There are three reasons conservatives should support making access to a high-quality public education a constitutionally protected civil right. First, a constitutional right to a high-quality public education should not confer a right to sue for individual services. Second, elected governors and legislators, not judges, would continue to make…

Understanding how key governance roles are structured and relate to each other helps clarify complex systems for policymakers. Every state has the same or similar policymaking roles; however, each of the roles operate differently in the context of each state's governance model. This interactive resource provides a national overview of the key…

This dissertation systematically explores the origins and evolution of the charter school movement in the United States from 1985 to 2015. I begin by analyzing the role of governors in K-12 education policymaking and find that while governors have generally placed greater emphasis on K-12 education policy over time, Republican governors have…

Poised at a bifurcation, the educator preparation community in Vermont faced either the adoption of a generic product for the assessment of initial educator licensure candidates or the comprehensive revision of a longstanding state-based assessment portfolio. Using a case study approach and narrative methods, specifically the Narrative Policy…

This study investigated policymaker dependence on evidence in education decision making in Oyo State Ministry of Education. The study was conducted under a descriptive survey design, 44 out of the 290 policymakers of the Ministry and Board of Education across the State were purposively selected for the study. Descriptive statistics of frequency…

In this article, Kelley and Mead consider changes in the policymaking process in Wisconsin before the election of Governor Walker, in the early years following his election, and in the months preceding passage of the 2015-17 biennial budget. Kelley and Mead argue that in Wisconsin, serious and significant attacks to public education motivated by…

For most of U.S. history, local communities were the primary arbiters of school quality. Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, states began assuming more and more control over school standards and outcomes. The question we seek to answer is whether and the extent to which a particular kind of local voice--the voice of education practitioners--is…

With the achievement gap beginning to manifest in children as young as nine months, and 90 percent of brain development occurring during the first five years of life, chiefs are committed to expanding and upgrading early childhood programs and strengthening early elementary teaching and learning to provide equal educational opportunities for every…

Drawing on interview data from reading policy actors in California, Michigan, and Texas, this study applied Kingdon's (1984, 1995) multiple streams model to explain how the issue of reading became prominent on the agenda of state governments during the latter half of the 1990s. A combination of factors influenced the status of a state's reading…

This report provides basic information about the responsibilities and roles of governors in relation to education. Information was derived from published sources and supplemented by a questionnaire sent to all governors' offices. The information is concerned primarily with structural and legal arrangements that shape the governor's formal role in…

Seeks to determine the personal characteristics and career backgrounds of state legislators, what they believe about their policy role and about educational issues, to whom they turn for information on the public schools, and which actors, besides themselves, they perceive as influential in deciding school legislation. (Author/IRT)

This treatment of State governance models is one of two major reports prepared by the Educational Governance Project. In addition, there are twelve case study reports, each devoted to policymaking for the public schools in a particular State. This report is designed to serve as a point of beginning for any person or group of persons in a State…

This paper presents findings of a case study that examined the influences that shaped an Ohio governor's education reform proposals from a vantage point inside the governor's office, during the late 1980s. Data were obtained through document analysis (of the period from fall 1987 to January 1989), interviews with the governor, and a literature…

The Chancellor's charge to the President sets forth the principles and guidelines each will follow in their respective roles. The Board of Regents of the State of New York sets educational policy and rules for the execution of the policy. The newly elected President of the State University and Commissioner of Education will execute the policy.…

Individual members of state legislatures wield the greatest influence in state level policy formation. This was one of the findings of a study that identified the power and influence context of state-level policymaking. Data were gathered from six states (Arizona, California, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Illinois) using an instrument…