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Results show that, within scheduled differentiation time, teachers often remediate small groups yet fail to address advanced students’ needs, undermining the disciplinary standard for differentiation. The study argues teachers recouple policy and practice while misaligning implementation with differentiation’s broader instructional definition.",{"@graph":14,"@context":72},[15,34,55],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/different-or-differentiated-recoupling-policy-and-practice-in-an-era-of-accountability/603104/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/different-or-differentiated-recoupling-policy-and-practice-in-an-era-of-accountability/603104.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"MrHarris58","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":33},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",{"@type":56,"mainEntity":57},"FAQPage",[58,64,68],{"name":59,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":61},"What does differentiation involve in classroom instruction?","Question",{"text":62,"@type":63},"Differentiation modifies classroom content, process, and products according to students’ readiness, interest, and learning profile.","Answer",{"name":65,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":66},"What did the study find about how differentiation policy was implemented?",{"text":67,"@type":63},"During allotted differentiation time, teachers regularly remediated small groups but did not similarly address the academic needs of advanced students, failing to enact the disciplinary standard for differentiation.",{"name":69,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":70},"How does the article explain the mismatch between policy and practice?",{"text":71,"@type":63},"The article suggests teachers recoupled practice and policy but misaligned implementation with the disciplinary definition of differentiation, with broader implications for instructional policymaking.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":74,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":76,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":78,"site_id":7},603104,1792965142,{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":82},"success",[83,87,91,95,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":84,"show_sort_weight":85,"slug":86},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":88,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":131},{"doc_id":78,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":33,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},687212988360,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Different or  \nDifferentiated? Recoupling Policy and Practice in an Era of Accountability  \nEducational Policy 2024, Vol. 38(1) 134–160 © The Author(s) 2023 Article reuse guidelines:  \n[sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/08959048231153612](DOI: 10.1177/08959048231153612)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/08959048231153612)[journals.sagepub.com/home/epx](journals.sagepub.com/home/epx)  \nAllison W. Kenney 1,  \nSusan Dulong Langley 1, Vonna Hemmler2, Carolyn M. Callahan2, E. Jean Gubbins 1, and Del Siegle 1  \nAbstract  \nDifferentiation is an instructional practice teachers employ to modify their classroom content, process, and products based on student readiness, interest, and learning profile. Many school districts recognize the benefits of differentiated instruction and thus mandate allotted classroom time for its implementation. In this article, we investigate how teachers in one such district resolved differentiation policy to practice in a high-stakes testing environment. We found, during the designated time for differentiation, teachers regularly remediated small groups but did not similarly address the academic needs of advanced students, thus not enacting the disciplinary standard for differentiation. We suggest teachers are recoupling practice and policy but misaligning it to the disciplinary definition of differentiation, which we contend has broader implications for instructional policymaking.  \n1 University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA 2University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA  \n*Allison W. Kenney is also affiliated to RMC Research, Portland, OR, USA.  \nCorresponding Author:  \nAllison W. Kenney, RMC Research Corporation, 1750 S Harbor Way, Suite 380, Portland, OR 97201-5106, USA.  \nEmail: [allison.kenney@rmcres.com](allison.kenney@rmcres.com)  \nKeywords  \ndifferentiation, recoupling, instructional policy, high stakes accountability, policy implementation  \nThe current education policy environment is characterized by high-stakes incentives—or sanctions—for student performance and improvement. School district administrators are held responsible for translating policy into local initiatives and building leaders and teachers are expected to produce the desired results. In response, districts adopt both curricular changes, relating to what students are taught, as well as instructional changes, relating to how students are taught. However, changes in curricular content and instructional practice can be difficult for teachers to accomplish. Policies seeking to alter classroom curriculum and instruction require tight coupling with changes to teachers’beliefs and behaviors.  \nWithin the context of a high-stakes standardized testing environment and accompanying curricular mandates, district initiatives requiring changes to curriculum and teaching practice may not be properly incentivized and can be difficult for teachers to accept, understand, manage, and/or integrate into practice. Researchers suggest that accomplishing change at scale requires district personnel to provide structures and supports to incentivize, facilitate, and sustain policy changes in schools (Ford et al., 2020) . Further, while district initiatives responding to accountability policies including changes to curriculum, instruction, and teacher beliefs have at times been successful (Spillane et al., 2018; Woulfin, 2015), researchers have also found evidence that central office administrators, principals, and/or teachers may rush implementation of new district initiatives in ways that have unintended and, at times, negative consequences (Anagnostopoulos & Rutledge, 2007; Au, 2007) . Ultimately, we know too little about how the high-stakes policy environment filters through the level of the district office to couple with the dayto-day practices by teachers in classrooms (Barrett-Tatum & Ashworth, 2021) .  \nHence, we explored how teachers responded to one district’s initiative for improved inst","cbCaiph3ehRJibW5","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiph3ehRJibW5","pdf",458806,27,"English","# Abstract\n## Rationale and Research Questions","[{\"question\":\"What does differentiation involve in classroom instruction?\",\"answer\":\"Differentiation modifies classroom content, process, and products according to students’ readiness, interest, and learning profile.\"},{\"question\":\"What did the study find about how differentiation policy was implemented?\",\"answer\":\"During allotted differentiation time, teachers regularly remediated small groups but did not similarly address the academic needs of advanced students, failing to enact the disciplinary standard for differentiation.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article explain the mismatch between policy and practice?\",\"answer\":\"The article suggests teachers recoupled practice and policy but misaligned implementation with the disciplinary definition of differentiation, with broader implications for instructional policymaking.\"}]","Different or - Differentiated? - Recoupling Policy and Practice in an Era of Accountability | PDF",1792095719,68]