Education Policy

Lessons from a Half-Century of Federal Efforts to Improve America’s Schools
Edited by Frederick M. Hess and Andrew P. Kelly
This timely book brings together a remarkable group of authors who examine the federal role in education policy and reform during the past fifty years.
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The Portfolio Management Model and Urban School Governance
Katrina E. Bulkley, Julie A. Marsh, Katharine O. Strunk, Douglas N. Harris, and Ayesha K. Hashim
In Challenging the One Best System, a team of leading education scholars offers a rich comparative analysis of the set of urban education governance reforms collectively known as the “portfolio management model.” They investigate the degree to which this model—a system of schools operating under different types of governance and with different degrees of autonomy—challenges the standard structure of district governance famously characterized by David Tyack as “the one best system.”
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A Practical Guide for School and Community Leaders
Paul Reville and Lynne Sacks
Collaborative Action for Equity and Opportunity provides a how-to guide for education, government, and community leaders interested in creating cross-sector systems of support for students. These collaborations strive to close achievement and opportunity gaps and to help children overcome problems stemming from poverty, racism, and other societal ills.
Available April 2021
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A Special Issue of the Harvard Educational Review
This special issue of the Harvard Educational Review considers the challenges and opportunities facing President Barack Obama in his efforts to reform educational policy and practice in the United States.
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How Variations in State Governance Make or Break Reform
Sara E. Dahill-Brown
Education, Equity, and the States examines how variations in state governance determine how federal initiatives are implemented and makes recommendations for approaching reform from this perspective. The book defines the key ways in which state policy environments differ from one another, illustrates how those differences matter, and encourages reformers to account for these disparities to achieve more sustained and equitable improvement.
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Edited by Frederick M. Hess and Michael Q. McShane
In Educational Entrepreneurship Today, Frederick M. Hess and Michael Q. McShane assemble a diverse lineup of high-profile contributors to examine the contexts in which new initiatives in education are taking shape. They inquire into the impact of entrepreneurship on the larger field—including the development and deployment of new technologies—and analyze the incentives, barriers, opportunities, and tensions that support or constrain innovation.
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Why Money Matters for America's Students
Bruce D. Baker
In Educational Inequality and School Finance, Bruce D. Baker offers a comprehensive examination of how US public schools receive and spend money. Drawing on extensive longitudinal data and numerous studies of states and districts, he provides a vivid and dismaying portrait of the stagnation of state investment in public education and the continuing challenges of achieving equity and adequacy in school funding.
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Realizing the Promise in K–12 Education
Carolyn J. Heinrich, Jennifer Darling-Aduana, and Annalee G. Good
Equity and Quality in Digital Learning identifies and presents specific strategies and practices for using digital tools to reduce inequities in educational opportunities and improve student outcomes.
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Lorraine M. McDonnell and M. Stephen Weatherford
In Evidence, Politics, and Education Policy, political scientists Lorraine M. McDonnell and M. Stephen Weatherford provide an original analysis of evidence use in education policymaking to help scholars and advocates shape policy more effectively. The book shows how multiple types of evidence are combined as elected officials and their staffs work with researchers, advocates, policy entrepreneurs, and intermediary organizations to develop, create, and implement education policies.
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The Global Challenge of Educating High-Ability Students
Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Brandon L. Wright
2016 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice
In this provocative volume, Chester E. Finn, Jr., and Brandon L. Wright argue that, for decades, the United States has done too little to focus on educating students to achieve at high levels. The authors identify two core problems: First, compared to other countries, the United States does not produce enough high achievers. Second, students from disadvantaged backgrounds are severely underrepresented among those high achievers. The authors describe educating students to high levels of achievement as an issue of both equity and human capital: talented students deserve appropriate resources and attention, and the nation needs to develop these students’ abilities to remain competitive in the international arena.
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