Culturally Responsive Teaching and High-Performing Schools that Serve Diverse Populations

Caught in the Balance: An Organizational Analysis of Science Teaching in Schools With Elementary Science Specialists

“…In particular, this study's findings highlight the importance of principals’ allotting time as a subject area resource not only with respect to instructional time, which has been well documented in the literature (e.g., Diamond & Spillane, ; McMurrer, ), but also time planning and preparing for teaching and time for collaboration among specialists and classroom teachers. In particular, research has found leadership essential to establishing a collaborative culture among teachers (Johnson & Willis, ), which can only occur through planned, collaborative time during the school day to share expertise and influence classroom implementation of new policies and reforms (Kruse, ; Uekawa et al., ). In this study, no schools had regularly scheduled collaboration during school hours between the specialist and teachers at all grade levels.…”

“…A large volume of research explores the impact of school principals on teaching and documents the many ways leadership is influential. For example, in a synthesis of leadership practices, Johnson and Willis () identified instructional leadership as essential for instructional improvement. Kannapel and Clements () also verified the importance of the principal to provide relevant professional development connected to school goals.…”

“…Kannapel and Clements () also verified the importance of the principal to provide relevant professional development connected to school goals. Sharing leadership, including expanding opportunities for teacher leadership within a school building (Johnson & Willis, ), and distributed leadership (Harris, ; Spillane, ) are also associated with improved teaching. Leadership has also been linked to the allocation of resources (Gamoran, Secada, & Marrett, ) and establishing the value of academic subjects (Burch & Spillane, ; Spillane, Diamond, Walker, Halverson, & Jita, ), which have also been related to instructional improvement and teaching quality.…”

“…For example, providing time for teachers to meet increases the likelihood that they will have opportunities to learn from and share expertise with colleagues about teaching (Kruse, ). Shared planning time can also positively influence teachers’ perception of the school (Warren & Muth, ) and has been linked to classroom implementation of reforms (Uekawa, Aladjem, & Zhang, ), and a collaborative climate among teachers (Elmore, 2004; Johnson & Willis, ). Unfortunately, research has documented that elementary teachers are less likely to collaborate on technical subjects, such as mathematics and science, than reading and writing (Burch & Spillane, ).…”