A Cognitive Perspective on the Role of the Local Educational Agency in Implementing Instructional Policy: Accounting for Local Variability

Through case studies of two school districts, this article examines local variability in the implementation of state policy. In adopting a cognitive perspective on the role of the local educational agency in policy implementation, the author argues that the diverse ideas about reforming instruction that different local policy makers come to know and understand from state reform initiatives help account for the variation in the local educational agency's response to external policy. Diverse local interpretations of reform proposals contribute to substantial local variability in policy implementation. The author suggests that local policy makers' diverse understanding of reform proposals were affected by the interaction of (a) their beliefs about reading instruction, (b) the situations in which they apprehend the reforms, and (c) the particular sources of information pertaining to the reforms to which they attend.