Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Researching Toward a New Politics of Education Part 1: Federal, State, and Local Politics of Education 2. Federalism, Equity, and Accountability in Education 3. Understanding Education Policy Change in the American States: Lessons from Political Science 4. Political Cultures in Education at the State and Local Level: Views From Three States 5. Understanding School Board Politics: Balancing Public Voice and Professional Power 6. Urban Regime Theory and the Reform of Public Schools: Governance, Power and Leadership 7. Judicial Impact on Education Politics and Policies 8. Hitting a Moving Target: How Politics Determines the Changing Roles of Superintendents and School Boards 9. Beyond Pluralistic Patterns of Power: Research on the Micro-politics of Schools 10. The Evolving Political Role of Urban Mayors in Education, Fritz Edelstein & J.D. LaRock Part 2: Interest Groups and Institutional Effects on Educational Politics 11. Politics of Interest: Interest Groups and Advocacy Coalitions in American Education 12. Institutional Agility: Using the New Institutionalism to Guide School Reform 13. Religious Faith and Policy in Public Education: A Political and Historical Analysis of the Christian Right in American Schooling 14. The Ideological and Political Landscape of School Choice Interest Groups in the Post-Zelman Era 15. The Collective Politics of Teacher Unionism Part 3: The Politics of Equity and Excellence 16. Feminism and Education Politics: No Longer for Women Only 17. Politics, Empirical Evidence and Policy Design: The Case of School Finance and the Costs of Educational Adequacy 18. The Shifting Notion of "Publicness" in Public Education 19. The Politics of Coordinated Services for Children: Inter-institutional Relations and Social Justice 20. Excellence versus Equity: Political Forces in the Education of Gifted Students 21. The Politics of (De)Segregation 22. Towards a New Political Leadership Praxis in the Rescaled Space of Urban Educational Governance