Tamara V. Young

The Politics of Accountability Teacher Education Policy

Drawing on Kingdon’s multiple streams framework, this study examines how teacher education policy has gained prominence on the federal decision agenda in recent years.

Educational Policy Implementation Revisited

This article outlines the rationale for this special issue on educational policy implementation and provides an overview of the articles in this issue. In addition to summarizing each article, we point out how the findings from the different contributions complement, challenge, and complicate not only the findings and conclusions from other works in this issue, but also insights articulated by Honig (2006) and Odden (1991). We conclude with a discussion of the implications from these articles for educational policy implementation research.

Teachers Unions in Turbulent Times: Maintaining Their Niche

Drawing on niche theory, I describe the resource dimensions that compose teachers unions’ niche and explain how aspects of the current political landscape buttress or undermine teachers unions’ realization of those resources. I also discuss teachers unions’ strategies to oppose any threats that undermine the realization of the resource arrays that make up their niche and contend that by not only resisting reforms, but also by adapting to some initiatives and collaborating with reformers to reshape other reforms, teachers unions, in all likelihood, will continue to be a powerful force in the politics of education.

Implementation of a Districtwide Policy to Improve Principals’ Instructional Leadership Principals’ Sensemaking of the Skillful Observation and Coaching Laboratory

This study examines principals’ experiences implementing Skillful Observation and Coaching Laboratory (SOCL), a program designed to help principals become effective instructional leaders. Guided by Karl Weick’s notion of sensemaking, this study sought to identify the components of SOCL that were implemented with fidelity and discover the factors that facilitated or impeded implementation of SOCL. Data for this multiple case study were drawn from interviews with principals, observations of principals coaching teachers, and internal documents. The results showed that content knowledge, preexisting knowledge, structural conditions, social interactions, meaningfulness, identity as an instructional leader, and positive feelings influenced principals’ implementation of SOCL.

The New Politics of Accountability: Research in Retrospect and Prospect

This article describes the origins and goals for this special double issue of Educational Policy, which also represents the 2013 Politics of Education Association Yearbook. We provide an overview of each of the articles that comprise this issue and discuss key themes concerning the new politics of accountability that emerge when we consider the articles collectively. These themes include (a) accountability policy has expanded the number and diversity of political actors; (b) accountability policy has contributed to shifts in traditional alliances; (c) political actors are using traditional and new strategies to influence and respond to accountability policy; (d) accountability policy has altered institutional structures and norms, shifting the distribution of power and resources; (e) accountability policy creates more accountability policy; and (f) the focus on performance- or test-based based accountability has contributed to a decline in democratic accountability.

Structural Location and Reputed Influence in State Reading Policy Issue Networks

Using data about collaborative relationships among 109 reading policy actors from four states, this study investigated the extent to which social capital, operationalized as spanning structural holes, predicted a policy actor’s reputed influence. Regression analysis showed that after controlling for state, centrality, and government entity, having access to structural holes was not related to an actor being perceived as influential in an issue network. Results also indicated that the main effect of being a central actor in a network and the interaction between centrality and a governmental actor were predictors of reputed influence in issue networks.

The Politics of Education and Equity in Turbulent Times: An Introduction

Considered by economists as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the Great Recession has led to severe declines in tax revenues for state and local governments. The precipitous decline in tax revenues along with increases in the demand for publicly funded services have resulted in significant gaps in state budgets. In response to these budget shortfalls, many states have enacted massive budget cuts. Given that elementary and secondary education constitutes the majority of state and local budgets—21.1% of total spending in FY2009 and 20.8% of FY2010 (National Governors Association and National Association of State Budget Officers [NGA & NASBO], 2010a, 2010b)—it comes as no surprise that public education is bearing a significant brunt of government cutbacks. In fact, 26 states and the District of Columbia reported cuts in K-12 education in FY 2009 and 35 in FY 2010 (NGA & NASBO, 2010a, 2010b). These cuts have led to teacher layoffs, furloughs, salary freezes, benefit reductions, facility closings, and the reduction or elimination of a wide range of academic and extracurricular programs. Arizona, for example, eliminated preschool for 4,328 children, and in Hawaii the 2009–2010 school year was shortened by 17 days and teachers were furloughed for those days (Johnson, Oliff, & Williams, 2010). As a result of a

Explaining How Political Actors Gain Strategic Positions: Predictors of Centrality in State Reading Policy Issue Networks.

200 million deficit, the Detroit public school system intends to close 45 schools and layoff teachers (Sulany, 2010). While states and local school districts confront their budget woes, they are also subject to accountability measures required by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and their respective states. Meeting these mandates requires a key resource not available during these lean times, money (Center for Public Education, 2009). As budget pressures remain unabated and states and local districts initiate cuts to grapple with fiscal shortfalls, some reforms that thrived in the accountability era are receiving a boost (e.g., charter schools and privatization; see Bulkley & Burch, this issue, for a discussion of privatization) and other programs are being dramatically curtailed or terminated (e.g., after-school programs). Many of the initiatives being reduced or eliminated target disadvantaged youth. As such, children with the greatest needs and fewest alternatives, at-risk children, may be the most adversely impacted during this fiscal climate. “Teacher layoffs are a case in point. With fewer teachers, classes are larger, which can have a negative effect on student achievement in later grades—especially for disadvantaged students” (Center for Public Education, 2009, para. 40). The loss of 7.2% of funding for the Mississippi Adequate

Understanding Agenda Setting in State Educational Policy: An Application of Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Model to the Formation of State Reading Policy

Using data from interviews with 111 reading policy actors from California, Connecticut, Michigan, and Utah, this study explains how individuals acquire central positions in issue networks. Regression analyses showed that the greater a policy actor’s reputed influence was and the more similar their preferences were to other members in the network, the more central an actor was in a state reading policy network. The findings suggest that reading policy actors were forming relationships with other actors to gain access to influential organizations that have resources that political actors themselves may not possess—irrespective of policy preferences. In addition, the results indicate that central actors in an issue network may indeed hold the minority or majority opinion—marginalization due to divergence is not a given.