General practices in implementing NCLB- related standards, curricula and assessments in 2008. The measure of implementation of NCLB in 2008 was constructed as an index averaging teachers’ responses (1=“not at all”, 2=“to a limited extent”, and 3=“to a great extent”) to the question of “Whether NCLB is affecting your work” in the following five areas (α=0.93): “The curriculum materials I use with students,” “The curricular activities I use with students,” “ The content standards to which I teach,” “The number of topics I cover in a particular subject area,” and “The ways I assess student learning.” These five items measured the same latent construct based on factor analysis results (factor loading=0.795~0.892; eigenvalue=3.307). Specific pedagogical practices in teaching basic reading skills in 2008. Teaching basic reading skills is one of the key specific teaching practices targeted by NCLB. To measure such pedagogical practice, in the 2008 survey, we asked each teacher to rate how often they had students complete a series of activities as part of reading instruction on a five-point scale: 1= “almost never,” 2= “1 or 2 times a month,” 3= “1 or 2 times a week,” 4= “almost every day,” and 5= “one or more times a day.” Based on factor analysis results, we aggregated nine items into one composite variable (α=0.90), including “Blend sounds to make words or segment the sounds in words,” “Read stories or other imaginative texts,” “Practice dictation (teacher reads and students write down words) about something the students are interested in,” “Use context and pictures to read words,” “Clap or sound out syllables of words,” “Drill and practice sight words, e.g. as part of a competition,” “Use phonics-based or letter-sound relationships to read words in sentences,” “Use sentence meaning and structure to read words,” and “Practice letter-sound associations” (factor loading=0.588~0.888; eigenvalue=4.091). Independent variables
Span Enrollment Teachers School AYP? First District Pomo K-5 441 56.0% 25 No Yes No Pasteur K-6 898 0.7% 43 Yes No No La Plaza Charter K-6 542 14.6% 27 No Yes Yes Glade K-8 646 0.3% 29 Yes No No Forest K-8 538 27.1% 26.8 Yes Yes No Crosswinds K-5 619 37.6% 33.3 No Yes No Hermosa 5-8 554 70.6% 22.2 No Yes No Sage K-4 342 64.6% 19.2 No Yes No Dickersen K-5 288 25.7% 18.6 Yes Yes No Notes: 1. In this column of AYP status, “Yes” means that the school met AYP in both reading and math in school year of 2007-08; “No” means that the school did not meet AYP in either reading or math except that Pasteur did not meet AYP in reading but met AYP in math. 2. Data sources: Common Core of Data from the National Center for Education Statistics for the 2007-08 school year; Reading First Eligible District from California Department of Education 3. All school names in the table are pseudonyms. Table 2. Demographics of School Actors from the 2008 Survey Variables Characteristics Of Only Nominators (n=168) Characteristics of All Faculty (n=228) Working experience (n=168a)
Mean years teaching 13 13.09 Mean years working at the current school 7.47 7.41 Teacher credential status (n=168 a) Number and percentage of partial certification (temporary, provisional, or emergency state certificate) 3 (1.79%) 26 (11.4%) Number and percentage of full certification (advanced professional, regular/standard /probationary) 165 (98.21%) 202 (88.6%) Note: a The sample includes all teachers that received help from others and who were involved in the final data analysis. The percentages are included in parentheses. Table 3. Demographic Characteristics of Formal and Informal Leaders Variables Formal Leaders (n=64) Informal Leaders (n=110) Not Nominated (n=54) Working experience
coefficient Prior specific pedagogical practices in teaching basic reading skills in 2007 0.289*** (0.059) 0.365 0.267*** (0.056) 0.337 0.273*** (0.057) 0.345 Exposure to formal leaders’ specific pedagogical practices in teaching basic reading skills 0.0008 (0.0007) 0.071 ─ ─ 0.0002 (0.0007) 0.02 Exposure to informal leaders’ specific pedagogical practices in teaching basic reading skills ─ ─ 0.0013** (0.0005) 0.154 0.0012** (0.0005) 0.143 Exposure to professional development in 2008 0.155** (0.057) 0.168 0.15** (0.055) 0.162 0.155** (0.055) 0.168 Perceived value of NCLB in 2007 0.158** (0.057) 0.149 0.184** (0.055) 0.174 0.184** (0.056) 0.174 Highest grade taught in 2008 -0.133*** (0.028) -0.441 -0.137*** (0.026) -0.455 -0.134*** (0.027) -0.445 Note: N=147 Model-I includes the effect of formal leaders’ influence, while model-II includes the effect of informal leaders’ influence. Model-III contains partial effects of formal and informal leaders, after controlling for covariates. Moreover, the following list of variables were included in initial models but then excluded from the final models because of their non-significance and the purpose to save degrees of freedom: Years of teaching, Years of working at the current school, Held full certification, and Perception of the legitimacy of NCLB principles. *p-value ≤0.05, ** p-value ≤0.01, ***p-value ≤0.001 Endnotes