Evidence of the Impact of School Reform on Systems Governance and Educational Bureaucracies in the United States

Sunderman, Gail L.

doi:10.3102/0091732x09349796

Cited by 22 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…The Reagan era also saw an increase in attention to market-based solutions to the problems of education-a focus that has only expanded with time. According to Sunderman (2010), the focus on market-oriented reforms "appealed to a political culture and rhetoric that assumed the superiority of private-sector solutions to public solutions" (p. 233). In the 1990s, with the passage of Goals 2000 and the Improving America's Schools Act, federal and state policy pressed for new systems of student accountability and the development of state-level standards.…”

Section: Federal Policy As Drivermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Beginning with the Progressive Era emphasis on having the "professionals" take the lead in public education, organizations of professional educators (especially teacher unions) long-dominated educational politics (Sunderman, 2010;Tyack, 1974). At the federal level, DeBray-Pelot (2007) argued that this tight relationship began to fray in the 1970s and 1980s, and that, in the 1980s and 1990s, three disconnected networks were operating around federal education policy-conservative think tanks tied with conservative Republican staff; civil rights groups tied to liberal Democratic staff; and the centrist Progressive Policy Institute, an arm of the Democratic Leadership Council, operating as a broker at times.…”

Section: Political Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Changing Nature of Private Engagement in Public Education: For-Profit and Nonprofit Organizations and Educational Reform

Bulkley

Burch

2011

Peabody Journal of Education

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Recent years have seen a shifting landscape around private engagement in K-12 public education, one that involves a reorientation of education policy and practice around the principles of the marketplace. In this article, we examine the roles of both not-for-profit and for-profit agencies, as distinct from government agencies, in this movement. Past research has generally focused on subsets of these private actors (i.e., for-profit firms, charter management organizations, or alternative preparers of educators for public schools). We try to look more broadly in order to examine how private actors and the roles of those players in K-12 education are changing, both in terms of the scope of their engagement and the extent to which their role increasingly involves areas at the core of educational practice. In doing so, we consider some of the reasons for these changes, including the influence of federal policy, markets as drivers, and the broader political context. We conclude by raising questions for future research and examining how these developments intersect with values such as democratic voice, equitable distribution of resources, and the public purposes of schooling.The landscape of private engagement in K-12 public education is shifting. Both in the United States and abroad, there exists a movement to reorient education policy and practice around the principles of the marketplace. The ideas behind this movement, frequently referred to as neoliberalism, are based on the premise that the marketplace can provide more efficient solutions than the public sector to pressing social problems (Burch, 2009). The changes under way cut across different levels of schools (e.g., from preschool to higher education), different sectors (e.g., health care, prisons, transportation) and continents (e.g.,

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Section: Federal Policy As Drivermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Political Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Changing Nature of Private Engagement in Public Education: For-Profit and Nonprofit Organizations and Educational Reform

Bulkley

Burch

2011

Peabody Journal of Education

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“…NCLB signaled a shift in emphasis toward federal accountability discourse focused on addressing racial and socioeconomic disparities in educational achievement (Carey, 2013, Gregory, Skiba, & Noguera, 2010Koyama & Kania, 2014;Sunderman, 2010 the five seasons of The Wire, up to the premiere of Waiting for "Superman," for-profit enterprises, charter schools, alternative educator preparation programs, and outside funding streams were having a growing influence on public education (Bulkley & Burch, 2011;Burch, 2006). While scholars were increasingly concerned that NCLB accountability measure were failing (Koyama & Kania, 2014), teachers, teacher unions, and teacher preparation programs were also increasingly being vilified in the press and in policy decisions (Goldstein, 2010).…”

Section: School Reform Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Popular Media Portrayals of Inequity and School Reform inThe WireandWaiting for “Superman”

Gerstl‐Pepin

2015

Peabody Journal of Education

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“…Even before the nation was founded, local school boards familiar with communities' concerns administered schools and correspondingly levied local property taxes to fund them (Kaestle, 2001). According to Sunderman (2010), "[Early on], the system was decentralized and neither the federal nor state government exercised much control over many kinds of education decisions at the local level" (p.228).…”

Section: Financing Education In the United Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Federal Solutions to School Fiscal Crises

2011

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Applying a Multiple Streams framework, the article documents the development and ultimate undoing of what became known as the national sales tax plan for education. The authors identify four factors that coalesced to lead the Nixon administration to propose replacing local property taxes with a federal value-added tax to finance K-12 education. They further delineate key supporters and opponents, along with their arguments for and against the plan, finding that intergovernmental tension between administration officials and state governors, opposition on Capitol Hill, public opinion, a supreme court ruling, and the Watergate scandal came together to unravel the plan before it could be formally introduced in Congress. Finally, the authors discuss what this case tells us about the complexity federalism brings to public school finance.

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Evidence of the Impact of School Reform on Systems Governance and Educational Bureaucracies in the United States

Cited by 22 publications

References 48 publications

The Changing Nature of Private Engagement in Public Education: For-Profit and Nonprofit Organizations and Educational Reform

The Changing Nature of Private Engagement in Public Education: For-Profit and Nonprofit Organizations and Educational Reform

Popular Media Portrayals of Inequity and School Reform inThe WireandWaiting for “Superman”

Federal Solutions to School Fiscal Crises

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