Provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive review of contemporary research in education policy implementation. A companion to Allan R. Odden’s Education Policy Implementation, also published by SUNY Press, this book presents original work by a new generation of scholars contributing to education policy implementation research. The contributors define education policy implementation as the product of the interaction among particular policies, people, and places. Their analyses of previous generations of implementation research reveal that contemporary findings not only build directly on lessons learned from the past, but also seek to deepen past findings. These contemporary researchers also break from the past by seeking a more nuanced, contingent, and rigorous theory-based explication of how implementation unfolds. They argue that researchers and practitioners can help improve education policy implementation by not asking simply what works, but rather focusing their attention on what works, for whom, where, when, and why. Meredith I. Honig is Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Washington at Seattle.

This volume offers a comprehensive discussion of implementation analysis in higher education and an extensive review of relevant recent literature. Coverage analyzes the effective and specific complexities of the implementation of higher education policies in several countries, including: Australia, Austria, Finland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

This supplemental text for educational policy, administration, and program evaluation courses provides a framework for examining the following crucial questions. To what extent have state and federal initiated policies actually been implemented during the past 25 years? and To what degree does implementation lead to effectiveness? At a time when critical understanding of the issues is essential for good decision making, this volume provides a valuable tool for teachers, students, and makers of educational policy.

This book analyzes the challenges of developing and implementing effective policies for educational leadership in South-East Europe (SEE) and the Nordic-Baltic region. While individual countries from the Nordic-Baltic region are praised for their educational achievements, the SEE region could be considered as a (post)transitional landscape: these two educational contexts present their own unique challenges, notably international benchmarking and the ‘Europeization’ of educational policy. Seamlessly integrating theoretical framework with the goals and experiences of actors and practitioners, the editors and contributors build an accessible overview of existing policy research and its conflicting theoretical perspectives. Often disregarded by the mainstream literature, the countries and regions chosen provide a snapshot into the challenges of developing policies for educational leadership. This thoughtful yet practical volume will be of interest and value not only to students and scholars of educational leadership in these regions, but to practitioners and policy makers more widely.

This book provides a highly accessible overview of public education policy. It organizes knowledge about 21st century education policy around two main topics: the policy process, and the discourse on public education policy. This unique organization provides a novel lens for better understanding the dynamics and contents of current education policy making. The work also offers a broad overview of theories of public policy, economics, demography, sociology, history, and psychology. Each chapter includes a discussion of data derived from the international and Israeli contexts. The book provides a series of valuable insights relevant to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers interested in understanding the multifaceted aspects that shape contemporary education policy.

A supplemental text for courses in education policy, adminstration, and program evaluation. Analyzes to what extent state and federal education policy has actually been implemented over the past 25 years, and to what degree the implementation has led to effectiveness. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Between the State and the Schoolhouse examines the Common Core State Standards from the initiative's promising beginnings to its disappointing outcomes. Situating the standards in the long history of state and federal efforts to shape education, the book describes a series of critical lessons that highlight the political and structural challenges of large-scale, top-down reforms. Education policy expert Tom Loveless argues that there are too many layers between the state and the classroom for a national standards approach to be effective. Specifically, he emphasizes the significant gap between states' roles in designing education policy and teachers' roles as implementers of policy. In addition, he asserts that top-down policies are unpredictable, subject to political and ideological pressures, and vulnerable to the pendulum effect as new reforms emerge in response to previous ones. One of the most ambitious education reforms of the past century, the Common Core aimed to raise student success, prepare larger numbers of students for both college and careers, and close achievement gaps. Yet, as Loveless documents, a decade later there remains a lack of significant positive impact on student learning. Between the State and the Schoolhouse marks an important contribution to the debate over the standards movement and the role of federal and state governments in education reform.