34 that improve district programing and student learning in a way that meets its unique and specific needs. Basing the district plan on the DOI plans of surrounding districts makes it a challenge to determine what would be the best exemptions for that district because needs vary based on demographics, programing, and district size. Common barriers in the DOI writing process included a misconception of the term “innovation” by teachers and the perception that teachers were losing their rights because of the DOI plan. Two interview participants attributed the perception to the mistrust of potential changes in leadership. The influence of teacher organizations either directly or indirectly also led to barriers in adding exemptions to the DOI plan in three of the five districts. Community members did not pose as barriers to the process in any of the five districts according to the research participants. There is a perceived positive impact on district programing and student learning due to the implementation of the plan in each district. All district participants reported some level of improvement in their CTE programs, which they directly attributed to hiring non-certified industry professionals to teach the classes. One participant was able to increase academic support for teachers and students by increasing the student to teacher ratio on elementary campuses. Another participant reported that the increase in class size had a positive impact in the district because teachers did not want to lose students mid-year due to an increase in enrollment and the district served students better academically and socially by preventing the change in classes. Districts were monitoring the success of their plans in different ways with data and anecdotal reports, but there was no consistent way that district officials judged the progress or success of the DOI plan. One district monitored the number of non-certified hires, and another conducted a needs-assessment. Other factors that were directly monitored by district officials included teacher attrition, elementary class size, and the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) scores. One district only collected anecdotal data related to the DOI plan. Without some form of publicly posted monitoring, the success of the DOI plan cannot be determined. There is currently no published metric to measure the positive impact of the plan after implementation. Most other states with DOI legislation have an element of monitoring either done by the district or the state (Anzalone, 2018; CPI, 2016; Florida Department of Education, 2018; Hogue, 2014; Title 20-A: Education, 2013; White, 2014; Whootton, 2016). The current study provided research on DOI legislation and its potential impact on traditional public-school district programing and student learning. Because this education reform is very new, it is a challenge to find cumulative, objective research on the topic. There is research available for turnaround models like Innovation Zones, but not for DOI reform not associated with school performance. The current study implies that the DOI legislation has the potential to change the landscape of public education in Texas. While some of the changes, like assigning more than one person on campus to discipline and keeping the same bank for multiple years, are things that will not significantly impact the landscape of Texas education, other exemptions have the potential to do so. These include setting the first day of instruction, hiring non-certified teachers, increasing elementary class size, creating local principal and teacher evaluations, and lowering a districts kindergarten start age. Changing the first day of instruction was the most popular exemption reported and it has been since the implementation of the first 12 DOI plans posted in Texas (Texas Classroom Teachers Association [TCTA], 2016). Districts in the current study’s sample cite various benefits for changing the start date for students including balancing instructional time between semesters, increasing instructional time before state testing, and allowing students more opportunities for summer learning, but there is no relevant research supporting or disputing the effect on student achievement resulting from this type of change. Since this exemption was in every plan, monitoring of the implementation and impact would be beneficial. Studies support that students experience increased achievement in a certified teacher’s classroom over that Stephanie Bonneau, EdD
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