Leaders’ Use of Research for Fundamental Change in School District Central Offices: Processes and Challenges

Abstract

An increasing number of school districts have launched efforts to significantly shift central office policies and practices to support districtwide teaching and learning improvement and are intentionally using various forms of research to guide the process. We use ideas from the sociocultural learning theory to conceptualize research use as a learning process, the outcomes of such processes, and the conditions that helped or hindered how administrators integrated research into their practice. Our data come from a 18-month long, in-depth, qualitative investigation of six school districts in one state that placed a high priority on both fundamental central office change and use of research to anchor the process. We found that central office administrators in all six districts used particular research-based ideas that challenged their traditional ways of working, but to varying degrees, with most instances reflecting low to moderate levels of appropriation. In this chapter, we elaborate this main finding by discussing central office staff’s engagement with one idea that called for fundamental shifts in the relationship between school principals and their supervisors. Practitioners’ prior knowledge and assistance from intermediaries influenced their appropriation, but not to deep degrees. More consequential were central office leaders, including superintendents, who engaged in high-leverage teaching moves to help their colleagues integrate research into their practice. Our findings underscore the importance of understanding research use as a learning process requiring intensive, job-embedded assistance typically beyond the capacity of outside organizations to provide.