This study applies a conceptual framework which examines the proximity that individuals and groups have to education policy making, as well as stakeholders' historical access to educational decision-making in Hawaii. The purpose of this study is to understand the role of the Hawaii State Teacher's Association (HSTA) and the contracts the union had…

Educational policy debates are no longer occurring exclusively in academic or governmental settings. Intermediary actors are promoting research using a variety of traditional and non-traditional media to advance and oppose policy agendas. Given the current policy arena, it is useful to re-examine the research underlying current reforms, and to…

In response to the dearth of research agendas that connect teacher education and teaching in the field and to the call for more programmatic research, the purpose of this paper is to present the Agenda for Researching Teaching (ART). The ART is a visual research agenda that spans the time from a teacher candidate learning to teach to impacting…

In 2009, a seldom-used policy lever emerged in the form of a competitive grant program, Race to the Top (RTTT), and sparked a flurry of state-led initiatives as states vied for federal dollars. The current study examines the policymaking context that surrounded these events and propelled Tennessee to the top of the race among the states. Through…

As part of the "American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009," the U.S. Department of Education sponsored the "Race to the Top" competition to encourage education reforms anchored in improving teacher effectiveness as a driver for improving student-achievement outcomes and closing achievement gaps. The New York State…

The aim of this essay is to advance understandings of current efforts to democratize disciplined approaches to educational innovation and improvement in the US and other countries, with a specific focus on the macro-level policy contexts of improvement research in education. In the US, earlier analyses examined these policy contexts from a…

Educational policies such as Race to the Top in the USA affirm a central role for testing systems in government-driven reform efforts. Such reform policies are often referred to as the global education reform movement (GERM). Changes observed with the GERM style of testing demand socially engaged validity theories that include consequential…

This article draws from Stephen Ball's work on markets, managerialism, and performativity to frame a comparative study that examines the reconstitution of the teacher-subject across a pivotal decade in which neoliberal standards and accountability reforms effected significant changes in US education. It juxtaposes two qualitative studies conducted…

Background/Context:Federal policy, as codified in Race to the Top (RTT) funding guidelines, outlines four types of intervention: turnaround, restart, closure, and transformation. RTT has embraced a technocratic paradigm for school reform that frames choice less as the opportunity for the public to deliberate about what it wants from its schools…

Background/Context: Blended learning--a learning model in which online learning is combined with faceto- face instruction to provide a more personalized learning experience for students--has shown enormous growth in recent years. Though many policymakers and educators are optimistic about the potential of blended learning to provide the type of…

The state of Florida has taken an unprecedented approach to teacher professional development in its Race to the Top (RTTT) Program application by proposing to promote an international innovation that originates in Japan, "lesson study," as a statewide teacher professional development model. Since winning the US$700 million RTTT funding…

Principal standards and license requirements in each of the 50 states are analyzed in this qualitative study in light of federal Race to the Top incentives for states to strengthen school leadership preparation and practice. Nineteen states have adopted the 2008 Educational Leadership Consortium Council (ELCC) standards verbatim and the remaining…

This report describes common and unique approaches that Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest Region states have adopted in developing and implementing their quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs). A QRIS is a method for assessing, improving, and communicating the quality of early childhood education and care providers. The study…

High-stakes testing has been a part of American education since its inception. The laws that govern the use of high-stakes tests include language that mandates the inclusion of students in special education. These laws play an influential role in the new large-scale assessments aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The assessments…

This document is from a featured presentation at the 2018 annual conference of the Science Teachers Association of Texas (STAT). The public schools are a fundamental element of our democratic society, and they have been the pathway to opportunity and a better life for generations of Americans. But at present, the American public school system is…