Too often we talk about teachers, kids, and the feds as if they existed, alone, in a schoolhouse deep in the woods. Sara Dahill-Brown's adroit book shows how the politics of school districts, state legislatures, school boards, and state commissioners permeate students' experiences. I can think of no better map of contemporary American education. — Arnold F. Shober, associate professor of government, Lawrence University

Education, Equity, and the States is engagingly written and has an intellectual heft and ambition that will garner significant attention within the education policy community. Dahill-Brown tackles the neglected issue of how state-level institutions and cultures drive much of the variation in educational policy in the United States and helps us see important patterns in our policy diversity. — Douglas S. Reed, director, Program in Educational Transformation, Georgetown University