This is a Big Change for Everyone: Defensive Implementation of the Common Core State Standards in History-Social Science

The implementation of new policy is often influenced by factors within and outside of an organization. This qualitative case study examines the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in the field of history-social studies (HSS) in a Southern California school district. The literature on implementation points to three possible explanations for variations in policy implementation at the local level. One is lack of understanding of the policy itself on the part of actors implementing the policy. Another is competing priorities both inside and outside the organization that lessen the importance of a new policy. The third is the role of front-line implementers in tailoring policy to the particular needs of the client base they serve. Data from this study suggests that all three factors played a role in standards implementation in the school district studied. Teachers in the district were exposed to three different interpretations of the CCSS and their meaning to the HSS curriculum. One interpretation, dubbed the “literacy” interpretation, suggested that HSS classrooms were to be a location for explicit instruction on reading and writing. Another, labeled the “inquiry” interpretation, envisioned HSS classrooms as a location for student questioning and history education as a process of investigation. The third, the “rigor” perspective, saw CCSS implementation in HSS as a process involving higher levels of student cognition. Given these mixed signals, as well as other demands from district and site administration, teachers in the district studied implemented the CCSS in HSS in a manner I call defensive implementation. Drawing on McNeil’s (1986, 2000) concept of defensive teaching, defensive implementation was characterized by three factors: a reliance on outside “experts” as the source of knowledge, compartmentalization of authority and responsibility, and essentialization and display of the reform as implementation of the reform. This study concludes that despite the label of reform carried by the CCSS standards, implementation of the CCSS in HSS classrooms was not uniform. Instead, teachers drew from existing understandings and were mindful of what they believed were more important priorities within the school district to implement the CCSS defensively