Professional Sense-Makers: Instructional Specialists in Contemporary Schooling. (August 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Domina, Thurston; Lewis, Ryan; Agarwal, Priyanka; Hanselman, Paul
• Is Part Of: Educational researcher. Volume 44:Number 6(2015)
• Page Start: 359
• Page End: 364
• Publication Date: 2015-08
• Subjects: administration -- demography -- educational policy -- longitudinal studies -- teacher education/development; Education -- Periodicals; Education -- United States -- Periodicals; Education -- Research -- Periodicals; Education -- Research -- Methodology -- Periodicals; 370.72
• DOI: 10.3102/0013189X15601644
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-189X

Abstract

This brief documents the expansion of instructional specialist staffing in U.S. public school districts. We use data from the National Center of Education Statistics' annual Common Core of Data to chart staffing trends in public school districts between 1997–1998 and 2012–2013. The number of instructional specialists per 1, 000 U.S students doubled during that period, and the proportion of districts employing no specialists declined from nearly 20% to 7%. We suggest that specialists are poised to play a pivotal "professional sense-making" role as schools work to implement new instructional standards in the classroom.