Research Brief
What Teachers Know and Do in the Common Core Era: Findings from the 2015–2017 American Teacher Panel
Oct 2, 2018
Findings from the American Teacher Panel
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This report presents findings from a 2016 American Teacher Panel survey, which gathered information about teachers' instructional materials for mathematics, their understanding of their mathematics standards, and their standards-aligned practices. The authors also consider how teachers' instructional materials might support their understanding of their standards and practice. This report follows up on findings from a 2015 survey and is intended to support decisionmaking regarding policies and related to state standards and teachers' instructional practice.
The authors found that most of the materials that teachers reported using regularly for their instruction during the 2015–2016 school year were not highly aligned with Common Core State Standards. In addition, they were not always able to identify approaches and content aligned with their state standards for mathematics. Over one-third of teachers reported that their students engaged in various standards-aligned practices to a great extent. The authors found positive and significant relationships between teachers' use of standards-aligned instructional materials and their standards-aligned practices, as well as some limited relationships between teachers' standards-aligned materials and their understanding of their standards. The report concludes by suggesting that teachers need a better understanding of their state standards if they are to engage their students in practices aligned with those standards. Furthermore, evidence from this report indicates that instructional materials closely aligned with state standards may support teachers' understanding of their standards and their standards-aligned practices.
The research described in this report was funded the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and conducted by RAND Education.
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