Background: College-completion policies dominate state higher education policy agendas. Yet we know little about how policy actors make decisions--and what sources of evidence they use--within this policy domain. Focus of Study: This study explores the use of evidence in college-completion policymaking in depth, focusing on Texas. In addition to…

California has long been a national and global leader in developing and maintaining quality higher education options, as well as in providing financial aid and consumer protections for Californians who access that education. However, although California's colleges and the state government do collect, receive, and report a great deal of data, these…

This paper reports on two processes used to begin a long-term series of studies on educational power structures in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Purposes of the study were to determine if (1) substrata or pools of power undergird educational power structures, (2) certain paths to power are…

Examined how special-interest groups influence policy formulation at the state level. Researchers interviewed 46 legislators and lobbyists to trace behind-the-scenes decision making, as the Texas Legislature hastily (and misguidedly) crafted an omnibus bill with a per-pupil spending change encouraging the mainstreaming of severely disabled…

This case study describes and interprets the process through which State-level policy decisions are made for the public schools of Texas. The report begins with brief treatments of the socioeconomic environment and political culture within which education takes place. State governmental arrangements for public school policy are described, and four…