educational policy essay

Education policies and strategies

Education is a complex system with many interconnected subsystems and stakeholders. Any decision taken on one component at one level of education brings change to other components and subsystems. This interconnectedness requires policy and decision-makers to ensure that coherent and consistent education policy and strategic frameworks are in place from a sector and system perspective. Emerging challenges such as rapid digitalization, increasing inequality and disruptions caused by climate change, pandemics and conflicts, demand that countries develop resilient and sustainable policies and strategies on which to build efficient, relevant and transformative education systems.

What you need to know about education policies and strategies

Education is one of the largest public sectors often taking up 15-20% of a government's total budget and employing many teachers as civil servants. All education sub-sectors (from early childhood to higher education and beyond) as well as different elements of education (e.g. teachers, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment) must work in sync to support a learner’s lifelong and life-wide learning, as well as their successful social and economic integration. Therefore, education ministries need to define coherently and systemically what the system should achieve, the policy priorities and strategies to deploy to implement that vision and development options and actions that are executable, measurable and accountable. In countries with several ministries in charge of the education and training sector, developing sector-wide education policies and programmes can help overcome incoherence and the development of different plans in isolation that can often contradict one another.

Supporting countries to build and improve their education systems to meet the needs of a changing world is at the core of UNESCO’s work. At the global level, UNESCO develops and advocates for public goods to enable strategic policy-making. These include SimuED, an education sector simulation model that can help countries to develop forward-looking yet feasible education policies and strategies.

UNESCO helps governments to strengthen legal and policy frameworks in relation to education systems as well as improving management efficiency and accountability, financing, data collection and analysis and learning assessment, all with the targets of the 2030 Agenda in view. This is part of UNESCO's rights-based approach to education with States having the main responsibility to respect, protect and fulfil the right to quality education for all throughout life and is carried out through education policy reviews and other technical and capacity development support.

UNESCO also emphasizes the importance of happiness in education as the foundation for better learning. Its  Happy Schools Project  aims to improve learning experiences by focusing on well-being, engagement, a sense of belonging at school, and helps foster a lifelong love of learning. The project targets the happiness of the  school  rather than individual students because schools are sites of holistic, sustainable community development that include teachers, parents, staff and school leaders. Faced with many crises and challenges, schools around the world are struggling to determine how to support teachers, learners, and communities while also prioritizing supplemental learning.  The project emphasizes that schools can be powerful places to combat the negativity that stunts learning, both cognitive and non-cognitive.

Upon request from countries, UNESCO undertakes activities according to the country’s needs which may start with an education policy review or supporting the development of education sector policies and plans. It also promotes policy dialogue and debate based on evidence and insights drawn from analytical work and research. Working mainly through its institutes such as its  International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) , UNESCO helps to build national capacities on developing and implementing education policies to realize the country’s education and national development visions. 

Strengthening the resilience, quality and equity of education systems

A framework to support governments to position school happiness as a key target

through UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning

was allocated to education and training during the pandemic

spend below international benchmarks for public education spending

achieved international target of allocating 0.7% of GNI to official development assistance

highlighted the need to support psycho-social and mental well-being of students and teachers

Education policy working papers

This series documents experiences of countries in the area of education policy development and system strengthening.

Planipolis, by UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning

Planipolis is a portal of national education plans and policies,  key education frameworks and monitoring report. It provides a single entry to official education resources for national policy makers, donors and partners. 

Have you met Malia? She explains why educational planning is the backbone of stronger, more resilient, and quality-focused education systems. Educational planning is also a key to her attaining all of her dreams and aspirations.

Publications

Monitoring SDG 4: education finance

Resources from UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Education Policy in the United States

Introduction, classic works, textbooks and general overviews, data sources, pedagogical reform, school system–wide reforms, politics of education, early childhood education, elementary and secondary education, higher education, school choice, international perspectives, social resources, school funding and finance, family and community, race and ethnicity, social class, special education, related articles expand or collapse the "related articles" section about, about related articles close popup.

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Education Policy in the United States by Lindsey Young , Justina Judy Spicer , Barbara Schneider LAST REVIEWED: 03 December 2019 LAST MODIFIED: 24 May 2018 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756384-0098

Examining educational policy through a sociological lens allows for a deeper understanding of the educational process—both of the individual and of the organization. Sociologists study the provision of education, including policies created at various levels of government, the implementation of these policies, and the outcomes for the individual and organization. Policies in education affect a broad range of the population, spanning from birth to adult learning. Educational policy is influenced by the historical context in which the policy is shaped; the social forces and consequences that extend beyond the walls of schools; and the political setting of reform. Although educational policymaking in the United States has historically been relegated to local and state entities, since the 1960s the federal role in education has been increasing, changing the conditions in which the education system functions and how it is studied. Specifically, the federal government has greatly emphasized increased accountability through testing, teacher evaluation, and school rankings. Policies in this vein have been fluid and bipartisan; recently, accountability measures increased through the No Child Left Behind Act, and continued through the Every Student Succeeds Act. While the focus of this article is on educational policy in the United States, sources that feature other nations and regions are included to allow opportunities for a comparative analysis and to provide a global context to policies worldwide.

These selected works demonstrate a foundation for understanding motivations behind educational policy and come from a diverse range of disciplines, but they by no means represent an exhaustive list. Although a vast quantity of text has been written, these pieces reflect significant contributions to the field and their influence on educational policy in the United States. John Dewey was one of the early voices to explore the role of the school as well as the learner in his book, The School and Society . The release of Equality of Educational Opportunity (commonly referred to as the “Coleman Report”) in 1966 fundamentally challenged what was understood about equality of education and how educational outcomes were studied. Twenty years later, Hallinan 1988 revisited inequality and reviewed the then-current body of research on this issue. Bourdieu 1973 and Bowles and Gintis 2011 provide frameworks for understanding the relationship between schools and society. Findings from Edmonds 1979 reinforce the importance of institutional factors for improving student performance. National Commission on Excellence in Education 1983 highlights problems with the US education system and offers recommendations for new curricular standards, instruction, and assessments. Coleman and Hoffer 1987 analyzes data from public and private high schools to understand the role of community factors and access to social capital for enhancing educational outcomes. Elmore 2004 provides a critique of accountability and high-stakes testing policies from the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1973. Cultural reproduction and social reproduction. In Knowledge, education and cultural change: Papers in the sociology of education . Edited by Richard Brown, 71–112. Explorations in Sociology 2. London: Tavistock.

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In this chapter, Bourdieu extends the idea of capital to include social and cultural capital as a framework for understanding behavior. He argues that those who are richest in cultural capital are more likely to invest in their children’s education.

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Bowles, Samuel, and Herbert Gintis. 2011. Schooling in capitalist America: Educational reform and the contradictions of economic life . Chicago: Haymarket.

Originally published in 1976 (New York: Basic Books). Bowles and Gintis argue in this book that the education system in America is geared toward producing laborers for a capitalist workforce. They assert that schools function not to teach content but rather to shape the aspirations, behaviors, and values of students according to their social and economic class.

Coleman, James S., Ernest Q. Campbell, Carol J. Hobson, et al. 1966. Equality of educational opportunity . Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.

The “Coleman Report” was commissioned by the US government to evaluate the equality of education across elementary and secondary schools in the United States. The analysis included more than 150,000 students and measured the equality of educational outcomes for students across different schools.

Coleman, James S., and Thomas Hoffer. 1987. Public and private high schools: The impact of communities . New York: Basic Books.

This book reports findings from a large-scale comparison of sophomores and seniors in public, Catholic, and other private schools. The authors argue that students in private schools showed higher academic performance, were less likely to drop out, and were more likely to enroll in college compared to students in public schools.

Dewey, John. 1900. The school and society . 3d ed. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

The text of this book comes from three lectures that Dewey delivered on the rationale behind the University Elementary School, and where he also introduced his pedagogic approach to education.

Edmonds, Ronald. 1979. Effective schools for the urban poor. Educational Leadership 37.1: 15–24.

In this article, the author argues that children in low-achieving schools should have the same opportunities for achievement in reading as children in high-achieving schools. The findings from this study reinforce the influence of institutional leadership, expectations, and atmosphere for student performance.

Elmore, Richard. 2004. School reform from the inside out: Policy, practice, and performance . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

This book provides a critique of the accountability and high-stakes testing policies that are part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Elmore argues that successful school reform begins from “the inside out,” suggesting that change should begin with the teachers, administrators, and school staff as opposed to external mandates and policies.

Hallinan, Maureen T. 1988. Equality of educational opportunity. Annual Review of Sociology 14:249–268.

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This article discusses the relationship between the field of sociology of education and the persistent subject of the equality of educational opportunity.

National Commission on Excellence in Education. 1983. A nation at risk: The imperative for educational reform . Washington, DC: US Department of Education.

Written at a time when there were serious questions about the competitiveness of US students compared to students in other countries, this report called for a series of reforms to the educational system. These reforms included a more rigorous curriculum, improvements to instruction and assessments, and other structural changes as a way of maintaining global economic competitiveness for the United States.

Several texts provide an overview of the research in sociology of education. Select samples of these texts are listed in this section. Hallinan 2006 includes contributions that provide a foundation of theoretical approaches and analyses of previous research in the sociology of education. Ballantine and Spade 2011 and Sadovnik 2011 include a wide range of topics and relevant research in the sociology of education. Midgley and Livermore 2009 provides a comprehensive policy view of education, focusing on the relationship between social policy and social services. Kirst and Wirt 2009 provides a framework for organizing the politics of American education. Buchmann 2011 offers a comparative perspective of educational policy in the United States and the study of international sociology of education. Finally, Schneider and Saw 2018 investigates the relationship between the individual and the social systems they operate within, such as schools.

Ballantine, Jeanne H., and Joan Z. Spade, eds. 2011. Schools and society: A sociological approach to education . 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge.

This fourth edition includes original work and article excerpts from leading contributors in the area of sociology of education. Ballantine and Spade include discussions of theory and methodology, as well as classical and early-21st-century issues of educational systems.

Buchmann, Claudia. 2011. Frontiers in comparative and international sociology of education: American distinctiveness and global diversity. In Frontiers in sociology of education . Edited by Maureen T. Hallinan, 35–51. Frontiers in Sociology and Social Research 1. New York: Springer.

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In this chapter, Buchmann discusses the role of international sociological research and advocates for a greater integration of more comparative streams of research on issues central to the sociology of education.

Hallinan, Maureen T., ed. 2006. Handbook of the sociology of education . Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. New York: Springer.

This handbook includes several contributions that present research and analyses on a range of educational issues, including the social processes that involve schooling, the role of schools, and the impact of education on society. This book is organized based on themes such as the theoretical background of education, development and expansion of education, access to schooling, schools as organizations, educational policy, and research.

Kirst, Michael W., and Frederick M. Wirt. 2009. The political dynamics of American education . 4th ed. Richmond, CA: McCutchan.

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This politics of education textbook creates an original conceptual framework to organize the politics of American education, focusing on school choice, the 2008 presidential election, and the politics of charter schools and No Child Left Behind.

Midgley, James, and Michelle Livermore, eds. 2009. The handbook of social policy . 2d ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

In this handbook, Midgley and Livermore attempt to document a body of knowledge about government social policies. The areas of focus include the nature, history, and political economy of social policy; the relationship between social policy and social services; and the future implications of social policy.

Sadovnik, Alan, ed. 2011. Sociology of education: A critical reader . 2d ed. New York: Routledge.

This reader provides examples of both research and theory in the fields of sociology and education. The editor includes classic and early-21st-century scholarship that represents a diverse selection of research. Topics include international education, higher education, and inequality in education.

Schneider, Barbara, and Guan Saw, eds. 2018. Handbook of sociology of education in the 21st century . New York: Springer.

This handbook investigates the relationship between the individual and the social systems the individual interacts with and through, while also examining how social systems are shaped by their environment. Topics in this volume include families and schools, the social organization of school and learning opportunities, the demographics of social inequality, the transition into adulthood, and sociological perspectives on accountability and evaluation.

As education policy is multidisciplinary in its nature, research can be found in a variety of general and specialty journals throughout education and the social sciences. Several journals specifically focus on education policy. The American Educational Research Association sponsors the flagship education policy journal— Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis —as well as the American Educational Research Journal , the Educational Researcher , and the Review of Educational Research . The Harvard Educational Review promotes dialogue between education scholars and educators. The American Journal of Sociology is the oldest academic journal of sociology in the United States, contributing to national understanding of sociological theory and methods. The American Sociological Association (ASA) sponsors the American Sociological Review as well as Sociology of Education , which include articles on education policy, although their missions are more diverse. The Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness covers a range of topics that apply to classrooms and schools. Policy work can also be found in the Social Science Quarterly , which includes research across a broad range of social sciences, including sociology, political science, and economics. The Review of Educational Research reviews education-related articles from a variety of fields, such as psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Sociological Forum is a journal representing innovative sociological research, Sociological Perspectives includes research regarding social processes related to issues such as economics and politics, and the British Journal of Sociology represents mainstream sociological research.

American Educational Research Journal . 1964–.

This American Educational Research Association journal publishes six issues a year and includes theoretical and empirical studies in education. The journal is organized into two sections: social and institutional analysis—focused on political, cultural, social, economic, and organizational issues; and a section on teaching, learning, and human development—focused on the processes and outcomes of teaching, learning, and development.

American Journal of Sociology . 1895–.

This journal is attached to the University of Chicago’s sociology department, and it is published bimonthly by the University of Chicago Press. This journal is the oldest academic journal of sociology in the United States, contributing to a national understanding of the theory, methods, practice, and history of sociology.

American Sociological Review . 1936–.

The flagship journal of the ASA, this bimonthly publication includes research in sociology that contributes to the understanding of fundamental social processes, new theoretical developments, and important methodological innovations.

British Journal of Sociology . 1950–.

The British Journal of Sociology , representing the mainstream of sociological thinking and research, has been considered to be among “the highest-status journals.”

Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis . 1979–.

This multidisciplinary journal largely focuses on research and scholarly work related to policy. Published four times a year, its target audience is those engaged in educational policy analysis, evaluation, and decision making.

Educational Researcher . 2009–.

This journal, published nine times a year, includes scholarly articles from a broad range of areas of education research. This journal is published in association with the American Educational Research Association.

Harvard Educational Review . 1930–.

This journal, published by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is a prestigious journal that is distributed to policymakers, teachers, researchers, and administrators. Published quarterly, this journal aims to provide a forum for debate about education’s major issues.

Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness . 2009–.

The flagship publication of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, this journal is published annually and focuses on classrooms and schools. Publications within this journal focus on reading, mathematics education, and science education, cognitive functions, and social processes.

Review of Educational Research . 1931–.

A quarterly journal that publishes critical reviews of education-related research literature, not original empirical research. Reviews of research submitted to this journal include work from disciplines such as psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology, and others.

Social Science Quarterly . 1919–.

A quarterly journal that publishes research on a broad range of topics in the social sciences. The official journal of the Southwestern Social Science Association and includes a special annual issue on important—and sometimes controversial—topics.

Sociological Forum . 1986–.

Sociological Forum is the flagship journal of the Eastern Sociological Society. This quarterly publication covers substantive issues of fundamental importance to the study of society, emphasizing innovative direction in sociological research.

Sociological Perspectives . 1957–.

Sociological Perspectives is the official publication of the Pacific Sociological Association. This quarterly publication covers social processes related to economic, political, anthropological, and historical issues.

Sociology of Education . 2004–.

A quarterly journal of the ASA that publishes works largely focused on the relationships among individuals and social institutions, including schools and other educational institutions. The journal also includes international work as well as advances in methodology for studying social networks.

Researchers in the field of education have access to a variety of cross-sectional and longitudinal data sets that include several different sampling designs and methods of data collection. This is not a complete list, but these sources include data on educational characteristics of individuals, student achievement, educational and occupational attainment, demographic trends, and other topics. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal agency responsible for collecting and analyzing these data in the United States. From the NCES website, several national longitudinal studies (such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress) can be accessed and publicly available data can be downloaded. Two additional surveys listed below study American students’ transition into adulthood: the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health , which investigates the experiences related to adolescent development, and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System , which collects data on enrollment in postsecondary institutions. Data collected by the United States Census Bureau and the American Community Survey can be used to examine demographic information nationally, as it relates to educational and occupational attainment, and can also be linked to the data collected by NCES. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics obtains data on education trends internationally. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study is an international data set, which includes the United States, that collects information on math and science achievement. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development publishes data that compares the academic achievement of its member countries (most notably, the Programme for International Student Assessment). Finally, the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study collects information on reading achievement across several participating countries. It should also be noted that many states in the United States are developing their own databases of information that are not listed below but can be located through the Department of Education of individual states.

American Community Survey .

The US Census Bureau collects data more frequently with the American Community Survey that is administered to a sample of the population every year. Data collected include a range of information, such as education and occupation.

Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System .

This data set is comprised of survey data collected annually in the United States by the NCES and includes data, such as student enrollment and expenditures, from every college, university, and technical and vocational institution that participates in the federal student financial aid programs.

National Center for Education Statistics .

The NCES is the primary federal agency that collects and analyzes data related to US education. Several data sources are available through NCES that cover the spectrum of education from birth to adulthood, including students, teachers, and families. Many of the studies employ nationally representative longitudinal samples.

National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health .

This study follows a panel of adolescents in the United States as they transition from adolescence to adulthood. It includes four waves of data collection from 1994 to 2008 and contains data related to the experiences of adolescents and young adults.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) .

The OECD, established in 1961, publishes reports and promotes policies for its thirty-five member countries and additional emerging economies. OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment compares the test performance of fifteen-year-old students in participating countries and provides recommendations for scholastic improvement.

Progress in International Reading Literacy Study .

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study began in 2001 and reports every five years, focusing on the reading achievement of fourth-grade students.

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study .

This international study was first conducted in 1995 and reports every four years on the mathematics and science achievement of fourth- and eighth-grade students.

UNESCO Institute for Statistics .

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics is the primary source for cross-nationally comparable statistics on several topics, including education, science and technology, culture, and communication. Data from more than two hundred countries and territories are included.

United States Census Bureau .

Census data are collected every ten years in the United States, with the most recent collection occurring in 2010. The census collects demographic information from all households in the United States, including a range of data from educational attainment and household income.

The works listed below explore various historical dimensions of education, but they largely focus on the development of education in the United States. Rury 2013 begins at the time of the common school era in the United States and analyzes this policy history through the No Child Left Behind era. A four-part documentary, Mondale and Patton 2004 chronicles the history of education in the United States with contributions from several scholars in the field. Ravitch 2000 and Ravitch 2011 offer contrasting analyses of educational policies in the United States. Vinovskis 2009 focuses on the last thirty years in education policy, allowing a more detailed analysis of history leading up to the early-21st-century policies and criticisms of education in the United States. Providing a broader view, Reese 2005 traces educational reforms from the 19th century through the 21st century. Cremin 1990 discusses the history of education and how the United States uses educational policy as a vehicle for social change. Hess 2010 describes the features of the American education system that have remained constant since its conception. Lastly, Boli, et al. 1985 explores the rise and spread of mass education throughout the globe.

Boli, John, Francisco O. Ramirez, and John W. Meyer. 1985. Explaining the origins and expansion of mass education. Comparative Education Review 29.2: 145–170.

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In the first part of this article, the authors discuss explanations of the creation and rise of mass education. The second part analyzes the general themes of mass education, and, based on these analyses, the third part presents the hypotheses that the expansion of mass education in both developed and developing countries is characterized by traditional social organization, social inequality, and lack of autonomy.

Cremin, Lawrence A. 1990. Popular education and its discontents . New York: Harper & Row.

Organized into three essays—“Popularization,” “Multitudinousness,” and “Politicization”—Cremin explores achievements and problems of educational policy. This book begins with a discussion of rising dissatisfaction during the 1800s and continues through educational reforms of the post–World War II years, concluding with an examination of how US citizens tend to remedy certain social issues indirectly through education policy.

Hess, Fredrick M. 2010. The same thing over and over: How school reformers get stuck in yesterday’s ideas . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

In this book, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) provides an overview of major school reform debates, highlighting the features of the American education system that have remained constant over time. Hess argues for a change in the structure of the current system’s taken-for-granted structure to meet the needs of the 21st century.

Mondale, Sarah, dir. and prod., and Sarah Patton, prod. 2004. School: The story of American public education . DVD. Princeton, NJ: Films for the Humanities & Sciences.

This four-part documentary originally aired on PBS in 2001 follows the development of US public education beginning in the late 1770s up to the 21st century. It details the romanticism of early public education proponents and examines the challenges that have influenced educational reform over time. See companion website .

Ravitch, Diane. 2000. Left back: A century of failed school reforms . New York: Simon & Schuster.

Educational historian Diane Ravitch explores commonly held myths about how the educational system in the United States developed. Ravitch argues for a more liberal education and that progressive education has undermined not only the intellectual development of students, but also the democratic principles of American society.

Ravitch, Diane. 2011. The death and life of the great American school system: How testing and choice are undermining education . New York: Basic Books.

In this revised and expanded edition of the book first published in 2010, Ravitch reveals the radical change of heart she experienced as she examines her career and contributions in education reform through previously published works. This work draws on Ravitch’s forty years of experience in education.

Reese, William. 2005. America’s public schools: From the common school to “No Child Left Behind.” Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.

William J. Reese, professor of educational policy studies, examines the practices and theories that have impacted and transformed US public schools from the 19th century onward. This book is framed as a means to observe the ways education reforms society and explores reform within schools, highlighting pedagogical, race, and academic standard reforms.

Rury, John L. 2013. Education and social change: Themes in the history of American schooling . 4th ed. New York: Routledge.

This book provides a brief and interpretive history of schooling, focusing on the relationship between education and social change. Rury discusses the influence of important historical movements, such as industrialization, urbanization, and immigration. The book also explores how schools have contributed to the history of social change.

Vinovskis, Maris A. 2009. From A Nation at Risk to No Child Left Behind: National education goals and the creation of federal education policy . New York: Teachers College Press.

Vinovskis discusses late-20th- and early-21st-century policies beginning with the National Education Goals, America 2000, Goals 2000, and finally No Child Left Behind. He also highlights key policy debates and addresses the practical considerations of policy implementation and evaluation.

Policy and Practice

As educational reforms are developed and implemented, they do not occur in a vacuum. Policies are shaped from their original forms to schools and classrooms in which current reforms and policies already exist. The works below discuss policymaking, governance as it relates to education reform, and changes in education policy over time, and they provide recommendations for collaborative partnerships between policymakers and educators. Cooper, et al. 2004 documents the process of policymaking, providing a framework for policy development. Manna and McGuinn 2013 analyzes governance structures and provides recommendations for improving student educational outcomes. Penuel and Gallagher 2017 contributes suggestions for policymakers as they work to collaborate with educators. Finally, Mitchell, et al. 2018 documents changes in education policy from the mid-20th century to today.

Cooper, Bruce S., Lance D. Fusarelli, and E. Vance Randall. 2004. Better policies, better schools : Theories and applications . Boston: Pearson.

This book provides a general overview of the theories of policymaking, the policymaking process, and examples of how the theories apply to school improvement policies. Key components include discussion of policy definition, agenda setting, policy formulation, and implementation.

Manna, Paul, and Patrick McGuinn, eds. 2013. Education governance for the twenty-first century: Overcoming the structural barriers to school reform . Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

This book, containing contributions from education scholars, analysts, and practitioners, provides analysis of education governance structures, and suggests how governing structures may be changed to improve educational outcomes for students.

Mitchell, Douglas E., Dorothy Shipps, and Robert L. Crowson, eds. 2018. Shaping education policy: Power and process . 2d ed. New York: Routledge.

This book is sponsored by the Politics of Education Association. Chapters within this book examine changes in education policy from 1950 to today, and they cover topics that have influenced education, such as the civil rights movement, the accountability movement, family choice, and globalization.

Penuel, William R., and Daniel Gallagher. 2017. Creating research-practice partnerships in education . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

This book aims to serve as a resource for researchers and educators to use as they pursue working relationships with one another. The authors describe the purposes of such partnerships, strategies for problem-solving conflicts, and tools for collaboration.

Cuban 1993 and Lortie 2002 provide a portrait of the teacher profession, including the various demands placed on teachers by reforms. Coburn 2001 examines the relationship between policy and practice through a model of sense-making theory. Lipsky 2010 explores the role of teachers as “street-level bureaucrats” who face multiple demands and ambiguous goals in the classroom, possibly influencing the implementation of policy.

Coburn, Cynthia E. 2001. Collective sensemaking about reading: How teachers mediate reading policy in their professional communities. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 23.2: 145–170.

DOI: 10.3102/01623737023002145 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

Using an in-depth case study, Coburn examines the processes of teachers as they construct their understanding of a new reading policy and the role of collective sense making in this process. Sense making, the act of simultaneously shaping and reacting to policy reforms, suggests that teachers interpret, adapt, and change policies as they put them into practice.

Cuban, Larry. 1993. How teachers taught: Constancy and change in American classrooms, 1890–1990 . 2d ed. New York: Teachers College Press.

In this updated text, Larry Cuban, professor of education at Stanford University, furthers his previous research into the history of teaching practice in the United States, highlighting teaching practices in segments of ten to twenty years and concluding his volume by offering recommendations for policymakers.

Lipsky, Michael. 2010. Street-level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public services . Updated ed. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

In this expanded edition of his text originally published in 1980, Lipsky argues that policy is best understood through the daily encounters of those closest to the ground—teachers, in the educational context. He argues that these “street-level bureaucrats” carry out policies by establishing routines and devices to cope with the uncertainties and increasing pressures of their jobs.

Lortie, Dan C. 2002. Schoolteacher: A sociological study . 2d ed. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

This book discusses how teachers manage mandated reforms in their classrooms, with a focus on how teachers’ individual practices may influence policy implementation. Lortie’s in-depth study examines the behaviors of teachers and the various ways in which they respond to educational reforms.

Weiss 1995 provides a framework for understanding the relationship among teachers, administrators, and reforms. Tyack and Cuban 1995 discusses the relationship between schools and reforms, drawing on a century of changes in education in the United States. Additional resources on school system–wide reforms include Borman, et al. 1996 ; Sadovnik, et al. 2007 ; Hubbard, et al. 2006 ; Downey, et al. 2008 ; Zavadsky 2009 ; Chenoweth 2009 ; Smerdon and Borman 2009 ; O’Day, et al. 2011 ; Grant 2011 ; and Cuban 2010 .

Borman, Kathryn, Peter Cookson Jr., Alan Sadovnik, and Joan Spade, eds. 1996. Implementing educational reform: Sociological perspectives on educational policy . Social and Policy Issues in Education. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Using a sociological perspective, the contributors describe and analyze the Goals 2000 legislation, intended to improve equality and increase achievement in the US school system. The book summarizes the standards and assessments; expectations for schools, parents, students, and community members; instructional support and professional development; and implications of this reform.

Chenoweth, Karin. 2009. How it’s being done: Urgent lessons from unexpected schools . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Building on earlier work, Chenoweth provides educators information on how some schools with high-poverty and high-minority populations have improved student outcomes and closed achievement gaps. Analyzing data from eight schools, the author argues that teachers and schools can implement policies that support effective instruction and reduce ineffective practices.

Cuban, Larry. 2010. As good as it gets: What school reform brought to Austin . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

Cuban explores whether school policies and practices can equalize student achievement and if schools can overcome differences in achievement associated with race and the socioeconomic status of students. Analyzing data from Austin, Texas, Cuban argues that despite overall improvement in the district, schools with high-poverty and high-minority student populations continued to struggle while predominantly affluent schools improve.

Downey, Douglas, Paul von Hippel, and Melanie Hughes. 2008. Are “failing” schools really failing? Using seasonal comparison to evaluate school effectiveness. Sociology of Education 81.3: 242–270.

DOI: 10.1177/003804070808100302 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

This study evaluates whether impact-based evaluation methods alter the identification of failing schools using the data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study of 1998–1999. The authors argue that for schools that are labeled as “failing” in terms of achievement levels, less than half are actually failing with respect to learning or impact.

Grant, Gerald. 2011. Hope and despair in the American city: Why there are no bad schools in Raleigh . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

This book examines two US cities—Raleigh, North Carolina, and Syracuse, New York—to understand how educational reforms and inequalities have evolved over the last few decades. Grant demonstrates that these two reform contexts offer a window into the challenges and the potential opportunities faced by urban districts that confront growing racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps.

Hubbard, Lea, Hugh Mehan, and Mary Kay Stein. 2006. Reform as learning: School reform, organizational culture, and community politics in San Diego . New York: Routledge.

The authors use four years of ethnographic data from San Diego to understand how teachers, administrators, and district staff were influenced by a systematic school reform initiative. This study uses a sociological perspective to examine the challenges to reform implementation and provides insights into why this reform failed to achieve its purposes.

O’Day, Jennifer, Catherine Bitter, and Louis Gomez, eds. 2011. Education reform in New York City: Ambitious change in the nation’s most complex school system . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

This edited volume provides analyses of several different reforms in the largest school district in the United States—New York City. The analyses of reforms include those targeting governance, community engagement, finance, accountability, and instruction. The contributors describe the scope of educational reform while highlighting interrelated factors, challenges in implementation, and how these reforms target improved outcomes for all students.

Sadovnik, Alan, Jennifer O’Day, George Bohrnstedt, and Kathryn Borman, eds. 2007. No Child Left Behind and the reduction of the achievement gap: Sociological perspectives on federal educational policy . New York: Routledge.

Using a sociological lens, and similar to Borman, et al. 1996 on Goals 2000, this book analyzes the effects of No Child Left Behind on children, teachers, parents, and schools. The contributors examine the implications of this policy for schools and subgroups of students, and they explore the possibilities for decreasing achievement gaps in education.

Smerdon, Becky, and Kathryn Borman. 2009. Saving America’s high schools . Washington, DC: Urban Institute.

The authors examine multiple reforms across several cities to look at how US high schools can be improved. Smerdon and Borman outline steps teachers and administrators, faced with more diverse student populations and increased standards, can do to improve schools, including the use of formative and summative student assessments and the increase of administrator support for good teachers.

Tyack, David, and Larry Cuban. 1995. Tinkering toward utopia: A century of public school reform . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

This book details the history of public school reform in the United States and posits that reforms are never implemented as they were originally envisioned. Tyack and Cuban also discuss how teachers and reforms act upon each other as reforms become assimilated into the school environment.

Weiss, Carol H. 1995. The four “I’s” of school reform: How interests, ideology, information, and institution affect teachers and principals. Harvard Educational Review 65.4: 571–592.

DOI: 10.17763/haer.65.4.05530845t676w50h Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

Weiss examines how teachers and principals respond to a school reform with a case study focused on shared decision making. Using the “4-I” analysis, the author explains how interests, ideology, information, and the institution shape actors’ responses to and implementation of school reform.

Zavadsky, Heather. 2009. Bringing school reform to scale: Five award-winning urban districts . Educational Innovations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

This book provides a detailed analysis of five high-performing urban districts’ efforts to improve teaching and learning, align district goals with instructional practices, and narrow gaps in student achievement. Zavadsky explores the divergent approaches these districts took and argues that diverse perspectives can contribute to understanding how reforms influence improved outcomes.

Education in the United States is a shared process among all citizens, influencing their own socialization and learning as well as schooling experiences of their family, community, and nation. Because education is an integral part of all individuals’ development, educational attainment, occupational outcome, and future economic status—educational policy is subject to significant political action. Hess 1999 and Payne 2008 explore the politics surrounding urban school reform. Berliner and Biddle 1996 discusses the politics of reform and the role media plays in perpetuating misguided information about the successes and failures of education reform. Apple 2006 takes a closer look at the evolving conservative shift in education. Feigenbaum, et al. 1999 comparatively analyzes data from three countries to understand the influence of privatization in education on the state and economy. Henig 2013 documents the increased involvement of the US federal government in local education. Maryl 2016 examines how political structures have shaped religious education in the United States and Australia.

Apple, Michael. 2006. Educating the “right” way: Markets, standards, God, and inequality . 2d ed. New York: Routledge.

The author examines the early-21st-century conservative shift in US education with reforms such as voucher policies, charter schools, and standardized testing. Apple argues that a coalition of strange bedfellows has pushed for these policies and discusses how educators and policymakers can respond by creating a more democratic school system.

Berliner, David, and Bruce Biddle. 1996. The manufactured crisis: Myths, fraud, and the attack on America’s public schools . Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Berliner and Biddle use comprehensive evidence from ACT scores, educational reports, and achievement results to dispute the commonly held myth that American schools are failing. The authors demonstrate how educational data and information have been misunderstood and misused, arguing that many of the problems students and schools face are based on societal and economic conditions.

Feigenbaum, Harvey, Jeffrey R. Henig, and Chris Hamnett. 1999. Shrinking the state: The political underpinnings of privatization . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

This book describes how privatization in education across many countries has reshaped the balance between the state and the market. Utilizing a comparative political analysis in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, the authors argue that these policies benefit some students and adversely affect others.

Henig, Jeffery R. 2013. The end of exceptionalism in American education . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

This book discusses the transfer of American education system decision-making power from the level of local and state school board control to that of higher levels of government.

Hess, Frederick. 1999. Spinning wheels: The politics of urban school reform . Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

In this book, Hess argues that many of the problems in urban education are the result of fragmented reform—or reforms that continually cycle through school systems, often with different incentives for various stakeholders. To combat this policy churn, Hess recommends institutional changes that allow schools to develop expertise in specific instructional approaches.

Maryl, Damon. 2016. Secular conversion: Political institutions and religious education in the United States and Australia, 1800–2000 . New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.

DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781316217368 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

In this book, Maryl investigates how the institutional structure of the state shapes secularization. Maryl analyzes the United States and Australia to explain how political structures have shaped religious education, specifically through their administrative structures, electoral systems, and legal procedures.

Payne, Charles. 2008. So much reform, so little change: The persistence of failure in urban schools . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Payne argues that the majority of policy discussions are disconnected from what occurs in most urban neighborhoods and that neither the Democratic nor the Republican parties have improved educational reform. Both of these parties exhaust their resources pursuing educational reforms that are not practical for urban districts. This book includes an examination of successes and failures of urban school reforms.

• Institutions

School organization varies widely across settings and institutions. The institution can play an important role in the educational experiences and outcomes of students. The works included here offer a broad insight into the predominant educational institutions (for a discussion of private schools and homeschooling, see School Choice ). Bidwell 1965 provides a conceptual foundation for analyzing schools as a unique type of formal organization that influences the education process. In Ramirez and Boli 1987 , the authors provide an exploration of the construction of mass schooling in Europe and worldwide. Baker and LeTedre 2005 discusses the similarities and differences between schooling in the United States and in other countries. Bryk and Schneider 2002 looks within the schools and articulates the role of trust relationships in school institutions. Baker 2014 argues that the US education system is a primary institution that greatly influences the economy, politics, religion, and other aspects of society. See also Bryk, et al. 2010 and Bulkley, et al. 2010 .

Baker, David. 2014. The schooled society: The educational transformation of global culture . Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.

In this book, Baker argues that education is a primary institution that has transformed, influenced, and defined society. Baker argues the effects of school on aspects of society, such as the economy, politics, and religion.

Baker, David, and Gerald K. LeTedre. 2005. National differences, global similarities: World culture and the future of schooling . Stanford, CA: Stanford Social Sciences.

This book uses US schools as a reference point for providing a description of school as a global institution. Drawing on a four-year investigation in forty-seven countries, Baker and LeTedre show the implications of current trends in student achievement, school curriculum, and teaching practice.

Bidwell, Charles E. 1965. The school as a formal organization. In Handbook of organizations . Edited by James G. March, 972–1022. Rand McNally Sociology Series. Chicago: Rand McNally.

In this essay, Bidwell argues that teaching practice is resistant to new organizational routines, largely because teaching is idiosyncratic and highly autonomous. Although most schools have a set curriculum and other formal structures, Bidwell argues that schools are more likely to have relatively weak organizational ties between teachers and classrooms.

Bryk, Anthony S., and Barbara Schneider. 2002. Trust in schools: A core resource for improvement . Rose Series in Sociology. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Bryk and Schneider examine the role of relational trust in schools using quantitative and qualitative longitudinal data. They argue that the extent of trust and effective social relationships among teachers, principals, and parents are an important influence on the dynamics of school improvement.

Bryk, Anthony S., Penny Bender Sebring, Elaine Allensworth, Stuart Luppescu, and John Q. Easton. 2010. Organizing schools for improvement: Lessons from Chicago . Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Analyzing seven years of comprehensive data from elementary schools in the Chicago Public Schools, the authors identify effective practices and conditions necessary for school improvement. These factors include school leadership, professional capacity of faculty and staff, and a student-centered learning climate.

Bulkley, Katrina E., Jeffrey R. Henig, and Henry M. Levin. 2010. Between public and private: Politics, governance, and the new portfolio models for urban school reform . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

The authors examine the utilization of a “portfolio management model” in school district reform, wherein a central office oversees disparate organizational and curricular structures within a district, such as traditional schools and charter schools. The authors discuss the strengths and limitations of this type of reform.

Ramirez, Francisco O., and John Boli. 1987. The political construction of mass schooling: European origins and worldwide institutionalization. Sociology of Education 60.1: 2–17.

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This article explores the origins of large-scale educational systems in Europe and the subsequent institutionalization of mass education around the world. Ramirez and Boli argue that the political, economic, and cultural development of Europe in the 19th century led to a highly institutionalized society and educative process.

Historically, education in the United States has focused on primary and secondary education. Since the 1970s, however, there has been an increased focus on the role of early childhood education (prior to the age of seven) for student success. Early childhood policies are often targeted as a means to improve educational equality. Magnuson and Waldfogel 2005 explores the gaps in school readiness among children of different racial and ethnic backgrounds in the United States. Vinovskis 2005 traces the history of early childhood programs in the United States, from the first program to early-21st-century policy, and discusses the implications of early childhood policies. Barnett 1995 examines several early childhood care and educational programs—highlighting their positive influence on child outcomes and future policy considerations. Hart and Risley 2003 offers data on the development of a child’s vocabulary and the inequality of development in children from different family backgrounds.

Barnett, W. Steven. 1995. Long-term effects of early childhood programs on cognitive and school outcomes. The Future of Children 5.3: 25–50.

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This article reviews thirty-six studies that examine the effects of model projects and public programs for children from low-income families. The findings suggest that early childhood programs can provide considerable short-term benefits in addition to long-term advantages, concluding with policy recommendations.

Hart, Betty, and Todd R. Risley. 2003. The early catastrophe: The 30 million word gap by age 3. American Educator 27.1: 4–9.

This longitudinal study of forty-two families found different rates of vocabulary development for children of varying socioeconomic backgrounds. By age three, children from advantaged families have heard, on average, thirty million more words than children from disadvantaged families. Exposure to high-quality language was predictive of children’s vocabulary and reading performance in elementary school.

Magnuson, Katherine A., and Jane Waldfogel. 2005. Early childhood care and education: Effects on ethnic and racial gaps in school readiness. The Future of Children 15.1: 169–196.

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This article examines differences among the experiences of children of various racial and ethnic backgrounds regarding early childhood care and education. Magnuson and Waldfogel argue that incremental changes in enrollment or quality of care and education will do little to narrow school readiness gaps. However, they argue that policies should focus on improving the experiences of black, Hispanic, racial and ethnic heritage, and low-income children.

Vinovskis, Maris A. 2005. The birth of head start: Preschool education policies in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations . Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

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This book provides a historical perspective of early childhood policies, beginning with Project Head Start in 1964. Since the creation of this policy, a number of programs have appeared that support the development of young children. Vinovskis discusses the political implications and future of this policy area.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act passed in 1965, a part of the “War on Poverty,” creating a national formal organization for primary and secondary schools in the United States. The early-21st-century reauthorization of the law is called the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 , which was the eighth such reauthorization. Its ninth revision was the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 , maintaining the high accountability standards of No Child Left Behind while offering more control to states. Although primary and secondary school is universally offered in the United States, this is not necessarily the case internationally; Heyneman and Loxley 1983 and Alexander 2001 describe and examine the importance of primary education in the United States and internationally. Lucas 1999 explores how high schools can produce inequality of education through differential access to curriculum and student tracking. Frank, et al. 2008 studies social contexts of high school students using their math course–taking behavior and how student’s “local positions,” or the clusters of students within the high school, influence social norms and academic effort. Crosnoe 2011 examines how adolescents navigate the complex social dynamics of American high schools. See also Oakes 2005 , Oakes and Saunders 2008 , and Rumberger 2011 .

Alexander, Robin J. 2001. Culture and pedagogy: International comparisons in primary education . Malden, MA: Blackwell.

This book provides a comparison of primary and secondary elementary schooling in England, France, India, Russia, and the United States. Alexander explores how the teacher, school values and organization, local pressures, national policy, and political tension shape teaching and learning.

Crosnoe, Robert. 2011. Fitting in, standing out: Navigating the social challenges of high school to get an education . New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.

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Crosnoe explores the complex environment of American high schools from a sociological perspective. Drawing on national statistics, interviews, and observations within a single school, this book examines how teenagers navigate the social dynamics of high school while transitioning into adulthood.

Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, Pub. L. No. 889–10, 79 Stat. 27 (1965).

This legislation, signed in 1965 as a foundation of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” provided funding for primary and secondary education in an attempt to create equal access to quality education, promoting high standards for academic achievement and accountability. This act has been renewed, with modifications, every five years after its adoption, under various names such as the No Child Left Behind Act and the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, Pub. L. No. 114–95, 114 Stat. 1177 (2015–2016).

The Every Student Succeeds Act replaced the No Child Left Behind Act by shifting public education from national to local and state control. Accountability measures resulting from this act expanded from test scores to include needs assessments for schools and learning communities, plans for federal funding, program implementation, and monitoring protocols.

Frank, Kenneth A., Chandra Muller, Kathryn S. Schiller, et al. 2008. The social dynamics of mathematics coursetaking in high school. American Journal of Sociology 113.6: 1645–1696.

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Using data from the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study, Frank and his colleagues examine how peers within a similar social network contribute to differences in academic effort. The authors argue that adolescents’ social contexts are defined, in part, by clusters of students, and females are highly responsive to the norms of these student clusters.

Heyneman, Stephen P., and William A. Loxley. 1983. The effect of primary-school quality on academic achievement across twenty-nine high- and low-income countries. American Journal of Sociology 88.6: 1162–1194.

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Heyneman and Loxley challenge the belief that student and family background characteristics are the biggest contributors to student achievement. Using student achievement data from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, the authors assert that school and teacher quality are more salient, particularly for students in low-income countries.

Lucas, Samuel Roundfield. 1999. Tracking inequality: Stratification and mobility in American high schools . Sociology of Education Series. New York: Teachers College Press.

In this book, Lucas explores formal academic tracking in US high schools. Using nationally representative data, he examines the curriculum structure, the location of students within this structure, and the consequences of tracking for an individual’s postsecondary and career path.

Mittleman, Joel, and Jennifer L. Jennings. 2018. Accountability, achievement, and inequality in American public schools: A review of the literature. In Handbook of the sociology of education in the 21st century . Edited by Barbara Schneider and Guan Saw, 510–529. New York: Springer.

In this chapter, Mittleman and Jennings review accountability systems in US schools by reviewing the social science literature. The authors document the history of accountability in schools and review the impacts of the systems in terms of instruction, student outcomes, and policy feedback.

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 , Pub. L. No. 107-110, 115 Stat. 1425 (2002).

This legislation is a standards-based education reform that significantly increased the accountability of schools. These federal statutes included guidelines for states to create rigorous curriculum standards and benchmarks for their students, in addition to standardized ways of measuring student achievement.

Oakes, Jeannie. 2005. Keeping track: How schools structure inequality . 2d ed. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.

Oakes examines the role schools play in reproducing inequalities through the sorting of students into different academic tracks. This second edition includes an updated discussion of the “tracking wars” in schools and provides an examination of the assumptions and implications of continued tracking practices in secondary schools.

Oakes, Jeannie, and Marisa Saunders. 2008. Beyond tracking: Multiple pathways to college, career, and civic participation . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Continuing the discussion of tracking in high school, Oakes and coauthor Saunders offer an innovative alternative to tracking—a multiple pathways approach. This approach is built on the notion that American high schools should provide both academic and real-world foundations for all students. The four main components of the multiple pathways system include college-preparatory core, professional/technical core, field-based learning and realistic workplace simulations, and additional support services.

Rumberger, Russell W. 2011. Dropping out: Why students drop out of high school and what can be done about it . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

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This book asks the straightforward yet critical questions: Who drops out? Why? And what happens after they drop out? Vulnerable students can often be targeted early in their school careers and Rumberger argues for interventions that can keep students in school and away from a potential future of poverty, crime, and increased health problems.

Literature on higher education includes the structure and policies of varying higher education institutions as well as examines the influence of higher education on outcomes later in life. MacLeod 2009 provides an ethnographic study of how teenagers from a housing project in the United States develop and attain their future aspirations. Schneider and Stevenson 1999 studies the educational and occupational ambitions of adolescents and argues that many lack support in planning and reaching their desired goals. Armstrong and Hamilton 2015 investigates how young women’s college experiences lead to their academic outcomes, social lives, and labor-market opportunities. Karabel 2005 explores how an administrative regime evolved in three leading organizations (e.g., Harvard, Princeton, and Yale) in one field. Espenshade and Radford 2009 explores persistent inequality in education at colleges and universities in the United States. Arum and Roksa 2011 investigates what students are learning in college and argues that a sizable number of students are not learning essential knowledge and skills. Arum, et al. 2018 examines the college experiences of students from different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. Finally, Rosenbaum 2001 describes the relationships between employers and high school, and preparing students for careers. See also Bowen, et al. 2009 and Attewell and Lavin 2007 .

Armstrong, Elizabeth, and Laura Hamilton. 2015. Paying for the party: How college maintains inequality . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

The authors investigate how young women’s college experience lead to their academics, social lives, and labor-market participation. This book provides a longitudinal qualitative study that includes extensive ethnographic observation and interviews. The authors also question current policymakers on whether our higher education provides a path to social mobility for all who wish for such mobility.

Arum, Richard, and Josipa Roksa. 2011. Academically adrift: Limited learning on college campuses . Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Arum and Roksa investigate students’ learning in college. Using data from more than twenty-three hundred undergraduates at twenty-four institutions, the authors found differences in academic learning, time on studies, and social activities among the students at different types of universities.

Arum, Richard, Josipa Roksa, Jacqueline Cruz, and Blake Silver. 2018. Student experiences in college. In Handbook of sociology of education in the 21st century . Edited by Barbara Schneider and Guan Saw, 421–441. New York: Springer.

In this book chapter, Arum and colleagues argue for a broader view of college student academic and social experiences—one couched in historical and institutional contexts. These authors focus on the various college experiences of students from different demographic backgrounds, such as socioeconomic and racial groups.

Attewell, Paul, and David E. Lavin. 2007. Passing the torch: Does higher education for the disadvantaged pay off across the generations? Rose Series in Sociology. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Examining evidence from multiple cohorts of women who enrolled at the City University of New York after the start of the university’s “open admissions” policy, Attewell and Lavin examine the idea that education can support upward social mobility. Following these women over thirty years, this study analyzes the impact of higher educational attainment on the achievement of the women’s children.

Bowen, William, Matthew Chingos, and Michael McPherson. 2009. Crossing the finish line: Completing college at America’s public universities . Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.

This book attempts to understand the college dropout crisis in the United States. Using data from twenty-one state universities and four statewide higher education systems, the authors identify challenges that low-income and minority students face regarding the costs of college, lower graduation rates, and longer time-to-degree, and they describe several reforms that policymakers could adopt to improve these outcomes.

Espenshade, Thomas J., and Alexandria Walton Radford. 2009. No longer separate, not yet equal: Race and class in elite college admission and campus life . Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.

This book raises the research question: are US elite colleges admitting and successfully educating a diverse student body? Using data from more than nine thousand students who applied to selective institutions, the authors investigate admission advantages for minorities as well as race- and class-related gaps in academic achievements, tuition costs, and satisfaction with college experiences.

Karabel, Jerome. 2005. The chosen: The hidden history of admission and exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton . Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

The author studies the history of college admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton from 1900 to 2005 and provides both a view of institutional power and of the evolution of gatekeeping tools across organizations. This book also reveals the changing dynamics of power and privilege in America over the past century.

MacLeod, Jay. 2009. Ain’t no makin’ it: Aspirations and attainment in a low-income neighborhood . 3d ed. Boulder, CO: Westview.

This urban ethnography follows a group of low-income teenagers through school and into adulthood, exploring how social inequality is reproduced from one generation to the next. MacLeod uses this study to argue how inequality is created, sustained, and legitimized in the United States.

Rosenbaum, James E. 2001. Beyond college for all: Career paths for the forgotten half . Rose Series in Sociology. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

This book focuses on this crisis in the American labor market. Rosenbaum describes findings from survey and interview data and argues that alignment in the perception and actions between students, educators, and employers is absent. In contrast to countries such as Germany and Japan, misinformation, student disengagement, and lack of trust between schools and employers poses challenges to young adults in the United States.

Schneider, Barbara, and David Stevenson. 1999. The ambitious generation: America’s teenagers, motivated but directionless . New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.

Schneider and Stevenson argue that American teenagers have ambitious educational and occupational expectations, yet often lack the ability to achieve their goals. The study includes seven thousand teenagers and offers specific guidance based on their findings for how parents and teachers can better support adolescents in their efforts to achieve their ambitions.

School choice policy is largely built on the economic theory of choice and free markets, where individuals choose their educational institution. A classic essay, Friedman 2002 proposes choice theory in education and discusses a free market system for schools. Hirschman 1970 further explores choice theory and the responses individuals have to their choices. Chubb and Moe 1990 argues for increased school choice and competition as a means to increase student achievement. McEwan and Carnoy 2000 evaluates the use of voucher systems in Chile. Bryk, et al. 1993 analyzes the effect of attending Catholic schools compared to public schools. Carnoy, et al. 2005 uses student gain scores to more accurately compare charter and public school effectiveness. Bettinger 2005 evaluates the effects of charter schools, both on within-school student achievement and on the achievement of neighboring public schools. Cooper and Sureau 2007 discusses the politics of homeschooling in the United States, an increasingly popular educational choice for families. Lubienski and Lubienski 2013 uses demographic information to claim public schools as more effective than private schools for creating gains in student achievement. See also Lubienski and Weitzel 2010 and Fabricant and Fine 2012 .

Bettinger, Eric P. 2005. The effect of charter schools on charter students and public schools. Economics of Education Review 24.2: 133–147.

DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2004.04.009 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

This article evaluates the changes in test scores of students attending charter schools as well as the effects of charter schools on students at neighboring public schools. Bettinger argues that there were no significant effects on test scores for neighboring public schools when charters were introduced.

Bryk, Anthony, Valerie Lee, and Peter Holland. 1993. Catholic schools and the common good . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

This book examines US Catholic high schools to understand if students are better educated there or in public schools. The authors argue that Catholic schools have a positive effect on student achievement, particularly in reducing disparities between disadvantaged students and their privileged counterparts. They cite Catholic schools’ moral imperative as a key factor in driving educational quality.

Carnoy, Martin, Rebecca Jacobsen, Lawrence Mishel, and Richard Rothstein. 2005. The charter school dust-up: Examining the evidence on enrollment and achievement . Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.

Carnoy and colleagues employ student achievement data to compare charter schools with traditional public schools. Using achievement gains, as opposed to static test scores, the authors determine that contrary to much public discourse, charter schools in New York City performed worse than comparable public schools.

Chubb, John, and Terry Moe. 1990. Politics, markets, and America’s schools . Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

Chubb and Moe, in this book, argue that reforms for educational change in the 1980s did not address the core of the problem they aimed to solve. Chubb and Moe recommend a dramatic change; that school choice and competition should be the basis for school improvement and increased student achievement.

Cooper, Bruce S., and John Sureau. 2007. The politics of homeschooling: New developments, new challenges. Educational Policy 21.1: 110–131.

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In this article, Cooper and Sureau describe the rapid growth of the homeschooling movement in the United States. They describe how homeschooling families are organized and the families’ relationships with public institutions.

Fabricant, Michael, and Michelle Fine. 2012. Charter schools and the corporate makeover of public education: What’s at stake? New York: Teachers College Press.

The authors analyze empirical data to determine whether charter schools are an authentic alternative to public schools. Fabricant and Fine discuss the history, politics, and economic motivation behind the charter school movement and its effects on student outcomes.

Friedman, Milton. 2002. Capitalism and freedom . Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

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In this classic economics text, Friedman argues that competitive capitalism serves as a mechanism for economic choice and as a necessary condition for political freedom. He outlines a free market system for schools, using vouchers as a means to exercise choice and competition with the primary goal of enhancing school quality. Originally published in 1962.

Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, voice, and loyalty: Responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

Hirschman describes several ways dissatisfaction is expressed in firms—through exit (leaving the organization) and voice (exerting influence for change from within the organization). This argument can be applied to school choice, where schools are firms and students and their families represent members.

Lubienski, Christopher, and Sarah Lubienski. 2013. The public school advantage: Why public school outperform private schools . Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

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Influenced by recent debates regarding market-based school solutions such as school choice and increased privatization of schools, Lubienski and Lubienski argue against the belief that private schools are superior to public schools, offering evidence that public schools are better-performing. These authors argue that superior performance by private school students is attributable to demographics, and they correct for demographic measures to show that gains in student achievement are higher in public schools.

Lubienski, Christopher, and Peter Weitzel. 2010. The charter school experiment: Expectations, evidence, and implications . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

This book examines the unintended impacts of charter schools over the last twenty years. In this comprehensive exploration, the authors discuss how the purpose of charter schools evolved from their original goals of introducing competition into the education system to encouraging innovation and providing more equitable access to quality education.

McEwan, Patrick J., and Martin Carnoy. 2000. The effectiveness and efficiency of private schools in Chile’s voucher system. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 22.3: 213–239.

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This article evaluates the comparative effectiveness and efficiency of private and public schools in Chile. Findings show that nonreligious voucher schools are marginally less effective than public schools in the fourth grade. When assessing student achievement, Catholic voucher schools are somewhat more effective than public ones.

Educational reform presents similar challenges in the United States as in many developed and developing countries. A comparative perspective in educational research highlights shared patterns and diverse solutions, and can lead to an enhanced understanding of how to improve education. Carnoy 2000 introduces the relationship between globalization and education, examining how globalization influences the quality and financing of education, in addition to labor market outcomes. In Levin and Lockheed 2012 , the authors analyze case studies from eight different countries to inform strategies that can improve education for children in low-income communities. McPherson and Willms 1987 examines the effects of a comprehensive reorganization initiative on reducing social class inequalities in Scotland. Comparing the Finnish educational system to other developed countries, Sahlberg 2011 provides a detailed description of the success of educational reform in Finland. The authors of Schmidt, et al. 1997 use a comparative analysis of fifty different countries to reveal the splintered nature of curriculum and instruction in the United States. Torney-Purta, et al. 1999 examines case studies from twenty-four countries to understand how different educational policies and practices influence civic education and knowledge. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2011 provides synopses of country profiles, recommending improvements to the US education system based on features of high-scoring countries’ systems. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 2015 highlights success and challenges of the international effort to provide education for all.

Carnoy, Martin. 2000. Globalization and educational reform. In Globalization and education: Integration and contestation across cultures . Edited by Nelly P. Stromquist and Karen Monkman, 43–61. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Carnoy discusses how globalization influences education, in particular globalization’s impact on the financing of education, labor market outcomes, and the quality of national education systems. This chapter also highlights the role of comparative research that uses international assessments (e.g., Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) in understanding the differences among countries.

Levin, Henry, and Marlaine E. Lockheed, eds. 2012. Effective schools in developing countries . Routledge Library Editions: Education 8. New York: Routledge.

This volume contains eight case studies describing educational initiatives for children in poverty in nations including Brazil, Burundi, Colombia, Ghana, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the United States. These independent initiatives can collectively inform the future development of effective strategies for children in low-income communities.

McPherson, Andrew, and J. Douglas Willms. 1987. Equalisation and improvement: Some effects of comprehensive reorganisation in Scotland. Sociology 21.4: 509–539.

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McPherson and Willms examine a policy initiative that required schools to transition from a two- or three-tier selective system—whereby pupils were channeled into grammar, technical, or secondary modern schools—to a “comprehensive” system that served all pupils. Results show that this comprehensive reorganization had a small positive effect on students’ attainment and reduced social class inequalities in attainment.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2011. Lessons from PISA for the United States . Paris: OECD.

This report on student performance on the Programme for International Student Assessment has been greatly influential for curriculum reform in science, serving to analyze US PISA results while describing practices of the highest-scoring education systems.

Sahlberg, Pasi. 2011. Finnish lessons: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland? Series on School Reform. New York: Teachers College Press.

Chronicling the changes in the Finnish educational system over the past three decades, Sahlberg traces how educational reform evolved in Finland. Contrasting the Finnish system to the United States and other developed countries, this book provides a detailed account of education in Finland—a system focused on the professionalization of teachers, effective instructional leadership, and enhanced trust in schools.

Schmidt, William H., Curtis McKnight, and Senta Raizen. 1997. A splintered vision: An investigation of U.S. science and mathematics education . Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.

This study analyzes data from curriculum guides and textbooks from about fifty countries to examine differences in curricula, instructional practices, school factors, and social conditions. Schmidt and colleagues argue that the mathematics and science curriculum in the United States is splintered because there is no unified vision of how to educate students. Because of this splintered vision, the curricula, textbooks, and teaching in the United States are often overly broad in topic but lack depth in content.

Torney-Purta, Judith, John Schwille, and Jo-Ann Amadeo, eds. 1999. Civic education across countries: Twenty-four national case studies from the IEA Civic Education Project . Amsterdam: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement.

This volume reports the results from qualitative case studies in twenty-four countries examining the circumstances, contents, and processes of civic education. Each chapter within this volume provides a thorough summary of these national case studies, highlighting important issues or themes within civic education.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 2015. EFA Global Monitoring Report – Education for All 2000–2015: Achievements and Challenges . Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

This influential report analyzed the progress of over 160 governments to reach the Dakar Framework goal of providing education for all individuals and provided recommendations for the 2015 global sustainable development agenda. The report takes stock of countries’ successes and challenges in meeting this goal, while identifying remaining concerns with regards to gender and racial disparity, the effect of income inequality on schooling, and the poor quality of learning at a primary level.

Access to resources outside of school can influence the educational experiences and outcomes of students, both domestically and globally. Stevenson and Baker 1992 and Baker, et al. 2001 explore the phenomenon of shadow education internationally. Cheng and Powell 2007 examines the transmission of resources across generations in biracial families. Fuller and Clarke 1994 considers the role of culture in understanding the effects of school. Putnam 2015 offers policy solutions to improve the outcomes of low-income students who are subject to the educational opportunity gap.

Baker, David P., Motoko Akiba, Gerald K. LeTendre, and Alexander W. Wiseman. 2001. Worldwide shadow education: Outside-school learning, institutional quality of schooling, and cross-national mathematics achievement. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 23.1: 1–17.

DOI: 10.3102/01623737023001001 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

In this study, the phenomenon of shadow education is explored using cross-national data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. The authors argue that institutional factors of education, including limited access and lower levels of funding, drive the use of shadow education.

Cheng, Simon, and Brian Powell. 2007. Under and beyond constraints: Resource allocation to young children from biracial families. American Journal of Sociology 112.4: 1044–1094.

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This study uses data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study to examine the differences in biracial families and monoracial families in the transmission of resources to young children in the United States. Cheng and Powell demonstrate the utility of using refined measures of biracial families (e.g., white father/Asian mother) to examine stratification practices in school.

Fuller, Bruce, and Prema Clarke. 1994. Raising school effects while ignoring culture? Local conditions and the influence of classroom tools, rules, and pedagogy. Review of Educational Research 64.1: 119–157.

DOI: 10.3102/00346543064001119 Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

In this article, Fuller and Clarke review how research on the effects of schooling is informed by research in developing countries. The authors discuss the aggregate effect of the school, review findings from developing countries on school inputs, and argue the importance for policy to consider cultural conditions in education.

Putnam, Robert. 2015. Our kids: The American dream in crisis . New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.

In this book, Putnam argues the presence of an opportunity gap preventing students from obtaining upward mobility. Putnam discusses differential outcomes for students with varying incomes, family backgrounds, and communities, arguing for policy solutions that benefit the disadvantaged.

Stevenson, David L., and David P. Baker. 1992. Shadow education and allocation in formal schooling: Transition to university in Japan. American Journal of Sociology 97.6: 1639–1657.

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This article describes “shadow education,” which is described as educational activities that occur outside of formal schooling but enhance a student’s education. Stevenson and Baker explore how shadow education and social advantages of students in Japan are transferred from one generation to the next.

Variation in school funding can introduce additional inequalities in education. Odden and Picus 2008 provides an overview of school finance and the implications for policy. Levin 1998 examines the cost of voucher programs and their effects on socioeconomic and racial segregation. Rebell 2009 and Yaffe 2007 describe the judicial influence and political debate over educational equity.

Levin, Henry. 1998. Educational vouchers: Effectiveness, choice, and costs. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 17.3: 373–392.

DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1520-6688(199822)17:3%3C373::AID-PAM1%3E3.0.CO;2-D Save Citation » Export Citation » Share Citation »

This article analyzes a substantial body of empirical data and demonstrates that private schools offer only a small advantage over public schools, particularly for graduation and postsecondary matriculation. In addition, school choice leads to greater socioeconomic and racial segregation of students. Relative costs of a voucher system appear to exceed those of the present system.

Odden, Allan, and Lawrence Picus. 2008. School finance: A policy perspective . 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

This book offers a comprehensive discussion of the history, law, and role of research in school finance, resource allocation, site-based management, and teacher compensation. Odden and Picus offer practical implications of how these different factors may impact the funding of schools in the United States.

Rebell, Michael A. 2009. Courts and kids: Pursuing educational equity through the state courts . Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

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Rebell analyzes how and why state courts advocate for school desegregation and discusses the success of their efforts. He argues that courts have the authority and responsibility to pursue the goal of educational equity and offers recommendations for how courts can collaborate with policymakers to reach this goal.

Yaffe, Deborah. 2007. Other people’s children: The battle for justice and equality in New Jersey’s schools . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press.

Chronicling decades of funding debates in New Jersey, this book examines the legal and political battle for equitable school financing for all students. Yaffe discusses the responsibility that the United States has for its poor and the implications for the role of public schools in providing equal opportunities for students of all backgrounds.

Research on this topic considers the effects of the family and neighborhood on educational outcomes. Astone and McLanahan 1991 explores the effects of family structure and parenting on high school completion. Duncan and Brooks-Gunn 1997 includes research on children growing up in low socioeconomic environments. In Tate 2012 , contributors explore the relationships among health, geography, and human development in education. Buchmann and DiPrete 2006 explores the impact of parental resources on gender gaps between female and male students in higher education. Schneider and Waite 2005 examines dual-career families to evaluate their approaches to work-life balance.

Astone, Nan Marie, and Sara S. McLanahan. 1991. Family structure, parental practices and high school completion. American Sociological Review 56.3: 309–320.

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This study uses data from the High School and Beyond study in the United States to examine the relationship between family structure and academic achievement. Astone and McLanahan’s work demonstrates that the effects of parental involvement on achievement and engagement vary by single-parent households, step-parent households, and biological-parent households.

Buchmann, Claudia, and Thomas A. DiPrete. 2006. The growing female advantage in college completion: The role of family background and academic achievement. American Sociological Review 71.4: 515–541.

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This article examines the causes related to the growing female advantage in college completion. Buchmann and DiPrete argue that parental education levels, presence of a father at home, academic performance, and declining gender discrimination influence female-favorable patterns in college completion.

Duncan, Greg, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, eds. 1997. Consequences of growing up poor . New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

This interdisciplinary text includes contributions from social scientists that examine the influence of economic deprivation on child development. Through the consideration of heterogeneous life experiences within low-income settings, the contributors posited several solutions. These policy considerations focus on child welfare, income supplements, and childcare subsidies.

Schneider, Barbara, and Linda J. Waite, eds. 2005. Being together, working apart: Dual-career families and the work-life balance . New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.

This book, targeted toward academics, policymakers, and working parents, examines how families attempt to attain work-life balance by examining 500 dual-career families in eight communities across the United States.

Tate, William F., ed. 2012. Research on schools, neighborhoods, and communities: Toward civic responsibility . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

This book includes empirical and theoretical contributions from a diverse set of scholars who consider structural effects on schools. More specifically, the authors emphasize the relationship between geography and location on the social contexts of schools and the potential issues that students face, such as racial segregation, immigration, and college readiness.

At the frontline of education, teachers are a critical component in the educative process. As such, they have been the focal point of education research and policy. Cochran-Smith, et al. 2008 addresses big questions in teacher education, such as the purposes of teacher education. Goldstein 2014 documents the history of the teaching profession. Darling-Hammond 2000 provides a review of teacher policies in the United States and encourages investment in policies that improve teacher quality. Rivkin, et al. 2005 examines the impact of teacher quality on student achievement. Lankford, et al. 2002 explores the distribution of teacher quality across schools over time and finds that low-income and low-achieving schools often have the least-qualified teachers. Konstantopoulos and Chung 2011 examines the persistence of teacher effects and argues that cumulative effects of teaching are an important consideration in developing teacher policy. McKenzie and Santiago 2005 comparatively analyzes international data, documents the importance of teachers in education, and provides positive examples of teacher policy across different countries. Ingersoll 2001 reveals that, contrary to the notion, there is a shortage of qualified teachers and that teacher turnover and retention are due to an excess quantity of teachers. See also Ingersoll 2003 and the Carnegie Knowledge Network .

Carnegie Knowledge Network .

This website brings together statistical research and information on improving teacher quality through value-added systems. Its mission is to funnel and translate the research that is being conducted and to provide a community where these findings can be incorporated into policies and teacher evaluation systems that can improve student learning.

Cochran-Smith, Marilyn, Sharon Feiman-Nemser, D. John McIntyre, and Kelly E. Demers., eds. 2008. Handbook of research on teacher education: Enduring questions in changing contexts . 3d ed. New York: Routledge.

This handbook features texts that address the purposes of teacher education, what teachers should be taught, how teachers learn to teach effectively, and other questions prominent in the scope of teacher education and teacher training. This handbook is composed of framing chapters, commentaries, and artifacts, such as essays, speeches, and articles.

Darling-Hammond, Linda. 2000. Teacher quality and student achievement: A review of state policy evidence. Education Policy Analysis Archives 8.1: 1–44.

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This article examines how teacher qualifications and other school inputs are associated with student achievement in the United States. Using the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), the National Assessment of Education Progress, a state survey of policies, and case studies, the author obtains findings that suggest that policy investments in teacher quality may improve student performance.

Goldstein, Dana. 2014. The teacher wars: A history of America’s most embattled profession . New York: Penguin Random House.

Covering 175 years of American education, Goldstein traces the progression of the teaching profession from the 19th century onward. Goldstein’s work begins with the Common School Movement and ends with the data-driven approach of the new Millennium, highlighting policies that include the feminization of the teaching force, the rise of unions, and increased teacher accountability.

Ingersoll, Richard. 2001. Teacher turnover and teacher shortages: An organizational analysis. American Educational Research Journal 38.3: 499–534.

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Ingersoll analyzes data from the SASS to understand factors related to the supply and retention of qualified teachers. Results show that staffing problems in schools are not related to a shortage of teachers. Data reveal that the demand for new teachers is driven by an excess of teachers leaving the profession, but not for retirement—creating a “revolving door” in and out of the classroom.

Ingersoll, Richard. 2003. Who controls teachers’ work? Power and accountability in America’s schools . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

This book describes the profession of teaching, examining if teachers are more similar to professionals or to factory workers in their autonomy, and if this influences their work. Ingersoll demonstrates that because of the nested nature of classrooms within schools, this influences the decision-making powers of the administration, district, and state—allowing teachers a certain degree of autonomy, but new federal and state policies could limit this autonomy.

Konstantopoulos, Spyros, and Vicki Chung. 2011. The persistence of teacher effects in elementary grades. American Educational Research Journal 48.2: 361–386.

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The authors use data from Project STAR (Project Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio) to understand the persistence of teacher effects in elementary schools in the United States. The authors find that the effects of a teacher persist through sixth grade in mathematics, reading, and science. This suggests that cumulative effects of teachers may seriously impact student achievement.

Lankford, Hamilton, Susanna Loeb, and James Wyckoff. 2002. Teacher sorting and the plight of urban schools: A descriptive analysis. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 24.1: 37–62.

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Using New York State data, the authors first examine the variation in the average attributes of teachers across schools, identify schools with the least-qualified teachers, and assess the teacher distribution changes over time. The authors find that low-income, low-achieving New York City schools with high populations of nonwhite students often have the least-skilled teachers.

McKenzie, Phillip, and Paulo Santiago. 2005. Teachers matter: Attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers . Education and Training Policy. Paris: OECD.

This report was conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2002–2004 and examines the role of teachers across twenty-five countries. The project illuminates concerns about teachers, teaching, and teacher policy. It also highlights positive policy examples that were shown to make a difference. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

Rivkin, Steven G., Eric A. Hanushek, and John F. Kain. 2005. Teachers, schools, and academic achievement. Econometrica 73.2: 417–458.

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Using multiple measurements over time, the authors explore the impact of schools and teachers on student achievement in the United States. They argue that a higher-quality teacher can have a greater influence on achievement as opposed to a significant reduction in class size, underscoring the importance of teacher effectiveness.

Equity and Equality

The ideals of equity and equality in education are often the aim of social policies and educational reforms—providing access to a quality education for all students in the United States. However, gaps in educational achievement and attainment persist, particularly for children of color and for students from low-income families. To understand the struggles over the structure and effectiveness of the educational system in the United States, Labaree 1997 discusses the tensions surrounding the competing goals of the American education system. Rothstein 2004 explores the various causes of the achievement gaps in education. Duncan and Murnane 2011 investigates a range of research and policies in the United States that contribute to inequalities in education. Buchmann and Hannum 2001 reviews the literature on stratification in education in developing countries. Jencks 1972 examines the social composition of schools in America and argues that the social composition of a school is associated with student achievement. Grubb and Lazerson 2007 discusses how social forces and policies produce advantages and privileges that contribute to growing inequalities in the workforce. Darling-Hammond 2010 argues that academic gaps are the result of opportunity gaps experienced by low-income and minority students. DiPrete and Buchmann 2013 discusses the gender gap in higher education. See also the Education Trust and The Equality of Opportunity Project .

Buchmann, Claudia, and Emily Hannum. 2001. Education and stratification in developing countries: A review of theories and research. Annual Review of Sociology 27:77–102.

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This article is a review of the research on inequality in education in developing regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Through their examination of cross-national studies, Buchmann and Hannum discuss the use of new data sources in research and the opportunities for researchers to collaborate on similar studies across fields.

Darling-Hammond, Linda. 2010. The flat world and education: How America’s commitment to equity will determine our future . Multicultural Education Series. New York: Teachers College Press.

With increasingly diverse student populations in the United States, schools are challenged to educate growing numbers of ethnic minorities and immigrants. This book describes how academic gaps are influenced by growing inequalities, particularly opportunity gaps experienced by low-income and minority students. Darling-Hammond discusses policy implications and reforms aimed at providing all students a more equitable education.

DiPrete, Thomas A., and Claudia Buchmann. 2013. The rise of women: The growing gender gap in education and what it means for American schools . New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

The authors provide useful explanations of changes in the school environment to understand the causes and the extent of the gender gap in higher education.

Duncan, Greg J., and Richard J. Murnane, eds. 2011. Whither opportunity? Rising inequality, schools, and children’s life chances . New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

In this edited volume, a team of researchers from multiple disciplines examines the factors related to inequality in education in the United States, including family resources, neighborhoods, and school conditions—from birth to primary and secondary school experiences through college completion. The contributors suggest that rising inequality may compromise how schools function in America.

Education Trust .

The mission of this organization is to “ensure students of color and low-income students, pre-K through college, have an equitable chance at a good education.” The organization’s website contains research summaries and policy reports on reforms for all age groups. The organization’s core values support effectively using student data, improving teaching practices, drafting policy recommendations, and improving access and persistence in higher education.

The Equality of Opportunity Project .

This project, led by a group of economists and other social scientists, aims to find the most effective ways to address chronic poverty through data analysis. Specifically, this project aims to address declining upward income mobility, and improve the ability of children to have a higher standard to living than their parents.

Grubb, W. Norton, and Marvin Lazerson. 2007. The education gospel: The economic power of schooling . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

Grubb and Lazerson challenge the notion that more schooling for more people is the solution to our social and economic problems. The book describes a mismatch between academic preparation provided in schools and the skills required for the workforce, suggesting that reforms should be targeted at providing more meaningful alignment between high school and postsecondary goals.

Jencks, Christopher. 1972. Inequality: A reassessment of the effect of family and schooling in America . New York: Basic Books.

This book examines the impact that schools have on reducing inequality among students. Multiple analyses of a myriad of factors related to academic achievement suggest that educational reform is limited in its capacity to address these larger social issues. Jencks argues that fundamental economic reform is necessary to address social inequality.

Labaree, David F. 1997. Public goods, private goods: The American struggle over educational goals. American Educational Research Journal 34.1: 39–81.

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In this article, the author presents three ideals of the American education system that have been the source of educational conflicts: democratic equality, social efficiency, and social mobility. Labaree posits that because there is no consensus among these competing goals of education, the structure and effectiveness of the education system has been adversely affected.

Rothstein, Richard. 2004. Class and schools: Using social, economic, and educational reform to close the black-white achievement gap . Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.

In this book, Rothstein analyzes various causes of the achievement gap, examining a broad range of research and literature on equality in education. This volume explores school factors as well as the impacts of health care, nutrition, parents, home, and community. The author also expands his arguments by including cognitive and soft skills (e.g., behavior) in his analysis.

The study of racial and ethnic diversity in education life focuses on understanding demographic trends for students and the experiences of the individual student. Carter 2013 argues that the cultural mismatch between teachers and students increases the achievement gap between majority and minority groups. Alexander, et al. 2011 examines the racial composition of schools and what happens to students over winter and summer breaks from school. The Brown v. Board of Education ruling declared separate but equal education unconstitutional. Cronin 2011 examines Boston Public Schools, with implications for urban school reform. Pattillo-McCoy 1999 explores the experiences of black middle-class families and how the black and white middle classes remain separate but unequal. Rumbaut and Portes 2001 , Gonzales 2016 , and Callahan and Muller 2013 describe the experiences and educational trajectories of the children of immigrants in the United States. Lastly, Kao and Tienda 1995 analyzes achievement differences between immigrant and native students in the United States and finds behavioral differences in parents that may explain variations in student achievement. See also Ferguson 2007 , Tyson 2011 , and Cronin 2011 .

Alexander, Karl, Entwisle, Doris, and Olson, Linda. 2011. The long shadow family background, disadvantaged urban youth, and the transition to adulthood . New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press.

Using a longitudinal sample of elementary students in Baltimore, Maryland, the researchers examine reading comprehension growth during winter (in school) and summer (out of school) for black and white students across segregated and mixed-race schools. They find that white and black students across all schools make less than expected growth during the school year. In the summer, however, black students in segregated schools made significantly less reading growth during the summer compared to their counterparts in mixed-race schools, thus compounding during-school gaps in reading comprehension.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas , 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

This landmark US Supreme Court case overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 to declare segregation, the separate schooling of black and white students, unconstitutional. The decision declared separate educational facilities as “inherently unequal,” but it did not set a protocol in place for the desegregation of schools.

Callahan, Rebecca, and Chandra Muller. 2013. Coming of political age: American schools and the civic development of immigrant youth . New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

In this book, Callahan and Muller examine how high schools play a role in integrating immigrant students’ civic participation using two large national surveys of adolescents and interviews data with social science teachers. The authors also expand their concerns to the high school civics curriculum and social science preparation of immigrant youth.

Carter, Prudence. 2013. Closing the opportunity gap: What America must do to give all children an even chance . Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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Prudence Carter discusses how schools’ sociocultural environments and practices matter to student engagement and achievement. Carter posits that the cultural mismatch between students and educators hinders educators’ capacity to engage students’ effective learning, which increases the achievement gap between majority group and other minority groups (e.g., black, Latino, and Native American).

Cronin, Joseph. 2011. Reforming Boston schools, 1930 to the present: Overcoming corruption and racial segregation . Palgrave Studies in Urban Education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

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This book provides a comprehensive history of reforms, politics, protests, and racial conflict in the Boston Public Schools. Examining segregation, busing, and white flight, Cronin explores what compels some parents to keep their students in their schools while others choose to leave. This analysis provides implications for the future of urban school reform.

Ferguson, Ronald F. 2007. Toward excellence with equity: An emerging vision for closing the achievement gap . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

This book summarizes fifteen years of research on the black-white achievement gap, looking at multiple factors and policies impacting racial disparities. Ferguson argues for a comprehensive, holistic approach, involving parents as key stakeholders in educational reforms to narrow gaps between black and white students.

Gonzales, Roberto G. 2016. Lives in limbo: Undocumented and coming of age in America . Oakland: Univ. of California Press.

Using ethnographic fieldwork and participant observation of 150 immigrants between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one, Gonzales investigates undocumented youths and their families in the K-12 system, as well as their job market participation. Gonzales also uncovers the aspirational differences between “college-goers” and “early exiters.” While different educational opportunities and aspirations were evident, ultimately, documentation status still determines younger people’s life chances from adolescence to adulthood.

Kao, Grace, and Marta Tienda. 1995. Optimism and achievement: The educational performance of immigrant youth. Social Science Quarterly 76.1: 1–19.

This study uses the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 to examine the impact of generational status on achievement and college aspirations of eighth graders. Kao and Tienda find that behavioral differences between native and immigrant parents help to explain variations in academic performance between these student groups.

Pattillo-McCoy, Mary. 1999. Black picket fences: Privilege and peril among the black middle class . Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

This book explores the black middle class in the United States, examining the advantages and boundaries that exist for this group, drawing on a three-year ethnographic study in a Southside Chicago neighborhood. Pattillo-McCoy demonstrates how the black and white middle classes remain separate and unequal.

Rosenbaum, J. E. 2001. Beyond college-for-all: Career paths for the forgotten half . ASA Rose Monograph Series. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

This book focuses on this crisis in the American labor market. Rosenbaum describes findings from survey and interview data and argues that the absence of alignment in the perception and actions among students, educators, and employers is a problem in the United States. In contrast to countries such as Germany and Japan, misinformation, student disengagement, and lack of trust between schools and employers pose challenges to young adults in the society.

Rumbaut, Rubén G., and Alejandro Portes, eds. 2001. Ethnicities: Children of immigrants in America . Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.

This volume includes contributions by leading scholars of immigration and ethnicity who examine the lives and trajectories of the children of immigrants. The authors explore the rising second generation of immigrants growing up in the United States by focusing on youth of diverse national origins.

Tyson, Karolyn. 2011. Integration interrupted: Tracking, black students, and acting white after Brown. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

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This book draws on ten years of ethnographic data to explore the role of the school in creating the oppositional culture observed among black students in their efforts to avoid “acting white.” The author argues that school practices since desegregation, particularly regarding within-school curriculum tracking among black students, have served to perpetuate anti-academic behavior among black students.

Research on class-based variation in education examines how the social constraints of students and the structural opportunities available in education are related to the educational experiences and outcomes. One classic text that explores social class in education is Lareau 2000 , in which the author uses ethnographic data to understand social class differences in parenting in the United States. The author of Anyon 1981 uses several case studies to examine differences in social class across school settings. Reardon 2011 describes increasing income inequalities and how this growing gap contributes to differences in educational outcomes. Lastly, Baker, et al. 2002 explores differences in socioeconomic status, school quality, and economic development across developing countries.

Anyon, Jean. 1981. Social class and school knowledge. Curriculum Inquiry 11.1: 3–42.

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In this article, Anyon analyzes data collected from case studies in five elementary schools in New Jersey and examines different social class settings. He argues that although the curriculum and materials were similar among the schools, their data suggest the social stratification of knowledge.

Baker, David P., Gerald K. LeTendre, and Brian Goesling. 2002. Socioeconomic status, school quality, and national economic development: A cross-national analysis of the “Heyneman-Loxley effect” on mathematics and science achievement. Comparative Education Review 46.3: 291–312.

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Using 1990s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study data, the authors examine the “Heyneman-Loxley (HL) effect” that suggested that school factors were more important than family socioeconomic status in determining student achievement in developing countries. This reassessment found the association between student achievement and family background to be similar across countries in the study, regardless of national income, which suggests that the HL effect has been reduced as access to schooling has increased.

Lareau, Annette. 2000. Home advantage: Social class and parental intervention in elementary education . 2d ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

This book discusses an ethnographic study that compares two elementary schools—one considered a working-class school and the other an upper-middle-class school, both in California. Lareau argues that parents from the working class are just as interested in their children’s education when compared to their counterparts; however, working-class parents are more likely to yield to the advice of teachers, guidance counselors, and other school professionals, who they regard as having special skills and insights.

Reardon, Sean F. 2011. The widening academic achievement gap between the rich and the poor: New evidence and possible explanations. In Whither opportunity? Rising inequality, schools, and children’s life chances . Edited by Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane, 91–116. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

In this chapter, Reardon explores the achievement gap among students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. This study investigates several explanations for this widening gap among students from varying income levels by analyzing several different national longitudinal data sources.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 established that students requiring special education are exposed to the least restrictive educational environment in US schools. Osgood 2008 chronicles over 120 years of the history of special education. Lastly, Carroll and Muller 2018 discusses the history and outcomes of formal and informal curricular differentiation.

Carroll, Jamie, and Chandra Muller. 2018. Curricular differentiation and its impact on different status groups including immigrants and students with disabilities. In Handbook of sociology of education in the 21st century . Edited by Barbara Schneider and Guan Saw, 285–309. New York: Springer.

This chapter discusses the history of formal and informal curricular differentiation in US schools, highlighting the school outcomes (such as skill development and educational expectations) and non-school outcomes (such as health outcomes). Specifically, the chapter reports key findings on course-taking by race/ethnicity, gender, disability status, and immigrant status.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004, Pub. L. No. 101-476, 104 Stat. 1142 (2004).

This legislation ensures that students with a disability are provided with the least restrictive environment that meets their needs, determining how states and agencies provide early education, and special education services. IDEA includes procedures for determining who receives special education services, parental rights, and individualized education programs (IEPs).

Osgood, Robert. 2008. The history of special education: A struggle for equality in American public schools . Westport, CT: Praeger.

In this book, Robert L. Osgood documents the history of formal and informal special education settings in US public education by defining and characterizing special education, tracing the emergence of special education as a distinct department of public education, and discussing the status of children with disabilities as compared to their nondisabled peers.

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Essays on Education Policy

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This dissertation consists of three essays on the topic of education policy. In the first essay, I evaluate the impacts of a teacher quality equity law that was enacted in California in the fall of 2006 prohibiting superintendents from transferring a teacher into a school in the bottom three performance deciles of the state's academic performance index if the principal refuses the transfer. The primary mechanism through which the policy should affect student outcomes is through the mix of the quality of teachers in the school. Using publicly available statewide administrative education data, and two quasi-experimental methodologies, I assess whether the policy had an effect on the district-wide distribution of teachers with varying levels of experience, education and licensure and on student academic performance. I extend the analysis by examining whether the policy has differential effects on subgroups of schools classified as having high-poverty or high-minority student populations. I find that, as a result of the teacher quality equity law, low-performing schools experienced a relative increase in fully-credentialed teachers and more highly educated teachers, but that did not necessarily translate to an increase in academic performance. I also find evidence that the dimension along which the policy was most effective was in improving teacher pre-service qualifications in schools with high minority student populations.

In the second essay, I estimate racial, ethnic, gender and socioeconomic differences in teacher reports of student absenteeism and tardiness while controlling for administrative records of actual absences. Subjective perceptions that teachers form about students' classroom behaviors matter for student academic outcomes. Given this potential impact, it is important to identify any biases in these perceptions that would disadvantage subgroups of students. I use longitudinal data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 in conjunction with longitudinal, student-level data from the North Carolina Education Data Research Center to employ a variation of a two sample instrumental variables approach in which I instrument for actual eighth grade absences with simulated measures of eight grade absences. I find consistent evidence that teacher reports of the attendance of poor students are negatively biased and that math teacher reports of male attendance are positively biased. There is mixed evidence with regard to student race and ethnicity.

The third essay is a co-authored work in which we employ a quasi-experimental estimation strategy to examine the effects of state-level job losses on fourth- and eighth-grade test scores, using federal Mass Layoff Statistics and 1996-2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress data. Results indicate that job losses decrease scores. Effects are larger for eighth than fourth graders and for math than reading assessments, and are robust to specification checks. Job losses to 1 percent of a state's working-age population lead to a .076 standard deviation decrease in the state's eighth-grade math scores. This result is an order of magnitude larger than those found in previous studies that have compared students whose parents lose employment to otherwise similar students, suggesting that downturns affect all students, not just students who experience parental job loss. Our findings have important implications for accountability schemes: we calculate that a state experiencing one-year job losses to 2 percent of its workers (a magnitude observed in seven states) likely sees a 16 percent increase in the share of its schools failing to make Adequate Yearly Progress under No Child Left Behind.

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Francis, Dania Veronica (2013). Essays on Education Policy . Dissertation, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/7176 .

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Dukes student scholarship is made available to the public using a Creative Commons Attribution / Non-commercial / No derivative (CC-BY-NC-ND) license .

Policy-Making in Education

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The introduction to the chapter outlines factors which need to be borne in mind when analyzing the making of educational policy and highlights some of the major contrasts between states and nations in different parts of the globe. The chapter then moves on to a case study of the historical development of educational policy and policy-making in the UK. This history is seen as a contributory factor leading to the crisis in policy-making which has developed at the present time. The chapter concludes with a brief analysis of that crisis and argues that a reconsideration of how education policy is made and where it is leading is required, which can only be effective if it takes account of the issues raised in the chapter.

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UCL Institute of Education, University of London, London, UK

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Graduate School of Education, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia

Tanya Fitzgerald

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Lowe, R. (2019). Policy-Making in Education. In: Fitzgerald, T. (eds) Handbook of Historical Studies in Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0942-6_35-1

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0942-6_35-1

Received : 08 February 2019

Accepted : 08 February 2019

Published : 05 September 2019

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Online ISBN : 978-981-10-0942-6

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The Economics of Education and Education Policy

Virtual issue.

Jump to Articles

This virtual issue showcases 12 papers published in The Economic Journal, focusing on the economics of education and education policy. In addition to long-standing issues such as school choice, tracking and teacher effectiveness, this issue highlights recent research on complex education policy problems such as intergenerational mobility and inequality. The issue is timely, as the tremendous negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on learning outcomes still persist worldwide.

The issue is organized around four themes. The first set of papers examines enduring questions about school choice and school quality, including issues related to student tracking.  The second set deals with distributional and intergenerational issues from the education policy perspective. The final two sets explore teacher effectiveness and the identification of peer effects. These 12 papers together represent cutting-edge research in the education and education policy literature and offer new avenues for future research.

Sule Alan, Joint Managing Editor, The Economic Journal

School Choice Design, Risk Aversion and Cardinal Segregation

Learning and mechanism design: an experimental test of school matching mechanisms with intergenerational advice, better together heterogeneous effects of tracking on student achievement, does educational tracking affect performance and inequality differences‐ in‐differences evidence across countries, intergenerational mobility and unequal school opportunity, the hahn lecture: the long-term distributional and welfare effects of covid-19 school closures, long-term and intergenerational effects of education: evidence from school construction in indonesia, teacher effectiveness and classroom composition: understanding match effects in the classroom, education quality and teaching practices, the long-run effects of peers on mental health, friendship and female education: evidence from a field experiment in bangladeshi primary schools, competitive pressure widens the gender gap in performance: evidence from a two-stage competition in mathematics.

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Understanding Educational Policies Essay

Human engagements have been characterized by rules and guidelines for a long period of time now. The processes involved in the setting out of these regulations take different forms and may vary from one country to another depending on how people are expected to interact and address the various challenges that may arise.

The guidelines are usually referred to as public policies since they are expected to provide general direction to the members of the public and to ensure social order (May, 2001). The process of formulating, formalization and implementation has proved to be a daunting task since each sector in the society has its own unique policies (Cockrel, 2004). Different stakeholders in the society that may be affected by the policies must be engaged in one way or another in the public policy formulation process.

The essay seeks to discuss and rate the influence of the legislative bodies, leadership, the justice system, as well as the bureaucracy on the formulation and implementation of educational policies. It will briefly discuss the general pattern in the public policy-making process. The influence of other entities, for instance interest groups, political parties, and the media will also be considered.

Public policy-making process is a product of interactions as well as dynamics among different actors, interest groups, public and private institutions and other technical processes preceding the enactment and interpretation of any public policy. Numerous definitions of policy and policy-making process have been used depending on the context.

For the purposes of this essay, a policy shall be defined as either an explicit or implicit decision or decisions made by a group that lays out the instructions for guiding the subsequent decisions, regulate actions, or monitoring prior decisions reached (Ben-Peretz, 2008). The process of making policies, therefore, varies in complexity as well as scope and the dynamics involved must be acknowledged. A number of models have been designed to provide a general format followed in the process of formulating a given public policy.

The stages involved are well sequenced from the primary level to the ultimate enactment, implementation and interpretation of the policies (Schmidt, Shelly & Crain, 2009). There are five major components in any of these models and they include; problem advocacy, the opponents, the concerned authorities, the implementation, and interpretation/evaluation of the given public policy (Cockrel, 2004).

The first step is the problem identification phase which involves the definition of the issue at hand that the policy will seek to address. This can be done by the concerned/line authorities, institutions, or activists. The advocates of a specified issue will raise people’s awareness and hence recruiting more of them into their course. The target number of people depends on the scope of the problem and the anticipated policy.

The next step involves the proposal of available alternatives for addressing the problems or conditions at hand. These proposals will provide a frame of action in alleviating the identified crisis. The third phase is the identification of appropriate authorities that will engineer the process of policy formulation. The concerned authorities will appoint/design a committee to investigate the problem and establish the magnitude.

It will also be expected to offer a refined list of recommendations for addressing the crisis. The authorities play a central role in determining the progress of the process because they can choose to take the proposals or decline to act. In order to keep the process moving, the advocates continue with the popularization process to gain a wider support from the members of the public. The public mood has been found to be a great determinant of the success in any major public reforms (Denhardt, 2008).

The process of advocacy usually encounters opposition of almost equal magnitude and hence defining another force. The model acknowledges the role of opposition since it plays a significant role in the entire process of policy formation and implementation (Cockrel, 2004). The opposition camp may emerge at any particular stage and the sequence parallels that of the policy advocates.

In most cases, the stages are similar since the opponents may emerge right at the first phase of problem identification, then proposals to counter those of the advocates are made and served to the appropriate authorities. After submitting their alternatives, the opponents will seek to expand their support base to rally against the advocates for policy formation.

The fifth phase is composed of three sections; decision by the authority, implementation, and evaluation. The concerned government authority and the policy makers engage in extensive deliberations with an aim of weighing the situation at hand (Cockrel, 2004). It is at this sub-stage that conflicts/oppositions and dilemmas emerge resulting in shifts in balance between major stakeholders like powerful people and activist groups in the society.

According to Ben-Peretz, these encounters may lead to either the implementation or decline of the proposed policy (2008). With successful negotiations and compromise among the concerned parties, the line authority issues a final decision on the policy. It is important to note that the sequences listed above provide just a general trend but it does not outline a strict step by step format to be followed (Denhardt, 2008).

Once the new policy is enacted it becomes publicly binding and the next stage is its implementation. It will be the responsibility of the authorities to monitor the implementation of the policy. There are two methods through which the policy can be implemented. The first is the revolutionary method where there is immediate transformation of an organization or institution following a top-down format (Ben-Peretz, 2008).

This approach is common in cases where the problem is identified by the authorities themselves. The other method is the evolutionary mode which normally results in a slow bottom-up transformation of the institution’s working pattern. The effectiveness of any policy is in its interpretations. Since all policies are developed to address specific problems, they ought to be evaluated for efficiency and relevance. This is done in the last stage of evaluating the implemented policy.

The evaluation process is usually done by the stakeholders; the advocates, opponents, or other interest groups. Formal methods of evaluation which include the collection of data and their analysis are usually employed. Alternatively, informal approaches like the subjective evaluation of citizens’ opinions about the new policy may be used (Schmidt et al., 2009). The findings from the evaluation stage will be used in gauging the general performance of the policy and the necessary changes effected accordingly.

As evidenced by the preceding discussion, the process of formulating and implementing any public policy involves several parties who may either be in agreement or holding different opinions about a given policy. In the formulation and implementation of an educational policy, a number of parties are usually at the center of the deliberations (Ben-Peretz, 2008).

Some of the stakeholders may include; the legislative bodies, the leadership, the justice system, and the bureaucracy (Dye, 2002). Other influential parties are the interest/activist groups, political parties, and the media.

It is clear that education takes many different forms for varying intentions and in many institutions. There is the early childhood education, first to twelfth grade studies, between two to four year college or university education, postgraduate and professional studies, pedagogical education as well as training for a specific job. This implies that education policies affect people across all ages and sectors related to education (Cockrel, 2004).

In the process of formulating educational policies for schools, issues such as the size of the school, student-teacher ratio, school control-either private or public, teacher training and certification, teaching approaches, nature of curricular and the content, qualifications for graduation, investment in infrastructural development, and the ethical values that schools are expected to observe(Dye, 2002).

The different parties have quite a significant difference when it comes to influencing the policy formulation and implementation process. The power of the legislative bodies like the members of government such as presidents or the Ministers of Education really play a central role in determining the fate of proposed educational policies (Ben-Peretz, 2008).

They are expected to ensure the formulation and enactment of good policies that will ensure both economic and social progress among the people. The legislature may be regarded as one of the most influential in the formulation of educational policies as well as their implementation and evaluation (Silver, 1990).

The legislative bodies are responsible for the enactment of rules and regulations that monitor educational practices at virtually all levels of government authorities. The legislature provides educational guidelines that are implemented in a top-down sequence since the policies are formulated by highly trained and skilled people. Normally, the legislative branches include the city councils, state legislature, or the Congress. In some situations, the legislative may be an executive agency or a court.

Understanding how the legislative bodies work in the formulation and implementation of educational policies is very important. The members are responsible for the identification of a given problem or condition that need to be addressed. A committee of experts is constituted and charged with the responsibility of investigating the problem and to make appropriate recommendations (Denhardt, 2008). The investigators collect different people’s opinions and analyze them before arriving at the recommendations.

Within a specified period of time, the committee avails its findings to the legislative bodies for consideration. It is at this stage that the legislature may opt to adopt the recommendations or decline to act on them. The final decision is then declared to the public for implementation. The new policies have clear steps for their implementation. The process of effecting the changes may be either long term (evolutionary mode) or within a short period of time which is also referred to as the revolutionary mode of implementation (Ben-Peretz, 2008).

In most cases, policies released to the public as legislative decrees or by executive orders are normally expected to be implemented with minimal resistance. Another influence of the legislature is in the fact that they are also the ones who receive the proposals from the advocates for change in the educational sector. However, given the numerous number of stakeholders in the education sector, some educational policies may be rejected and hence hampering with the implementation stage.

Moreover, legislative bodies are in direct control of government’s educational resources and may influence their distribution. Availing the resources may hasten the policy implementation process (Wilson, 2008). The legislative bodies at different levels of the society exert proportionate power on the formulation and implementation of educational policies.

The role of state legislature, for instance, is to review the policies in educational institutions and agencies and may issue orders for policy improvement. Any issues and problems arising from the educational sector are part of the agenda for the legislative bodies (Ben-Peretz, 2008). It is also evident that the legislatures respond to natural disasters, research findings, and other crises in education and trigger the formulation of appropriate policies.

The other source of influence of the legislative bodies is the fact that they are acknowledged as public decision-making organs (Wilson, 2008). They are therefore responsible for making the final decisions or policy choice with reference to the alternatives proposed by other stakeholders in the educational sector. They have to harmonize the often competing interests and opinions from the different actors in education.

Once they have formulated a given educational policy, the legislative bodies forward the new policy to the executive agencies which will facilitate their implementation (Wilson, 2008). When the legislators are forced to determine policies by voting, they would always be guided by the wishes of their constituents. The legislature holds a central role since they can assign duties, even to the executive by legislation.

Although the legislative bodies have been demonstrated to wield a lot of power in the policy formulation process, they do not have direct influence when it comes to the implementation of the new policies/laws (Schmidt et al., 2009). Other government agencies will be monitoring the implementation of the prescribed educational policies. The legislative bodies are therefore very effective in influencing educational policy formation, particularly during the formulation stage.

The second party that has influence on educational policy formulation and implementation process is the society’s leadership. The work of a leader is to have a vision of the future together with its associated challenges and to define and lead the way towards a brighter course.

In this respect, leaders of organizations, educational institutions, and political parties, among others must be in a position to identify issues and problems in the societal sectors (Wilson, 2008). They also propose alternative ways of addressing the problems and forwarding them to the legislative bodies for consideration.

The president as the leader of the states or a country has inherent discretionary powers to influence the policy formulation and implementation process. Most national leaders in the world have been known to influence the policies affecting education, and mostly through executive orders. They champion the legislation of appropriate policies that will bring meaningful transformation to the education sector (Silver, 1990).

Furthermore, governors, city managers, and mayors in most states and cities have overwhelming discretionary policy-making power. These leadership positions are elective and hence carry with it some public good will necessary to identify issues and problems as well as recommend solutions on their behalf (Wilson, 2008). This implies that the leaders will strive to ensure the enactment of universal access to basic education policy, subsidized higher education, guidelines for proper teacher training, as well as policies for adult education.

Leaders seeking elective positions usually have well written manifestos of how they will address societal problems, educational challenges included (Silver, 1990). Once they are elected, they are faced with the challenge of fulfilling the promises and hence they formulate policies for legislation purposes.

During the advocacy for a given transformation in the education sector, there is usually a leader who motivates people to agitate for the formation and implementation of policies. In order to give the necessary support to express the seriousness of their call, the leader recruits more people from the society so as to overcome any opposition forces that may emerge (Ben-Peretz, 2008).

Moreover, the leaders are usually in charge of committees and other decision-making groups and they will determine the general course of action in the policy formulation and implementation process. Depending on the nature of the new educational policy, leadership greatly influences the implementation process since they command respect from the people (Dye, 2002). In situations where unpopular policies are enacted, the same leaders will curtail the implementation process.

Hence leadership plays a central role when it comes to the general process of educational policy formation and implementation (Cockrel, 2004). It is therefore apparent to note that leadership has such a significant degree of influence on the process of formulating and implementing educational policies.

Further analysis of the forces that shape and influence the formulation and implementation of educational policies reveals that the justice system has great impact on the process. The role of the courts is usually to solve conflicts that may arise among different members of the society.

It is not easy to acknowledge the contribution of the courts towards policy formulation and implementation in most sectors (Dye, 2002). During the initial phase of advocacy, opposition may emerge and depending on the extent of impact of the anticipated policy, those opposed may opt to move to court to halt the advocacy.

With the judge as the decision-maker, he or she may give new directions that would shape the course of the agitation process hence contributing indirectly to the policy formulation process. This is reinforced by the fact that there will always be competing formulations of policies forcing the participants to want to seek the intervention of the courts (Wilson, 2008). The decisions made by the judiciary have been found to have far reaching consequences on the educational policy formulation and implementation.

The most significant influences of the courts are mainly felt when it comes to the implementation of a given educational policy. This is because there are more conflicts at the implementation phase compared to the formulation stage (Denhardt, 2008).

Some of the well-known examples include the civil rights cases which are sponsored by the court, particular in cases related to racial discrimination and abuse of labor force. In such a situation, the accused and the complainant act as the participants in the policy formulation and implementation while the judge is the final decision-maker (Wilson, 2008).

In most instances, the court may rule against one proposal and approve a new set of policies hence participating in the implementation process. The courts have the authority to analyze any educational policy that has any unconstitutional clauses. They can also promulgate new sets of policies with adherence to the principles outlined in the constitution. This demonstrates the influence of the judicial system in the formulation of public policies, particularly educational policies.

Instances that lead people to the court include conflicts involving two institutions, individuals against organizations, individuals against associations/groups, and among individuals. The complainant will be seeking assistance from the court on the proper interpretation of the educational policy at hand (May, 2001). This implies that the role of the courts in the formulation and implementation process cannot be ignored.

The fourth significant influential party in the formulation and implementation of educational policies is the governmental bureaucracies. They comprise of the civil/government employees who work in the different levels of the society and help in the formulation and implementation of government policies (Silver, 1990). Most of them occupy leadership positions and are able to influence the process of policy development.

Since they handle issues that may arise from the educational sector, they can easily identify problems in education that need to be addressed by the development of a policy (Dye, 2002). They are also well placed to receive backing from the people because they are recognized as part of the authority.

The bureaucracies are such a strong force in policy formulation and implementation because they consist of experts. They assist the government in making informed policies by designing appropriate policy proposals (Wilson, 2008). The formulation phase, therefore, will be quite easier since it may take a bottom-up trend and hence increasing the chances of a strong support and subsequent implementation of the policy.

In some states, the senior most government workers can issue orders that take the form of policies and ensure that they are observed. The state/federal government may also take recommendations from the members of the bureaucracy and use them to create new education policies (Wilson, 2008). Some transformations in the education sector like the need to review the system requires the advice of experts who can evaluate the significance of the policies before they are implemented.

The most significant role of the bureaucracies comes in handy when it comes to the implementation phase of the educational policy. When top government authorities pass new policies, they expect that they will be effectively implemented by their subordinates (Ben-Peretz, 2008). The task of implementation, however, may prove to be really challenging especially when it extends down to the lowest level of the society. Since most policies are developed by top government officials, they become easier to implement since they are usually passed on in a top-down approach.

The bureaucracies facilitate representation of the government at all levels of the society. They monitor the enforcement of the new policies depending on the preferred mode of implementation. Within the educational sector, the implementation of policies is greatly influenced by other agencies in the society apart from the main implementing agency (Ben-Peretz, 2008). The bureaucracy therefore will have to coordinate this sensitive stage. In most cases, they do not force the people to obey the policies, instead, they put into consideration personal concerns, difficulties, the members of the society, as well as other interests (Denhardt, 2008).

Most government bureaucracies, therefore, hold crucial information in the formulation and implementation of educational policies. The authority bestowed upon them helps in overcoming the influence of political forces especially those who may object the new policies (Wilson, 2008). In some states, most of the government agents are elected giving them an upper hand over the implementation of new government policies on education.

The bureaucracies control and regulate other policy makers in their territories like members of school boards as well as of city councils and local governments (Silver, 1990). They are responsible for the analysis of problems, formulation of policies, and monitoring their implementation and evaluation. These depict the degree of influence that the bureaucracies have over the formulation and implementation of educational policies.

The above four major parties at the center of the formulation and implementation of educational policies seem to wield uniquely significant influence on the process. Since each of them have the discretion to agree with the others or to hold differing opinions, there is need to always reach a consensus when it comes to issues affecting a wider section of the society (Dye, 2002). Most of the actors may remain adamant when it comes to sticking to their perspectives but the process of formulating policies will exhibit success especially when the policy provides for new ways of improving the education sector.

Challenges of implementation may however be difficult to avoid but the opposition may also end up improving the quality of the policy through reviews (Cockrel, 2004). In this context, therefore, it is not easy to rate chronologically the influence of the different entities on the formulation and implementation of the various educational policies. Their varying degrees of influence are situational and may compliment each other in ensuring the successful formulation and implementation of policies.

There are a number of other significant stakeholders in the education sector who play important roles in determining the success of the educational policies. Interest groups such as teachers unions and parents’ associations may be complimentary when it comes to both the formulation and implementation of a given education policy (Schmidt et al., 2009).

These groups may greatly help the primary implementing agency in achieving its goals as well as the objectives of the policy. Some of the nongovernmental agencies may be affected by the new policies. Their conventional ways of operations may need to be changed as a result of the new policies. With these requirements, the interest groups may support the implementation or totally resist the policies especially if their opinions were not sought during the policy formulation stage.

Moreover, the government provisions affecting such a sensitive field in the society as the school system will always receive extensive scrutiny from the members of the public. Any failure to take this consideration may result in difficulty when it comes to the implementation process.

Significant resistance from these quarters will force the review of the policies before they are eventually re-implemented. This implies that organized groups of people can exert pressure on the implementing agency to make the necessary alterations to the policies (May, 2001).

The other important actors in the formulation and implementation of public policies are the political parties. Political parties are always at cross-roads when it comes to advocacy for the different policies. As they seek election into government, different parties present their manifesto/agenda for the people. They accomplish this task by highlighting all the reforms that they intend to bring in the various sectors of the society (Schmidt et al., 2009).

They may also resort to criticizing the existing educational policies. The number of registered political parties is usually large. For instance, two major ones (Republican and Democratic) in the US normally exchange the national leadership roles. This periodic alternation of leadership has influenced the formulation and implementation of educational policies in most states.

The public media also plays a central role in the formulation and implementation of most public policies. The media can help in popularizing a given policy among the members of the society and hence gaining the approval necessary for its implementation (Ben-Peretz, 2008). In some cases, the proposed educational policy may be perceived to have far reaching negative impacts if implemented.

The media will therefore influence people’s opinions of the same resulting in implementation difficulty. Given the non-interactive nature of the media, people may easily end up developing negative attitudes towards a given policy on education. Therefore, the media just like the other stakeholders can have such a significant influence on the entire process of formulating and implementing the educational policies (May, 2001).

The essay has focused on the complex concept of parties involved in the formulation and implementation of educational policies and how each influences the process. The four major actors identified are; the legislative bodies, the leadership, the judiciary, and the government bureaucracy.

Other stakeholders discussed include the media, political parties, and the various interest groups. The essay has also highlighted a general model that can be used to illustrate stages through which public policy formation may take. However, the format is not fixed or meant to be followed in a step by step manner. Instead, it captures the basic processes involved and may take any order.

For instance, formation may come after the evaluation of a given policy for purposes of improving the provisions of the policy. It can be concluded that the various parties and actors in the formulation and implementation of educational policy can influence the process in their own special way. However, it may not be easy to categorize all of them in the order of degree of influence, particularly the first four parties.

Ben-Peretz, M. (2008). Policy-making in education: a holistic approach in response to global changes. Rowman & Littlefield Plc.

Cockrel, J. (2004). Public Policy-making in America . University of Kentucky Press

Denhardt, R. B. (2008). Theories of public organization (5 th ed.). Thomson Wadsworth

Dye, T. R. (2002). Understanding public policy . Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall

May, P. (2001). “Reconsidering Policy Design: The Policies and Publics.” Journal of Public Policy Process , 4 (2), 186-209

Schmidt, S. W., Shelly, M. C. & Crain, E. (2009). American Government and Politics: a focus on public policy formation. Cengage Learning

Silver, H. (1990). Education, change, and the policy process. Taylor & Francis

Wilson, R. H. (2008). Public policy and community: activism and governance. University of Texas Press

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Essays on the Evaluation of Educational Policies

In my thesis, I evaluate the effects of educational policy interventions. Educational outcomes are important factors of economic and social success. According to the human capital theory, individuals invest time and effort in their education for immediate and future gains. In the theoretical model of schooling investment and consumption decisions, one decides about how much time and effort to invest in learning maximizing the difference of the expected present value of lifetime wages and non-monetary benefits from schooling, and the actual costs of going to school and taking efforts. Both theoretical and empirical evidence shows that such decision-making process may lead to lower-than-optimal schooling investment decisions, especially in the case of children of low socio-economic background, because they discount future returns more heavily, and also, learning may require more efforts from them. Educational policies can influence the production of educational outcomes through two main channels. First, they may aim to induce individuals to invest more in learning. Second, they can increase the productivity of the learning process within schools to produce higher outcomes. I examine examples of these two types of policy measures in my dissertation. In the first two chapters, I estimate the impacts of increasing the compulsory school leaving (CSL) age in Hungary. CSL age legislation introduces a constraint into the mechanism in which one decides about how much time to invest in going to school. I make use of a legislation change that increased CSL age from 16 to 18. In the first chapter, I estimate the effects of increased CSL age on secondary school track choice which occurs at age 14 and secondary school dropout rates. I find that the legislation change resulted in an increased probability that children would choose the academic high school track instead of vocational training schools. At the same time, those choosing vocational training schools are more likely to drop out under the higher CSL age scheme. Potential explanations of increased dropout rates include a decrease in the quality of teaching in vocational training schools due to supply constraints, and a shift in student composition to include more students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The second chapter is joint work with Flóra Samu and Ágota Scharle. We are looking at the effects of increased CSL age on the teenage fertility of Roma women, a disadvantaged ethnic minority in Hungary. We provide evidence that the legislation change decreased the probability of teenage motherhood among Roma women by 6.8 percentage points. This effect is temporary as higher CSL age delayed first birth-giving by two years. We exploit a unique database that covers live births, miscarriages, abortions, and stillbirths, and contains information on the time of conception by weekly precision. We propose that the impact of the legislation change can be explained exclusively by the incapacitation effect of education, which keeps women physically in school: the higher CSL age decreases the probability of getting pregnant during the school year but not during summer and Christmas breaks. The third chapter, which is joint work with Gábor Kézdi and Éva Surányi, considers educational policy from a different angle. It estimates the effects of a change in the technology of educational production within schools by looking at the OOIH demonstration program in Hungary. The program supported teachers and the management of schools with disadvantaged Roma students, mixed with non-Roma students, and aimed at helping the development of all students in an integrated school environment. We find that the program had significant positive effects on academic development (especially for Roma students), socio-emotional skills (in both ethnic groups), and inter-ethnic attitudes of non-Roma students. In my thesis, I document that increasing the CSL age affects forward-looking decision making about secondary school track choice, and impacts the distribution of students in school. I find that these effects are the strongest among children of low-educated parents. Furthermore, I provide evidence that higher CSL age can reduce teenage pregnancy solely through the incapacitation effect of being in school, even in a case when no human capital effects of education can be detected. Lastly, I document that a sensitive approach to the integrated education of Roma and non-Roma students is beneficial for all parties involved.

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Essay on New Education Policy 2020

500+ words essay on new education policy 2020.

Education is a fundamental need and right of everyone now. In order to achieve our goals and help develop a just society, we need education. Similarly, education plays a great role in the national development of a nation. As we are facing a major change in terms of knowledge globally, the Government of India approved the National Education Policy 2020. This essay on new education policy 2020 will help you learn how this new policy has replaced the National Education Policy 1986 that is 34 years old.

Aim of the New Education Policy 2020

This new policy has the aim of universalizing education from pre-school to secondary level. It plans to do that with a 100% GRE (Gross Enrollment Ratio) in schooling. The plan is to achieve it by 2030.

This essay on new education policy 2020 will highlight the changes brought in by this new policy. Firstly, the policy proposes to open Indian higher education in foreign universities.

It aims to introduce a four-year multidisciplinary undergraduate program with various exit options. Thus, this new policy will strive to make the country of India a global knowledge superpower.

Similarly, it also aims to make all universities and colleges multi-disciplinary by the year 2040. Finally, the policy aims to grow employment in India and also bring fundamental changes to the present educational system.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Advantages and Disadvantages of New Education Policy 2020

The policy gives an advantage to students of classes 10 and 12 by making the board exams easier. In other words, it plans to test the core competencies instead of mere memorization of facts.

It will allow all the students to take the exam twice. Further, it proposes that an independent authority will be responsible for regulating both public and private schools . Similarly, the policy aims to diminish any severe separation between the educational streams and vocational streams in the schools.

There will also be no rigid division between extra-curriculum. Vocational education will begin at class sixth with an internship. Now, the essay on new education policy 2020 will tell you about the disadvantages of the policy.

Firstly, it can make the education system expensive. Meaning to say, admission to foreign universities will probably result in this. Further, it will create a lack of human resources.

If we look at the present elementary education, we notice that there is a lack of skilled teachers. Thus, keeping this in mind, the National Education Policy 2020 can give rise to practical problems in implementing the system that is for elementary education.

Finally, there is also the drawback of the exodus of teachers. In other words, admission to foreign universities will ultimately result in our skilled teachers migrating to those universities.

To conclude the essay on New Education Policy 2020, we can say that this policy is an essential initiative to help in the all-around development of our society and country as a whole. However, the implementation of this policy will greatly determine its success. Nonetheless, with a youth dominant population, India can truly achieve a better state with the proper implementation of this education policy.

FAQ of Essay on New Education Policy 2020

Question 1: What does the New Education Policy 2020 aim to achieve by 2030?

Answer 1: This new policy has the aim of universalizing education from pre-school to secondary level. It plans to do that with a 100% GRE (Gross Enrollment Ratio) in schooling. The plan is to achieve it by 2030.

Question 2: Give two challenges the New Education Policy 2020 may face?

Answer 2: Firstly, it can make the education system expensive. Meaning to say, admission to foreign universities will probably result in this. Further, it will create a lack of human resources.

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Education Policies – A Summary

The main aims, policy details and evaluations of the main waves of UK education policy – including the 1944 Butler Education Act, the introduction of Comprehensives in 1965, the 1988 Education Act which introduced marketisation, New Labour’s 1997 focus on academies and the 2010 Coalition government’s Free Schools. 

Table of Contents

Last Updated on April 28, 2023 by Karl Thompson

Education policies is the largest topic within the sociology of education module . It can be a little overwhelming, and the best step is to learn the basic details of the policies first (taking a historical approach) and then focus on how each policy has influenced things such as equality of opportunity and standards of education.

This brief posts covers the main aims, policy details and evaluations of the main waves of UK education policy – including the 1944 Butler Education Act, the introduction of Comprehensives in 1965, the 1988 Education Act which introduced marketisation, New Labour’s 1997 focus on academies and the 2010 Coalition government’s Free Schools. 

The 1944 Tripartite System

• Selective education – students would receive a different education dependent on their ability. All students would sit a test at age 11 (the 11+) to determine their ability and sift them into the right type of school.
• Equality of opportunity – All students in England and Wales have a chance to sit the 11 + . Previous to 1944, the only pupils who could get a good, academic equation were those who could afford it.

Details of the Act

• Students took an IQ test at 11, the result of which determined which one of three three types of school the would attend:
• The top 20% went to grammar schools, received an academic education and got to sit exams.
• The bottom 80% went to secondary moderns. These provided a more basic education, and initially students didn’t sit any exams.
• There were also technical schools which provided a vocational education, but these died out fairly quickly.

Evaluations

• There were class inequalities – grammar schools were mainly taken up by the middle classes and secondary moderns by the lower classes.
• The IQ test determined pupils futures at a very young age – no room for those who developed later in life.
• Some of the secondary moderns had very low standards and labelled 80% of pupils as failures.
• Gender inequalities – in the early days of the IQ tests girls had to get a higher score to pass than boys because it was thought they matured earlier than boys!

1965 Comprehensives

• Equality of opportunity – one type of school for all pupils

Details of the act

• The Tripartite System was abolished and Comprehensive schools established.
• Local Education Authorities would maintain control of schools.
• There were poor standards in some schools – especially where progressive education was concerned.
• Banding and streaming occurred along social class lines – the working classes typically ended up in the lower bands and vice versa for the middle classes.
• Parents had very little choice in education – it was nearly impossible to remove their children from the local school if they wanted, because it was thought that all schools were providing a similar standard of education.

The 1988 Education Act

• To introduce free market principles ( more competition ) into the education system
• to introduce greater parental choice and control over state education
• Raising standards in education.
• These are the aims associated with Neoliberalism and The New Right .
• Marketisation and Parentocracy (schools compete for pupils parents are like consumers)
• League Tables – so parents can see how well schools are doing and make a choice.
• OFSTED – to regulate and inspect schools.
• National Curriculum – so that all schools are teaching the same basic subjects
• Formula Funding – funding based on numbers of pupils – which encourages schools to raise standards to increase demand.
• Competition did increase standards – results gradually improved throughout the 1990s.
• Selection by mortgage – the house prices in the catchment areas of the best schools increased, pricing out poorer parents.
• Cream skimming – the best schools tended to select the best students, who were predominantly middle class.
• The middle classes had more effective choice because of their higher levels of cultural capital.
• League tables have been criticised for encouraging teaching to the test .

Further Information in these Class notes on the 1988 Education Act .

1997 – New Labour

• To respond to increased competition due to globalisation
• Raising standards
• More focus on Equality of opportunity than the original New Right
• Increasing choice and diversity

Details of policies

• Increased funding to education
• Reduced class sizes, introduced literacy and numeracy hour
• Introduced Academies
• Sure Start – Free nursery places for younger children 12 hours a week and advice for parents
• Education Maintenance Allowance – EMA
• Tuition fees introduced for HE
• Early academies rose standards in poor areas a lot (Mossbourne)
• Generally better at improving equality of opportunity than the New Right
• Parents liked Sure Start but it didn’t improve education (improved health)
• Tuition fees put working class kids off going to university (connor et al)

More details can be found in these class notes on New Labour and Education .

2010 The Coalition Government Government

• Same as the New Right
• To reduce public spending on education due to the financial crisis .
• Cut funding to education (Scrapped EMA)
• Forced academisation – failing schools had to become Academies
• Free Schools – charities/ businesses/ groups of parents given more freedom to set up their own schools
• Pupil Premium – schools received extra funding for SEN and Free School Meals pupils.
• Standards have carried on improving
• Academisation and Free schools are both ideological – no evidence they improve standards more than LEA schools
• Free schools – advantage the middle classes/ duplicate resources
• Pupil Premium – too early to say!

Further information in these class notes on Coalition Education Policies .

Tory Education Policy 2015 – 2019

• Continue the marketisation of education
• Continue the neoliberal agenda of keeping government spending on education relatively low.

Details of Policies 

• Austerity and funding cuts of an average of 8% for schools
• Continuing the rapid conversion of LEA schools to academies and introducing more free schools
• Increasing the number of grammar schools and thus selective state education (subtly and largely by stealth)
• Continuation of the Pupil Premium
• Encouraging schools to shift to the EBacc.
• Introduction of T Level Qualifications (16–19s)

Evaluations 

• We now have a fully blown education market in education meaning possible lack of democratic oversight from Local Education Authorities.
• Grammar schools have increased but these only advantage the middle classes = more educational inequality. 
• The Ebacc potentially narrows the curriculum
• T Levels increase choice and diversity (one positive)

To find out more please see: Tory Education Policy 2015 – 2019 .

Covid Education Polices

• In response to the Covid-19 Pandemic schools were locked down Mid March to June 2020 and then from January to late March 2021 and home based, online learning became the norm. 
• GCSE and A-Level exams were cancelled in 2020 and again in 2021. Teachers awarded their own grades and in 2021 45% of pupils were given an A or A* grade compared to only 25% back in 2019 (when students had sat exams). 
• The Catch Up Premium was introduced in 2021: £650 million paid directly to schools and £350 million for a national tutoring programme. 
• Post-covid funding for schools is set to increase by 7% per pupil by 2024-25. 
• This resulted in a ‘covid education gap’ with children who missed school during Covid falling behind previous cohorts in the progress in maths and reading. 
• There was also a covid disadvantage gap: poor pupils fell further behind wealthier pupils because of differences in standards of home-support during lockdowns from schools. Students from the least deprived schools did almost three hours more work per week during lockdown compared to students from the least deprived schools. 
• Teacher Predicted Grades were obviously extremely generous, to the extent that we entered fantasy land. This gave an unfair advantage to those students receiving these compared to students who will be sitting their exams in 2023. 
• Funding increases to education from 2023 do not cover the rising costs of living. 

To find out more please see: Education Policy Since 2020 .

Education Policies – Signposting and Find out More

These very brief, bullet pointed revision notes have been written specifically for students studying towards their A-level Sociology AQA Education exam. For more detailed class notes on each policy please see the links above or further links on my main sociology of education page .

Please click here to return to the homepage – ReviseSociology.com

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11 thoughts on “Education Policies – A Summary”

• Pingback: The 1988 Education Reform Act – ReviseSociology

it stands for higher education

Hi what does HE stand for?

• Pingback: Selection Policies in Education – ReviseSociology

What is the evaluation for pupil premium?

Hi – Education Maintenance Allowance

Hi what does EMA stand for

Local Education Authority Schools

Hi, what are LEA schools? Thank you

Hi – MC = middle class, NC – national curriculum.

Hello what does the MC and NC stand for. Thank you

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Essay on New Education Policy in 500 Words

• Updated on  
• Dec 21, 2023

Essay on New Education Policy: Education policies are the rules and regulations implemented by the Central/ Federal and State Governments in their respective territories. The Ministry of Education implemented the New Education policy to make India a global hub of skilled manpower in the next 25 years; termed as ‘Amrit Kal.’ The Government aims to build a Developed India by 2047. The New Education Policy 2023 in India has replaced the three-decade-old policy and transformed the education system. The New Education Policy 2023 highlights the ‘Transformation is the Mantra’ for growth and prosperity.  The New Education Policy will modernize the education system and the related laws and rules that govern the operation of the academic realm.

Also Read: Essay on Education

Also Read: Essay on Women’s Education

What is the New Education Policy?

The New Education Policy focuses on transforming education in India through a ‘system rooted in Indian ethos that contributes directly to transforming Bharat into an equitable and vibrant knowledge society.’ This education policy will offer high-quality education to everyone, making India a global knowledge superpower. There are 5 guiding pillars of the New Education Policy, namely, Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability. 

Pros and Cons of the New Education Policy

The New Education Policy will train the youth to meet the different national and international challenges. With the implementation of the New Education Policy, school education will develop cognitive, social, and emotional skills. Also known as soft skills, these skills allow the youth to come up with solutions to complex and new-emerging problems. This new policy will highlight the importance of cultural and traditional values, teamwork, perseverance and grit, leadership skills, etc.

However, this New Education Policy has given birth to some challenges, which must be addressed properly. The changes in the education policy have been implemented after three decades (30 years), which will be quite hard for educators and teachers to bring changes in their way of teaching. Moreover, students adapted to the previous education policy will have to struggle with all the changes in the system.

Also Read: Essay on Online Education

Also Read: Essay on Importance of Education

Benefits of the New Education Policy

The New Education Policy aims to universalize primary education and offer special emphasis to the attainment of foundational literacy in all primary and secondary schools by 2025.

• A Plethora of reforms will be recommended at the school level to deliver quality education to every child.
• It will transform the school curriculum into a 5+3+3+4 design, where students in the age group of 3 to 18 years will be offered education.
• It will transform our traditional ways of examination and assessment system.
• It will raise awareness among the masses to invest in education, increase the use of technology, and focus on vocational training and adult education.
• The curriculum load in each subject will be reduced to its core essential, which will make room for creative and analytical learning.
• The New Education Policy revises and revamps all sectors of the educational structure, from school regulation to education governance.
• A system aligned with the aspirational goals of the 21st century will be created to promote India’s cultural, traditional, and value systems.
• It aims to integrate education with technology through multiple initiatives, such as energized textbooks, quality e-content, online learning, etc.
• It will rule out the establishment of primary schools in every part of the country.

Also Read: Essay on Co-Education

Ans: Education policy refers to the rules and regulations set out by the government for the education system. Education policy can vary from school to college levels and areas or countries.

Ans: The Ministry of Education implemented the New Education policy to make India a global hub of skilled manpower in the next 25 years; termed as ‘Amrit Kal.’ The Government aims to build a Developed India by 2047. The New Education Policy 2023 in India has replaced the three-decade-old policy and transformed the education system. The New Education Policy 2023 highlights the ‘Transformation is the Mantra’ for growth and prosperity.  The New Education Policy will modernise the education system and the related laws and rules that govern the operation of the academic realm.

Ans: The New Education Policy aims to make India a Developed nation by 2047. It has replaced the three-decade-old education system. It transforms the school curriculum into a 5+3+3+4 design. It will make primary education compulsory for every student. Parents will be encouraged to invest in education. 

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Experts’ Top Policy Priorities for English-Learner Education

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Greater access to dual language programs, improving family engagement practices, and reimagined funding models were among the top policy priorities for English learners shared at a national convening in early April.

Hosted by the LatinoJustice Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and ASPIRA of New York, a civic and social organization, dozens of English-learner researchers, educators, families, and policymakers came together here to discuss the current national education landscape for these students and what needs to change to better support them.

The English-learner population is one of the fastest growing public school student populations in the United States and includes a growing number of immigrant students.

Experts spoke of the obstacles to high-quality education for these students, what research says about best instructional practices, including translanguaging , and how new laws and national political rhetoric on immigration impact students. One key focus in all this is the need to think about the assets English learners bring to schools and how to help students grow from there.

“We still really think about English-learner students, multilingual students, with this deficit lens. We think about them as this empty vessel that we need to fill up with American knowledge, with [the] English language, instead of thinking about the cultural and linguistic assets that they bring that we should be uplifting,” said Xilonin Cruz-Gonzalez, deputy director for the advocacy group Californians Together, and a speaker at the event.

The education programs that best support English learners are in short supply

One of the top concerns raised by experts when it comes to educational opportunities for English learners is the lack of access to dual language immersion programs , where students engage with academic content in both English and English learners’ home language.

While long-term studies have shown that such programs best support students’ acquisition of the English language and their academic performance, such research is hard to complete given that the biggest impacts aren’t seen until many years down the road, said Martha Martinez, director of research and policy at Sobrato Early Academic Language, or SEAL, an organization supporting EL and dual language education.

This long-term payoff may hinder efforts to scale up such programs. One New Jersey educator at the event spoke of how her school district tends to only invest in programs for a year or two, not giving teachers enough time to demonstrate results and thus making it hard to advocate for programs such as dual language immersion.

Yet Martinez and others spoke of the value of dual language immersion programs, especially in affirming the value of students’ home languages and cultures in an academic context. There are also overall cognitive benefits for native English speakers to acquire another language as well according to past research.

Other event audience members brought up how often English learners with disabilities end up excluded from existing dual language programs. Parents spoke of concerns over cases where students are separated from non-English-learner peers and what impact that might have on their personal, linguistic, and academic growth.

Yet another key challenge to increasing access to dual language immersion programs lies in a lack of bilingual educators qualified to teach in such programs. While the U.S. Department of Education has invested in professional development grants for bilingual education, and various independent programs and districts are working to build up a bilingual educator pipeline, experts spoke of a need for dedicated funding to invest in dual language immersion programs.

Reimagining language use in the classroom and communication with families

Ryan Pontier, assistant professor of bilingual education and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, TESOL, at Florida International University, spoke of how translanguaging plays a role in ensuring true bilingual education is offered to students.

Translanguaging, in the broadest sense , is the ability to move fluidly between languages and is a pedagogical approach in which teachers support this ability.

Even in existing dual language programs, Pontier said that language use is still largely monolingual. For instance, math class is taught in English while science class is taught in Spanish. In a true bilingual setting where translanguaging is practiced, students and teachers would flow through both languages in all subjects rather than thinking of them as separate tools or one language as a bridge to acquire the other language.

On the topic of communication, several parents in attendance spoke of the need for more schools to provide detailed information about the kind of programming students have access to, whether it’s dual language immersion or pulling students out of general classrooms for dedicated English language acquisition instruction. This is especially vital for immigrant households, experts said as they may be unfamiliar with the U.S. education system.

Legal chilling effects on immigrant English learners

While there are federal protections for immigrant and migrant students , Morgan Craven, national director of policy, advocacy, and community engagement at the Texas-based Intercultural Development Research Association spoke about how some laws and political rhetoric can create chilling effects that affect students and their families.

She specifically addressed Senate Bill 4 in Texas, which would let police officers arrest migrants suspected of entering the U.S. illegally. (The law is currently blocked and moving through courts, according to the Texas Tribune .) Craven spoke of how such legislation can make families more hesitant to send children to school and can complicate the role of school resource officers, as students who don’t have legal immigration status might feel unsafe around those police officers.

That’s not the only political issue with implications for English learners. Craven also addressed how at least 18 states now have legislation restricting instruction on topics of race and gender.

“We’re in a time of a lot of attacks on DEI, on affirmative action, so-called anti-CRT policies. And so when we see that efforts to really impact the ability of teachers to speak truthfully about curriculum, to have things like ethnic studies courses, to be able to support culturally sustaining and culturally responsive curriculum and instruction, that has a real impact on English learner students,” Craven said.

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The Impact of Unions on Wages in the Public Sector: Evidence from Higher Education

We study the effects of the unionization of faculty at Canadian universities from 1970-2022 using an event-study design. Using administrative data which covers the full universe of faculty salaries, we find strong evidence that unionization leads to both average salary gains and compression of the distribution of salaries. Our estimates indicate that salaries increase on average by 2 to over 5 percent over the first 6 years post unionization. These effects are driven largely by gains in the bottom half of the wage distribution with little evidence of any impact at the top end. Our evidence indicates that the wage effects are primarily concentrated in the first half of our sample period. We do not find any evidence of an impact on employment.

Monica Essig Aberg, Ethan Bergmann, Steven Ryan, Annabel Thornton and Stephen Tino provided excellent research assistance. Baker gratefully acknowledges the research support of a Canada Research Chair at the University of Toronto. We thank Matthew Notowidigdo and seminar participants at Laval for helpful comments. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Government of the United States of America, Statistics Canada, the Government of Canada, or the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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NeurIPS 2024

Conference Dates: (In person) 9 December - 15 December, 2024

Homepage: https://neurips.cc/Conferences/2024/

Call For Papers 

Author notification: Sep 25, 2024

Camera-ready, poster, and video submission: Oct 30, 2024 AOE

Submit at: https://openreview.net/group?id=NeurIPS.cc/2024/Conference  

The site will start accepting submissions on Apr 22, 2024 

Subscribe to these and other dates on the 2024 dates page .

The Thirty-Eighth Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2024) is an interdisciplinary conference that brings together researchers in machine learning, neuroscience, statistics, optimization, computer vision, natural language processing, life sciences, natural sciences, social sciences, and other adjacent fields. We invite submissions presenting new and original research on topics including but not limited to the following:

• Applications (e.g., vision, language, speech and audio, Creative AI)
• Deep learning (e.g., architectures, generative models, optimization for deep networks, foundation models, LLMs)
• Evaluation (e.g., methodology, meta studies, replicability and validity, human-in-the-loop)
• General machine learning (supervised, unsupervised, online, active, etc.)
• Infrastructure (e.g., libraries, improved implementation and scalability, distributed solutions)
• Machine learning for sciences (e.g. climate, health, life sciences, physics, social sciences)
• Neuroscience and cognitive science (e.g., neural coding, brain-computer interfaces)
• Optimization (e.g., convex and non-convex, stochastic, robust)
• Probabilistic methods (e.g., variational inference, causal inference, Gaussian processes)
• Reinforcement learning (e.g., decision and control, planning, hierarchical RL, robotics)
• Social and economic aspects of machine learning (e.g., fairness, interpretability, human-AI interaction, privacy, safety, strategic behavior)
• Theory (e.g., control theory, learning theory, algorithmic game theory)

Machine learning is a rapidly evolving field, and so we welcome interdisciplinary submissions that do not fit neatly into existing categories.

Authors are asked to confirm that their submissions accord with the NeurIPS code of conduct .

Formatting instructions:   All submissions must be in PDF format, and in a single PDF file include, in this order:

• The submitted paper
• Technical appendices that support the paper with additional proofs, derivations, or results 
• The NeurIPS paper checklist  

Other supplementary materials such as data and code can be uploaded as a ZIP file

The main text of a submitted paper is limited to nine content pages , including all figures and tables. Additional pages containing references don’t count as content pages. If your submission is accepted, you will be allowed an additional content page for the camera-ready version.

The main text and references may be followed by technical appendices, for which there is no page limit.

The maximum file size for a full submission, which includes technical appendices, is 50MB.

Authors are encouraged to submit a separate ZIP file that contains further supplementary material like data or source code, when applicable.

You must format your submission using the NeurIPS 2024 LaTeX style file which includes a “preprint” option for non-anonymous preprints posted online. Submissions that violate the NeurIPS style (e.g., by decreasing margins or font sizes) or page limits may be rejected without further review. Papers may be rejected without consideration of their merits if they fail to meet the submission requirements, as described in this document. 

Paper checklist: In order to improve the rigor and transparency of research submitted to and published at NeurIPS, authors are required to complete a paper checklist . The paper checklist is intended to help authors reflect on a wide variety of issues relating to responsible machine learning research, including reproducibility, transparency, research ethics, and societal impact. The checklist forms part of the paper submission, but does not count towards the page limit.

Supplementary material: While all technical appendices should be included as part of the main paper submission PDF, authors may submit up to 100MB of supplementary material, such as data, or source code in a ZIP format. Supplementary material should be material created by the authors that directly supports the submission content. Like submissions, supplementary material must be anonymized. Looking at supplementary material is at the discretion of the reviewers.

We encourage authors to upload their code and data as part of their supplementary material in order to help reviewers assess the quality of the work. Check the policy as well as code submission guidelines and templates for further details.

Use of Large Language Models (LLMs): We welcome authors to use any tool that is suitable for preparing high-quality papers and research. However, we ask authors to keep in mind two important criteria. First, we expect papers to fully describe their methodology, and any tool that is important to that methodology, including the use of LLMs, should be described also. For example, authors should mention tools (including LLMs) that were used for data processing or filtering, visualization, facilitating or running experiments, and proving theorems. It may also be advisable to describe the use of LLMs in implementing the method (if this corresponds to an important, original, or non-standard component of the approach). Second, authors are responsible for the entire content of the paper, including all text and figures, so while authors are welcome to use any tool they wish for writing the paper, they must ensure that all text is correct and original.

Double-blind reviewing:   All submissions must be anonymized and may not contain any identifying information that may violate the double-blind reviewing policy.  This policy applies to any supplementary or linked material as well, including code.  If you are including links to any external material, it is your responsibility to guarantee anonymous browsing.  Please do not include acknowledgements at submission time. If you need to cite one of your own papers, you should do so with adequate anonymization to preserve double-blind reviewing.  For instance, write “In the previous work of Smith et al. [1]…” rather than “In our previous work [1]...”). If you need to cite one of your own papers that is in submission to NeurIPS and not available as a non-anonymous preprint, then include a copy of the cited anonymized submission in the supplementary material and write “Anonymous et al. [1] concurrently show...”). Any papers found to be violating this policy will be rejected.

OpenReview: We are using OpenReview to manage submissions. The reviews and author responses will not be public initially (but may be made public later, see below). As in previous years, submissions under review will be visible only to their assigned program committee. We will not be soliciting comments from the general public during the reviewing process. Anyone who plans to submit a paper as an author or a co-author will need to create (or update) their OpenReview profile by the full paper submission deadline. Your OpenReview profile can be edited by logging in and clicking on your name in https://openreview.net/ . This takes you to a URL "https://openreview.net/profile?id=~[Firstname]_[Lastname][n]" where the last part is your profile name, e.g., ~Wei_Zhang1. The OpenReview profiles must be up to date, with all publications by the authors, and their current affiliations. The easiest way to import publications is through DBLP but it is not required, see FAQ . Submissions without updated OpenReview profiles will be desk rejected. The information entered in the profile is critical for ensuring that conflicts of interest and reviewer matching are handled properly. Because of the rapid growth of NeurIPS, we request that all authors help with reviewing papers, if asked to do so. We need everyone’s help in maintaining the high scientific quality of NeurIPS.  

Please be aware that OpenReview has a moderation policy for newly created profiles: New profiles created without an institutional email will go through a moderation process that can take up to two weeks. New profiles created with an institutional email will be activated automatically.

Venue home page: https://openreview.net/group?id=NeurIPS.cc/2024/Conference

If you have any questions, please refer to the FAQ: https://openreview.net/faq

Abstract Submission: There is a mandatory abstract submission deadline on May 15, 2024, six days before full paper submissions are due. While it will be possible to edit the title and abstract until the full paper submission deadline, submissions with “placeholder” abstracts that are rewritten for the full submission risk being removed without consideration. This includes titles and abstracts that either provide little or no semantic information (e.g., "We provide a new semi-supervised learning method.") or describe a substantively different claimed contribution.  The author list cannot be changed after the abstract deadline. After that, authors may be reordered, but any additions or removals must be justified in writing and approved on a case-by-case basis by the program chairs only in exceptional circumstances. 

Ethics review: Reviewers and ACs may flag submissions for ethics review . Flagged submissions will be sent to an ethics review committee for comments. Comments from ethics reviewers will be considered by the primary reviewers and AC as part of their deliberation. They will also be visible to authors, who will have an opportunity to respond.  Ethics reviewers do not have the authority to reject papers, but in extreme cases papers may be rejected by the program chairs on ethical grounds, regardless of scientific quality or contribution.  

Preprints: The existence of non-anonymous preprints (on arXiv or other online repositories, personal websites, social media) will not result in rejection. If you choose to use the NeurIPS style for the preprint version, you must use the “preprint” option rather than the “final” option. Reviewers will be instructed not to actively look for such preprints, but encountering them will not constitute a conflict of interest. Authors may submit anonymized work to NeurIPS that is already available as a preprint (e.g., on arXiv) without citing it. Note that public versions of the submission should not say "Under review at NeurIPS" or similar.

Dual submissions: Submissions that are substantially similar to papers that the authors have previously published or submitted in parallel to other peer-reviewed venues with proceedings or journals may not be submitted to NeurIPS. Papers previously presented at workshops are permitted, so long as they did not appear in a conference proceedings (e.g., CVPRW proceedings), a journal or a book.  NeurIPS coordinates with other conferences to identify dual submissions.  The NeurIPS policy on dual submissions applies for the entire duration of the reviewing process.  Slicing contributions too thinly is discouraged.  The reviewing process will treat any other submission by an overlapping set of authors as prior work. If publishing one would render the other too incremental, both may be rejected.

Anti-collusion: NeurIPS does not tolerate any collusion whereby authors secretly cooperate with reviewers, ACs or SACs to obtain favorable reviews. 

Author responses:   Authors will have one week to view and respond to initial reviews. Author responses may not contain any identifying information that may violate the double-blind reviewing policy. Authors may not submit revisions of their paper or supplemental material, but may post their responses as a discussion in OpenReview. This is to reduce the burden on authors to have to revise their paper in a rush during the short rebuttal period.

After the initial response period, authors will be able to respond to any further reviewer/AC questions and comments by posting on the submission’s forum page. The program chairs reserve the right to solicit additional reviews after the initial author response period.  These reviews will become visible to the authors as they are added to OpenReview, and authors will have a chance to respond to them.

After the notification deadline, accepted and opted-in rejected papers will be made public and open for non-anonymous public commenting. Their anonymous reviews, meta-reviews, author responses and reviewer responses will also be made public. Authors of rejected papers will have two weeks after the notification deadline to opt in to make their deanonymized rejected papers public in OpenReview.  These papers are not counted as NeurIPS publications and will be shown as rejected in OpenReview.

Publication of accepted submissions:   Reviews, meta-reviews, and any discussion with the authors will be made public for accepted papers (but reviewer, area chair, and senior area chair identities will remain anonymous). Camera-ready papers will be due in advance of the conference. All camera-ready papers must include a funding disclosure . We strongly encourage accompanying code and data to be submitted with accepted papers when appropriate, as per the code submission policy . Authors will be allowed to make minor changes for a short period of time after the conference.

Contemporaneous Work: For the purpose of the reviewing process, papers that appeared online within two months of a submission will generally be considered "contemporaneous" in the sense that the submission will not be rejected on the basis of the comparison to contemporaneous work. Authors are still expected to cite and discuss contemporaneous work and perform empirical comparisons to the degree feasible. Any paper that influenced the submission is considered prior work and must be cited and discussed as such. Submissions that are very similar to contemporaneous work will undergo additional scrutiny to prevent cases of plagiarism and missing credit to prior work.

Plagiarism is prohibited by the NeurIPS Code of Conduct .

Other Tracks: Similarly to earlier years, we will host multiple tracks, such as datasets, competitions, tutorials as well as workshops, in addition to the main track for which this call for papers is intended. See the conference homepage for updates and calls for participation in these tracks. 

Experiments: As in past years, the program chairs will be measuring the quality and effectiveness of the review process via randomized controlled experiments. All experiments are independently reviewed and approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Financial Aid: Each paper may designate up to one (1) NeurIPS.cc account email address of a corresponding student author who confirms that they would need the support to attend the conference, and agrees to volunteer if they get selected. To be considered for Financial the student will also need to fill out the Financial Aid application when it becomes available.