The Roles of State Departments of Education As Policy Intermediaries: Two Cases

Abstract

As the variety of state education agency (SEA) responses to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 demonstrates, different SEAs interpret the same federal educational policy differently. Nonetheless, little research has depicted how federal policies are changed by SEA-based policy intermediaries. Using an “ethnography of educational policy” approach, this article offers two illustrations of mediation processes at the SEA level: Maine’s and Puerto Rico’s initial attempts to implement the federal Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration program. Both attempts show that the mediation process is inevitable and that its general direction can be predicted: Policies will be adapted in ways that better correspond with local problem diagnoses, understandings, and habits of action. The study leaves intact McLaughlin’s assertion that local negotiation and reframing of policy can be a source of improvement or added value. Such improvement is more likely if an expectation of mediation is explicitly accounted for and if what counts as improvement reflects local mores.

English Language Learners, Comprehensive School Reform, and State Education Agencies: An Overlooked Opportunity to Make Comprehensive School Reform Comprehensive

“…Wilde et al's (1999) study stands out as an important but modest exception. Moreover, as Datnow et al (2003), Datnow et al (2002), and Hamann and Lane (2004) pointed out, there is little in the CSR literature that looks at the SEA role in CSR (indeed, an important reason for assembling this issue of the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk is to help remedy this knowledge gap). Because CSR and ELL responsiveness have been conceptualized as separate issues, the concerns of ELL education have often not been on the table when concerns regarding CSR have been broached, except as part of broad and nonspecific language promising responsiveness to "all" students.…”

“…In a small, unpublished 1998 survey referenced in Hamann and Lane (2004), 16 of the 17 model providers named in the federal legislation that created CSRD were asked about their willingness to work in Puerto Rico (a major recipient of CSRD funds). Ten said they lacked Spanish-language materials or were uninterested for other reasons.…”

Introduction: Examining the Roles and Possible Roles of State Departments of Education in Comprehensive School Reform

“…The five articles and one commentary presented in this special issue of JESPAR intend to redress this paucity, while examining more than just SEA roles in shaping context. The understanding in these articles is that SEAs are actors in CSR implementation (Hamann & Lane, 2004).…”

“…Although not directly addressing CSR, Spillane (2001) outlined one facet of needed inquiry with his emphasis on considering the cognition of those involved in policy implementation, including those at SEAs. Brett Lane and I (Hamann & Lane, 2004) tried to outline some of that terrain with our depiction of SEA personnel in Maine and Puerto Rico as policy intermediaries.…”

“…The Obey-Porter Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program, launched in 1997, was even more direct in its emphasis on CSR. All of these initiatives have positioned SEAs as key policy intermediaries (Hamann & Lane, 2004), as SEAs manage how federal resources are disseminated to districts and schools. For these and many other reasons, the roles of SEAs in relation to CSR have become multiple, complex, and sometimes contradictory: SEAs act as promoters, managers, supervisors, initiators, intermediaries, fiduciary agents, and more.…”