Publications & Resources

The Effects of the Washington State Education Reform on Schools and Classrooms

Aug 2000

Brian M. Stecher, Sheila L. Barron, Tammi Chun, and Karen Ross

In this report the authors describe their study of the ongoing implementation and impact of Washington state’s Education Reform Act on school and classroom practices. Washington policymakers have adopted a gradual approach to implementation of new academic standards, a state assessment system, and an accountability mechanism, which is still under development, bringing new subjects into the assessment system on an incremental basis over the period of a decade. This study, focusing on the subjects of writing and mathematics in the fourth and seventh grades, surveyed a sample of teachers and principals and revealed a picture of districts and schools in transition, with many changes occurring, but not always uniformly, across classrooms or schools.

Stecher, B. M., Barron, S. L., Chun, T., & Ross, K. (2000). The effects of the Washington state education reform on schools and classrooms (CSE Report 525). Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles, National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST).