State-level postsecondary education governance has experienced a lull in successful reform efforts since the turn of the century. However, in 2020, the Utah System of Higher Education and Utah System of Technical Colleges were formally merged following a multi-year effort by state legislators and higher education officials. Framed by the theory of…

This article presents the findings from a yearlong narrative inquiry of teacher enactment of state mandated curricular reform in middle level social studies. Four brief narratives and cross-narrative themes are presented to provide examples of the complexities of teacher decision making and positionality when implementing new reforms. Analysis…

Teachers, leaders, reformers, policymakers, and advocates all comprehend the weightiness of reading instruction, experiences, and outcomes for society, schools, and children. There have been numerous waves of reading reform, with federal, state, and local policies addressing numerous aspects of reading instruction. Currently, there are numerous…

Many educators and policymakers have long recognized the need to transform schools and classrooms to better support students' academic, social, and emotional needs. The increased stress, mental health challenges, disconnection and disengagement, and inequities observed during the pandemic have reaffirmed the need to create safe, welcoming learning…

The assetisation of education explicates a major shift in how the state understands education. Education is not only an immaterial public good available to everybody but can be treated also as a promotable group of assets. This article discusses the case of a certain period in the Finnish education export. The analysis shows how the Finnish state…

Dual enrollment (DE) is a popular reform in the United States that allows high school students to take college courses through partnerships between school districts and institutions of higher education. DE programs have been scaling rapidly, but participation is stratified by race and class, and research reveals little about the quality and…

This article explores introduced tenure bans, meaning state-level legislation proposing eliminating tenure protections within all or part of a public higher education system. We describe such bills 2012-2022 and explore state-level political, economic, social, and higher education conditions associated with introducing a tenure ban. Tenure bans…

At their best, state boards of education use data to drive policymaking, but achievement results related to civics are not fueling the change needed. Just 22 percent of eighth grade students across the country are working at the Proficient level in civics on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. Last administered in 2022, the…

This paper describes the author's personal involvement with issues of policy and implementation that were sparked by the "Lau" decision. Topics included are student assessment, the bilingual education wars, the role of research, the paradigm shift with the advent of standards, and California state policy in the education of English…

This study complements literature on state policymaking by exploring one state's achievement trends and policymaking during a period of remarkable achievement gains. I use mixed methods, drawing on hierarchical linear modeling and semi-structured interviews with policy actors, to explore the case of Tennessee in the post-recession period. Results…

Although the COVID pandemic dramatically expanded K-12 remote learning in its first years, little is known about the lasting effects on virtual schooling policies and practices. Drawing on evolutionary theories of change and qualitative data from 2019 to 2022, we explore this topic in Oregon, a state with a long history of virtual schools. We find…

Over the past decade, Illinois has emerged as a national exemplar of how state policy can drive systemic change in civics education. The Illinois Civic Mission Coalition, a pan-ideological alliance of educators, policymakers, and civic organizations, has shaped the state's civics education vision. The coalition built a scalable infrastructure of…

The author examines and critiques Ohio's new education policy in the context of historical education policy.

In many school districts, the policies that regulate teaching personnel are governed by collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). While there is significant policy attention that has affected the scope of these agreements, there is relatively little research on how CBAs vary over time, or whether they change in response to states' legislative…

Competency-based testing and credentialing (CBTC) initiatives aim to address inequity in adult education by fundamentally changing how states use GED®, HiSET®, and TASC™ test scores to award and withhold high school equivalency credentials. However, CBTC is inconsistent with how developers intend states to use those scores. Accordingly, it falls…