James G. Cibulka

The Changing Role of Interest Groups in Education: Nationalization and the New Politics of Education Productivity:

The politics of education in the United States has changed in recent decades from one approximating professionally dominated subgovernments to issue networks, which are characterized by more ideational, macropolitical interest groups as well as shifting and unstable coalitions. This transformation is caused, first, by the growth of national discourse and federal power The two often go hand in hand but are not synonymous, and nationalizing influences have expanded despite unresolved debate about the federal role in education. Other courses include the intensified debate, divergent demands for reform of public schools, and the expanding role of the political right. The new politics of education productivity has reshaped the way discourse on education policy is conducted and the perceptions of common interests. Despite nationalizing trends in setting policy agendas, implementation of reforms is dominated by local politics, where micropolitical interests often frustrate reformers. This tension is built into our political system.

Fearful Reformers The Institutionalization of the Christian Right in American Politics

This research article analyzes the ways that the Christian right uses fear as an instrument in the politics of education. The main source of data for this analysis draws from source-protected interviews with directors in state-level Christian right organizations. A semistructured, elite interviewing approach was used. The authors reframe the debate in the scholarly literature over whether fear is used disingenuously or whether it has a rational basis in the belief systems of the Christian right. Instead, the authors address how the Christian rights political power became institutionalized in recent decades through interest groups, policy entrepreneurs, advocacy coalitions, and national political party alliances. Finally, the article evaluates the role that fear continues to play as both a belief and a tactic as the Christian right has moved into the political mainstream.

Editors' Introduction to the Politics of Accountability: Challenges in Retrospect

This collection reports the outcomes of an international policy research project from 1994 to 1997 that was concerned with how power is being used in education to construct and discharge obligations between stakeholders, and to suggest how such processes might better serve educational ends. Research was commissioned and gathered that examined how the politics of education at site and systemic levels have been contributing to the reconstruction of accountability policies in an international policy context, a context characterised by conceptual disarray, multiple reform strategies, blunt administrative instruments, and plural political cultures. The primary finding of the project is that a responsible politics of accountability are needed at all levels to reconnect the processes and criteria of accountability to learning, teaching, leading, and governing. Such educative politics can both bestow legitimacy and generate improvement.

The Politics of Accountability: Research in Prospect

This collection of articles has reported international policy research on how power is being used in education to build and discharge obligations between stakeholders: the politics of accountability. The research reported shows well how the politics of education at site and systemic levels have been helping to reconstruct accountability policies. This concluding article offers afresh angle on the research reported by examining the extent to which the processes of reconstructing accountability policies might yet help improve the quality of politics in education. It finds that the politics of accountability need to be respected and developed as part of policy coherence testing in systems and schools and as central to the process of legitimating practices.

Three Researchers Reflect: Vignettes and Verities

This article is a little different from the others in this yearbook. The editors asked three senior policy researchers to discuss their own work and experiences in the politics of education research. In these narratives, they reflect about their personal experiences in the political arena of education research and consider what sense they make of it. James Cibulka (University of Maryland) discusses his confrontation with the State of Wisconsin in his investigation of the role of the state superintendent and the state teachers’group. Betty Malen (University of Maryland) reviews her experiences with research on site-based management. Paul Peterson (Harvard University) provides a personal view of his involvement in doing research on choice and markets.