(3 credits; 30 hours plus conferences; 15-20 students per offering)
Proposed Course Outline
1. The Policy Process in Education
A. Overview of the Policy Process:
- The complexity and importance of educational policy and politics
- Layers of government and policy development: federal, state, local
- Policy perception and impact at the school level
- Financial interests, stakeholder commitments
- Analyzing intersecting and interdependent issues
B. Systemic Educational Policy: Conceptual Frameworks
- Historical perspectives
- Sociological perspectives
- Economic perspectives
- Political science perspectives
- Legal perspectives
- Educational perspectives
- International perspectives
2. Designing Coherent Educational Policy in the United States
A. Governmental Policy-Making:
- Official educational policy-making
- Policy implementation, evaluation, and change
- Relations among federal, state, and local policy-making processes
B. Interest Groups:
- Unofficial policy-making
- Role in implementation
- Policy influence
C. The Role of Research and "The Research Community"
- Relationships between research and policy
- Research and policy analysis
D. Issues of Equity in the Policy Process
Examples:
- Education for Students with Special Needs
- Education for Language-Minority Students
3. Policy Analysis
A. What is Policy Analysis?
- Relationships between policy analysis and social science
- Relationships among policy analysis and policy, politics, decision making and professional practice
Example: Policy analysis of the merits of the "Systemic Reform Movement".
B. Policy Language and Policy Documents
- The registers and genres of policy documents
- Critical reading of policy documents
- Legislative and legal documents
Examples from U.S. Department of Education, N.Y. State Education Department
C. A Contemporary Policy Theme: Restructuring Schools
- New standards
- Teaching concepts and organizational reform
- Rethinking school governance
- Restructuring in process: districts on the cutting edge
- Integration of special education
D. Key Issues Confronting Policy-Makers Today
- Financing the schools: underfunding versus overtaxing
- Postindustrialism and institutional change in education
- Privatization and competition
- The academy in the marketplace
4. Exploring Policy Analysis through Case Studies [Sample listing]
Note that the Case Studies will be used throughout the course. Listed here are only some current and classic examples; others will be selected each term by the course instructor.
5. Fieldwork & Internships in Core 5
As an integral part of Core 5, students will be involved in (a) fieldwork (usually focused on a particular issue, e.g., one arising in faculty-initiated research), and (b) internships (where a variety of policy issues will be relevant).
Fieldwork Study Focal Issues:
Internships will be in city, state, national, public, and private agencies, institutes, boards, foundations, legislatures, etc. Interns will be placed in the offices and with the staffs of policy-makers and policy leaders where possible.
Preliminary Bibliography
Bailey, William J. Power to the Schools: School Leaders Guidebook to Restructuring. Corwin Press, 1992.
Barnett, W. S. "Benefits of Compensatory Preschool Education," Journal of Human Resources, 27, 1992.
Bliss, J. R., ed. Rethinking Effective Schools: Research and Practice. New York: Prentice Hall.
Bossert, S.T. Tasks and Social Relationships in Classrooms: A Study of Classroom Organization and its Consequences. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
Boyd, William L. & Herbert J. Walberg. Choice in Education. McCutchan, 1990.
Busch, C. & A. Odden. "Introduction to the special issue: Improving educational policy and results with school-level data A synthesis of multiple perspectives," Journal of Educational Finance, 22, 1997, 225-245.
Bryl. A.S. and S.W. Raudenbush. Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods. Sage Publication, 1992.
Carnegie Task Force on Teaching as a Profession. A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy, 1986.
Castells, M. and P. Hall. Technopoles of the World: The Making of Twenty-first Century Industrial Complexes. London: Routledge,1994.
Cohen, D.K. and R.J. Murnane. "The Merits of Merit Pay," Public Interest, 80, 1985.
Cohen, D.K. "Rewarding Teachers for Students Performance," in Incentives and Systemic Reform, Susan Fuhrman and Jennifer Oday, eds. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996.
Cohen, M. "Designing State Assessment Systems," Phi Delta Kappan, 69:8, 1988.
Chubb, J.E. and T.M Moe. Politics, Markets and Americas Schools. Washington: Brookings Institution, 1990.
Clinchy, Evans, ed. Transforming Public Education: A New Course for Americas Future. New York: Teachers College Press, 1997.
Comer, J. P. Yale Child Study Center School Development Program: Developmental History and Long Term Effects. New Haven: Yale Child Study Center, 1986.
Coons, John E. & Stephen D. Sugarman. Education by Choice: The Case for Family Control. Los Angeles: UCLA Press, 1978.
Coleman, J. S. and T. Hoffer. Public and Private High Schools: The Impact of Communities. New York: Basic Books, 1987.
Cuban, L. "Reforming again, again, and again,"Educational Researcher, 19:1, 1990.
Cuban, L. Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology Since 1920. New York: Teachers College Press, 1986.
Darling-Hammond, L. "Educational Indicators and Enlightened Policy," Education Policy, 6, 1992.
Dewey, J. Democracy and Education. New York: Free Press, 1966, [1916].
Elmore, R. F. The Next Generation of Educational Reform. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990.
Fantini, Mario and Marilyn Gittell. Decentralization: Achieving Reform. New York: Praeger, 1973.
Fuhrman, S. New Accountability Systems and Evaluating Systemic Reform. U.S. Department of Education, Planning and Evaluation Service, 1994.
Fullan, Michael G. The New Meaning of Educational Change. New York: Teachers College Press, 1991.
Gittell, Marilyn. School Boards and School Policy: an Evaluation of Decentralization in New York City. New York: Praeger, 1973.
Guthrie, J. W., ed. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 12:3, 1990. (Entire issue).
Hanushek, E.A. and S. Rivkin. Understanding the 20th Century Explosion in U.S. School Costs. Working Paper 388. University of Rochester, Rochester Center for Economic Research, 1994.
Hatch, Thomas. "The Differences in Theory That Matter in the Practice of School Improvement," American Educational Research Journal, 35:1, 1998, 3-31.
Iannoccone, L. and F.W Lutz. Politics, Power and Policy: The Governing of Local School Districts. Columbus: Merrill, 1970.
Jencks, C. and Riesman, D. The Academic Revolution. New York: Doubleday, 1968.
Kouzes, James M. The Leadership Challenge: How to Get Extraordinary Things Done in Organizations. Jossey-Bass, 1990.
Ladd, Helen F., ed. Holding Schools Accountable. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1996.
Levin, H.M. "Learning from Accelerated Schools," in Pew Higher Education Research Program, Policy Perspectives. Philadelphia: Pew Charitable Trusts, 1991.
March, J.G. and J.P. Olsen. Rediscovering Institutions: the Organizational Basis of Politics. New York: Free Press, 1989.
Moe, T.M. "Political Institutions: The Neglected Side of the Story," Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 6, 1990.
Monk, D. Educational finance: An Economic Approach. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990.
Monk, D.H.. "Education Productivity Research: An Update and Assessment of Its Role in Education Finance Reform," Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 14, 1992, 307-332.
Murray, L.B. "Putting it all together at the school level: A principal's perspective," in J. Goodlad, & S. Lovitt, Integrating General and Special Education. New York: Macmillan, 1993.
Nanus, Burt. Visionary Leadership. Jossey-Bass, 1992.
New York State Education Department, Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities. 1998 Agenda for Reforming Education for Students with Disabilities. Albany: 1998.
Odden, A. R. and L.O. P icus. School Finance: A Policy Perspective. McGraw-Hill, 1992.
Odden, A. and L.D. Webb, eds. School Finance and School Improvement: Linkages for the 1980s. Cambridge: Ballinger, 1983.
O'Hair, Mary J. & Sandra J. Odell. Educating Teachers for Leadership and Change. Corwin Press, 1995.
O'Reilly, F. State Special Education Finance Systems, 1992-93. Palo Alto: Center for Special Education Finance, American Institutes for Research, 1993.
Ravitch, D. National Standards in American Education: A Citizens Guide. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1995.
Reich, R.B. The Work of Nations: Preparing ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism. New York: Knopf, 1991.
Rothstein, R., and K.H Miles. Where's the Money Gone? Change in the level and Composition of Education Spending. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute, 1995.
Sarason, S.B. The Predictable Failure of Educational Reform. San Francis: Jossey-Bass, 1995.
Schrag, Judy, ed. "The Continuum of Educational Options: Past, Present, Future," in National Association of State Directors of Special Education, 1998.
Scribner, J.J. and D. H. Layton, eds. The Study of Educational Politics. Washington: Falmer, 1995.
Seeley, David S. Education Through Partnership: Voice, Choice, and Loyalty. New York: Ballinger, 1981.
Senge, Peter M. The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday, 1990.
Sizer, T. Horaces Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
Slavin, R., N.L Karweit, and B.A Wasik. Preventing Early School Failure: Research, Policy and Practice. Allyn and Bacon, 1994.
Tyack, D.B. The One Best System: A History of American Urban Education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974.
Tyack, D. and W. Tobin. "The Grammar of Schooling: Why Has It Been so Hard to Change?," American Educational Research Journal, 31, 1994.
U.S. Department of Education. Digest of Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 1994.
Weiner, Lois. Teachers for Urban Schools: Lessons from Thirty Years of School Reform. New York: Teachers College Press, 1991.
Wilson, Kenneth G. & Bennett Davis. Redesigning Education. New York: Teachers College Press, 1994.
Witte, J. F. and M.E. Rigdon. "Education Choice Reforms: Will They Change American Schools?'" Publius, 23, 1993.