The Semantics of State Policy Making: The Case of "At Risk"

Placier, Margaret

doi:10.2307/1164536

Cited by 3 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…CSI schools also needed to conduct a needs assessment and develop and implement a school improvement plan, sometimes with support from their district or state. Thus, the minimum state, district, and school responses advanced by ESSA continue many of the same policy responses since the emergence of state accountability systems in the U.S. (Placier, 1993).…”

Section: Policy Context: Identifying Csi Schools In Essamentioning

confidence: 91%

State ESSA Plans and Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) Status

2022

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The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) offers states increased flexibility in how they identify, rank, label, and support underperforming schools. Initial reviews of state ESSA plans, however, suggest that identification and labeling policies have remained relatively unchanged. In this study, we analyze all state ESSA plans to systematically determine how states’ identified Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) schools and the criteria they set for those schools to exit CSI status. We describe our findings through the theory of institutional isomorphism, noting the many ways states responded similarly to ESSA. We close by considering what the lack of innovation in response to ESSA flexibility might mean for the future of educational policy and the implications for schools identified as underperforming.

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Section: Policy Context: Identifying Csi Schools In Essamentioning

confidence: 91%

State ESSA Plans and Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) Status

2022

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“…While delinquent referred to a state of being, at risk suggested a vulnerable person in need of help. Placier (1993) argued that at risk became a buzzword because it was vague enough to be defined broadly or narrowly, depending on the purpose. However, Bernstein and Mason both point out that "at risk" focused on the negative.…”

Section: Thread 4 -Productions Of and Possibilities For Response-abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Patchworking Response-ability in Science and Technology Education

Higgins¹,

Mahy²,

Aghasaleh³

et al. 2019

RERM

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Within science and technology education, concepts of justice, in/equity, and ethics within science education are simultaneously ubiquitous, necessary, yet un(der)theorized. Consequently, the potential for reproducing and reifying systems of power remains ever present. In response, there is a recent but growing movement within science and technology education that follows the call by Kayumova and colleagues (2019) to move “from empowerment to response-ability.” It is a call to collectively organize, reconfigure, and reimagine science and technology education by taking seriously critiques of Western modern science and technology from its co-constitutive exteriority (e.g., feminist critiques). Herein, we pursue the (re)opening of responsiveness with/in methodology by juxtaposing differential, partial, and situated accounts of response-ability: de/colonizing the Anthropocene in science teacher education in Canada (Higgins); speculative fiction at the science-ethics nexus in secondary schooling in Australia (Mahy); and a reciprocal model for teaching and learning computational competencies with Latinx youth in the US (Aghasaleh and Enderle).

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“…As Fairclough (1992) notes, "Discourse as a political process is not only a site of power struggle, but also a stake in power struggle" (p. 67). Policy language is worth struggling over because the words that label a problem constrain the solution (Best, 1990;Edelman, 1984;Fairclough, 1992;Gee, 1990;Schön, 1979) and advance certain interests and values (Chilton & Shaffner, 1997;Clark & Astuto, 1989;Marshall, Mitchell, & Wirt, 1989;Placier, 1993). Yet, paradoxically, Bolinger and Sears (1981) hold that in a competitive, politicized society people strive for a "denatured" language, on the surface devoid of direct reference to politics, emotion, or prejudice (see also Edelman, 1977).…”

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Policy language also matters because the most well-intended outcomes will not be realized if those to whom implementation is delegated have difficulty interpreting the policy (Hall, 1995). Imprecisely worded policies lead to divergent local interpretations (Placier, 1993(Placier, , 1996Hill, 2001); too-specific policies leave little room for local discretion (Corson, 1995). Policies written in the "jargon" of a professional group (e.g., many laws) are difficult for outsiders to understand (Hill, 2001).…”

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Writing the “Show-Me” Standards: Teacher Professionalism and Political Control in U.S. State Curriculum Policy

2002

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This qualitative case study analyzes the process of writing academic standards in one U.S. state, Missouri. The researchers took a critical pragmatic approach, which entailed close examination of the intentions and interactions of various participants in the writing process (teachers, politicians, business leaders, the public), in order to understand the text that was finally produced. School reform legislation delegated responsibility for writing the standards to a teacher work group, but the teachers found that their "professional" status and their intention to write standards that reflected a "constructivist" view of knowledge would meet with opposition. Politicians, who held different assumptions about the audience, organization, and content of the standards, exercised their greater power to control the outcome of the process. As the researchers analyzed public records and documents generated during the writing process, they constructed a chronological narrative detailing points of tension among political actors. From the narrative, they identified four conflicts that significantly influenced the final wording of the standards. They argue that as a consequence of these conflicts, Missouri's standards are characterized by a dichotomous view of content and process; bland, seemingly value-neutral language; and lack of specificity. Such conflicts and outcomes are not limited to this context. A comparative, international perspective shows that they seem to occur when groups in societies marked by political conflicts over education attempt to codify what "all students should know." What should students know and be able to do? This study examines what happened when policymakers addressed this question in the process of writing academic standards 1 for public school students in one midwestern U.S. state, Missouri. Four conflicts arose during the process.

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The Semantics of State Policy Making: The Case of "At Risk"

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

State ESSA Plans and Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) Status

State ESSA Plans and Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) Status

Patchworking Response-ability in Science and Technology Education

Writing the “Show-Me” Standards: Teacher Professionalism and Political Control in U.S. State Curriculum Policy

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