This study is a randomized controlled trial that assessed the impact of Early College High Schools on students' high school graduation, college enrollment, and college degree attainment, as well as students' high school experiences using extant data and survey data. The study included 10 Early Colleges that enrolled students in Grades 9 to 12 in 2005 through 2011 and used a lottery for admissions, and 2,458 students who participated in those admission lotteries. The study time frame covered Grade 9 through 2 years post high school for all students and 4 years post high school for the oldest student cohort. It found that Early Colleges had positive impacts on college enrollment and college completion as well as students' high school experiences.

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This study assessed policy actors' influence on state reading policy and compared the structure of reading policy networks across eight states. Data for the study came from structured interviews and archival documents and were analyzed using social network analysis methods. This study found that state reading policy networks were heterogeneous in terms of both composition and policy actor influence, with government actors occupying significantly more central and more prestigious network positions than nongovernment actors. The analyses failed to confirm, however, that teacher organizations were the most central interest groups in state reading policy networks as hypothesized. Implications of this study for education policy actors were discussed and directions for future research suggested.

Reading became a hotbed of policy activity during the 1990s with both state and federal policymakers launching major initiatives to raise reading achievement. When President George W. Bush introduced his Reading First initiative in early 2001, we saw a unique opportunity to investigate the policy processes, antecedents, and unplanned events surrounding an important and potentially controversial initiative. We began with the assumption that major policy changes are typically made by powerful actors operating in relatively open issue networks. In regard to the Reading First legislation, however, we found a small clique of inside policy entrepreneurs who fashioned major changes in a short period. Upon recognizing this condition, we expanded the research purpose to describe the actions of this insider policy group.

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