1st Edition
Handbook of Education Policy Research
Co-published by Routledge for the American Educational Research Association (AERA)
Educational policy continues to be of major concern. Policy debates about economic growth and national competitiveness, for example, commonly focus on the importance of human capital and a highly educated workforce. Defining the theoretical boundaries and methodological approaches of education policy research are the two primary themes of this comprehensive, AERA-sponsored Handbook.
Organized into seven sections, the Handbook focuses on (1) disciplinary foundations of educational policy, (2) methodological perspectives, (3) the policy process, (4) resources, management, and organization, (5) teaching and learning policy, (6) actors and institutions, and (7) education access and differentiation.
Drawing from multiple disciplines, the Handbook’s over one hundred authors address three central questions: What policy issues and questions have oriented current policy research? What research strategies and methods have proven most fruitful? And what issues, questions, and methods will drive future policy research? Topics such as early childhood education, school choice, access to higher education, teacher accountability, and testing and measurement cut across the 63 chapters in the volume. The politics surrounding these and other issues are objectively analyzed by authors and commentators.
Each of the seven sections concludes with two commentaries by leading scholars in the field. The first considers the current state of policy design, and the second addresses the current state of policy research.
This book is appropriate for scholars and graduate students working in the field of education policy and for the growing number of academic, government, and think-tank researchers engaged in policy research.
For more information on the American Educational Research Association, please visit: http://www.aera.net/.
THE EDITORS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THE CONTRIBUTORS
THE REVIEWERS
THE AERA BOOKS EDITORIAL BOARD
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF TABLES
Introduction, Gary Sykes, Barbara Schneider, and Timothy G. Ford
PART 1: SOCIAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES AND EDUCATION POLICY RESEARCH, Section Editors: Barbara Schneider and David Plank
1. Historians and Education Policy Research in the United States, Maris A. Vinovskis
2. Policy Research in Education: The Economic View, Martin Carnoy
3. The Economic Value of Education and Cognitive Skills, Eric Hanushek
4. Political Science Perspective on Education Policy Analysis, Lorraine M. McDonnell
5. Sociological Contributions to Education Policy Research and Debates, Douglas Lee Lauen and Karolyn Tyson
6. Current Approaches to Research in Anthropology and Education, Maressa Dixon, Kathryn M. Borman, and Bridget Cotner
7. Making Education Research More Policy-Analytic, David L. Weimer
8. Commentary: Disciplined Education Policy Research, Michael Feuer
9. Commentary: The Disciplinary Foundations of Education Policy Research, Adam Gamoran
PART 2: CONDUCTING POLICY RESEARCH: METHODOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES, Section Editors: Barbara Schneider and David Plank
10. Separate Orbits: The Distinctive Worlds of Educational Research and Policymaking, Martin Orland
11. The Use of Randomized Trials to Inform Education Policy, Geoffrey D. Borman
12. Causal Inference in Non-Experimental Educational Policy Research, David Kaplan
13. Research Synthesis and Education Policy, Therese D. Pigott
14. Complementary Methods for Policy Research, Laura Desimone
15. Assessment Policy: Making Sense of the Babel, Joan L. Herman and Eva L. Baker
16. Scale Up as a Framework for Intervention, Program, and Policy Evaluation Research, Sarah-Kathryn McDonald
17. Commentary: Conducting Policy Research: Methodological Perspectives, Spyros Konstantopoulos
18. Commentary: An Applied Perspective on Research, Method, and Policy, Christopher B. Swanson
PART 3: POLITICS AND THE POLICY PROCESS, Section Editor: Jane Clark Lindle
19. Education and Domination: Reforming Policy and Practice through Critical Theory, Carlos Alberto Torres and Richard van Heertum
20. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, Roslyn Arlin Mickelson
21. Race(ing), Class(ing), and Gender(ing) Our Work: Critical Race Theory, Critical Race Feminism, Epistemology and New Directions in Educational Policy Research, David O. Stovall
22. Rhetoric and Symbolic Action in the Policy Process, Lisa Rosen
23. The Role of Law in Education Policy Formation, Implementation, and Research, Julie F. Mead
24. Teacher Collective Bargaining: What We Know and What We Need to Know, Julia E. Koppich and Mary Alice Callahan
25. The Voice of the People in Education Policy, Rebecca Jacobsen
26. Assessment Policy and Politics of Information, Jane Clark Lindle
27. What Works in Defining "What Works" in Educational Improvement: Lessons from Education Policy Implementation Research, Directions for Future Research, Meredith Honig
28. Conceptualizing Policy Implementation: Large-Scale Reform in an Era of Complexity, Amanda Datnow and Vicki Park
29. Public Choice and the Political Economy of American Education, Martin West
30. R & D/ Research in the Policy Process, Marshall Smith and Matthew L. Smith
31. Commentary One, Jane Hannaway
32. Commentary Two, V. Darleen Opfer
PART 4: POLICY IMPLICATIONS OF EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES, MANAGEMENT, AND ORGANIZATION, Section Editor: Linda Skrla
33. Notes on Reframing the Role of the Organizations in Policy Implementation: Resources for Practice, in Practice, James P. Spillane, Louis M. Gomez, and Leigh Mesler
34. What Do We Know About Reducing Class and School Size?, June Ahn and Dominic J. Brewer
35. Conceptions, Measurement and Application of Educational Adequacy and Equal Educational Opportunity, Bruce D. Baker and Preston C. Green
36. Whether and How Money Matters in K-12 Education, Margaret Plecki and Tino Castañeda
37. School Reconstruction and School Improvement: Theory and Evidence, Betty Malen and Jennifer King Rice
38. Charter School Policy Issues and Research Questions, Sandra Vergari
39. Vouchers, John F. Witte
40. A Market for Knowledge?, Frederick Hess
41. Market Reforms in Education, Clive R. Belfield and Henry M. Levin
42. Commentary: A Call to Studied Action: Lessons from Research on Policies Designed to Improve the Organization and Management of Schooling, Steve Cantrell
43. Commentary: Improvement or Reinvention: Two Policy Approaches to School Reform, Rodney T. Ogawa
PART 5: TEACHING AND LEARNING POLICY, Section Editor: Gary Sykes
44. Opportunity to Learn, William H. Schmidt and Adam Maier
45. The Reading and Math Wars, Alan H. Schoenfeld and P. David Pearson
46. Language Policy in Education, Patricia Gándara and M. Cecilia Gómez
47. Teacher Quality and Teacher Labor Markets, Susanna Loeb and Tara Béteille
48. Policy and Research on Teacher Preparation and Teacher Learning: A Changing Landscape, Linda Darling-Hammond, Ruth Chung Wei, with Christy Marie Johnson
49. School Improvement by Design: Lessons from a Study of Comprehensive School Reform Programs, Brian Rowan, Richard Correnti, Robert J. Miller, and Eric M. Camburn
50. Conceptualization, Measurement, and Improvement of Classroom Processes: Implications for Policy and Accountability Frameworks, Robert C. Pianta and Bridget K. Hamre
51. Closing Achievement Gaps, George Farkas
52. New Technology, Yong Zhao and Jing Lei
53. Education and the Shrinking State, David N. Plank and Venessa Keesler
54. Commentary: Research on Teaching and Learning, Barbara R. Foorman
55. Commentary: Informing Teaching and Learning Policy, Robert E. Floden
PART 6: ACTORS AND INSTITUTIONS IN THE POLICY PROCESS, Section Editor: Carolyn Herrington
56. International and Transnational Policy Actors in Education: A Review of the Research, Karen Mundy with Mona Ghali
57. New Approaches to Understanding Federal Involvement in Education, Lora Cohen-Vogel and Michael K. McLendon
58. The Expansion of State Policy Research, Kathryn A. McDermott
59. The District Role in Instructional Improvement, Gary Sykes, Jennifer O’Day, and Timothy G. Ford
60. Pushing on the Paradigm: Research on Teachers’ Organizations as Policy Actors, Nina Bascia
61. Local Democracy in Education, Michael Mintrom
62. The Politics of (Im)Prudent State-level Home-Schooling Policies, Catherine Lugg and Andrea Rorrer
63. Student Voice and Student Roles in Education Policy and Policy Reform, Dana L. Mitra
64. Looking Forward: Toward a New Role in Promoting Educational Equity for Students with Disabilities from Low-income Backgrounds, Thomas Hehir
65. Commentary: Research on Actors and Institutions Involved in Education Policy: Themes, Tensions, and Topics to Explore, Martha McCarthy
66. Commentary: Nested Actors and Institutions: The Need for Better Theory, Data & Methods to Inform Education Policy, Mark Berends
PART 7: EDUCATIONAL ACCESS AND DIFFERENTIATION, Section Editor: Barbara Schneider
68. Policy and Place—Learning from Decentralized Reforms, Bruce Fuller
69. Early Childhood Education, Lawrence J. Schweinhart and Rachel Fulcher-Dawson
70. Social Stratification and Educational Opportunity, Nathan D. Jones and Barbara Schneider
71. Shadow Education Systems, Chong Jae Lee, Hyun Jeong Park, and Heesook Lee
72. K-16 Transitions and Higher Education Access, Frankie Keels Williams
73. Permeability and Transparency in the High School-College Transition, Jennifer L. Stephan and James E. Rosenbaum
74. Governmental Policy and the Organization of Postsecondary Education, James C. Hearn and T. Austin Lacy
75. The Invisible Hand of World Education Culture: Thoughts for Policy Makers, David Baker
76. Commentary One, C. Kent McGuire
77. Commentary Two, Jeannie Oakes
NAME INDEX
SUBJECT INDEX
Biography
Gary Sykes is a Professor of Educational Administration and Teacher Education at Michigan State University. He specializes in educational policy relating to teaching and teacher education. His research interests center on policy issues associated with the improvement of teaching and teacher education, on the development of leadership preparation programs, and on educational choice as an emerging policy issue.
Barbara Schneider is a John A. Hannah University Distinguished Professor in the College of Education and Department of Sociology at Michigan State University. She holds research appointments at the University of Chicago and NORC, where she is Principal Investigator of the Data Research and Development Center (DRDC). She has published 12 books and over 100 articles and reports on family, social context of schooling, and sociology of knowledge. Professor Schneider is currently conducting a collaborative study with the Michigan Department of Education on using administrative data to make state education policy decision. She was selected by the American Sociological Association as the editor of Sociology of Education.
David N. Plank is Executive Director of Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), an independent policy research center based at the University of California-Berkeley, Stanford University, and the University of Southern California. He was previously a professor at Michigan State University, where he founded and directed the Education Policy Center. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1983. In addition to his work on education policy in the U.S., he has served as a consultant in the areas of educational policy and finance to international organizations including the World Bank, the UNDP, the OECD, USAID, and the Ford Foundation, and also to governments in Africa and Latin America.