In response to perceived problems of the United States mathematics curriculum, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were developed under the leadership of the National Governor Association (NGA)... Show moreIn response to perceived problems of the United States mathematics curriculum, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were developed under the leadership of the National Governor Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and were released in 2010. As of the time of this study, forty-four states, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity have adopted the CCSS. The CCSS for Mathematics (CCSSM) initiative has raised many research questions for the field concerning the quality, enactment, and effectiveness and impact of the standards. There is a great deal of concern, in particular, about the enactment of the standards, becauseas pointed out by Heck, Weiss, and Pasley (2011)if standards have not been well implemented in a particular setting, then failure or ineffectiveness shouldn’t be blamed on the standards. Various researchers identified the key components of a successful enactment of a set of standards as curriculum, assessment, professional development, and teachers and teaching practice (e.g., Confrey & Krupa, 2010; Goertz, 2010; Weiss et al., 2002; Wu, 2011b). Therefore, this research study focused on the enactment of the CCSSM, and analyzed the curriculum, teaching, assessment, and teacher professional development as the key components of the enactment process. This study focused on the state of Illinois which is one of the states that started fully implementing the new academic standards in the 2013-14 school year, and hence had ample preparation and trial time between the adoption and full implementation years. This study investigated the alignment between teachers’ choices of curriculum and CCSSM, and relation between the curriculum resources, professional development, and enactment of CCSSM. The focus of the study was on the content of basic algebra and concepts of solving equations and slope while investigating the alignment of enactment of the CCSSM. The sample was comprised of twelve 9th grade algebra teachers from six different schools in the state of Illinois. The criteria in selecting the schools were the geographic location of the schools, the types of the schools, the curricula used at the schools, and the professional development on CCSSM offered at the schools. Results of this study found that the curricula have limited alignment with CCSSM, and that teachers’ enactment of mathematical practices was affected by the availability of variety of standards for mathematical practices in their curriculum as well as professional development opportunities. The curricula provided opportunities for various mathematical practice standards throughout the content of basic algebra, but some practice standards were left out. Teachers provided opportunities for a subset of the standards that were present in the instructional segments of their curriculum. If not, they provided opportunities for practice standards as a result of acquisition from professional developments. The impact of professional development was most evident when teachers using the same curriculum differed in their enactment of the practices. This study portrayed the relations between (low/high) enactments of CCSSM, curriculum resources (aligned or not aligned), and professional developments. Many states and districts are just beginning to incorporate CCSSM into their math curriculum at the time of this study. Therefore, the findings of this study will guide them as they make their textbook, curriculum, and professional development choices and decisions. In addition, this research generated valuable knowledge that would be useful not only in improving the enactment of the CCSSM, but also improving the enactment of future sets of standards. There are implications for curriculum designers, administrators/school and district leaders, professional development designers, and teacher educators. Show less
