to these new demands. The teachers made their own curricular and instructional policies: They actively interpreted the requirements of their state and school district through the lens of their professional beliefs, preferences, and strategic knowledge base and created classroom policy responsive to their particular professional contexts. Practice or Policy: These findings provide a very different view of teachers' relationship to policy mandates and point to the central role played by autonomy in teachers' responses to No Child Left Behind.