2019 Education Policy Practicum

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Spring 2019
Wednesdays, 8:30am – 11:30am

Instructor: Robert Balfanz, 410-516-4272, rbalfanz@jhu.edu

Course Description: In this class students will examine how state and federal education policy is made through an exploration of contemporary educational issues and current educational policy debates and actors.  The class is organized from the perspective of education policy practitioners.

Course Syllabus: Please follow this link for a PDF of the course syllabus

PowerPoint: Short History of Education Policy in the U.S.

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Weekly Readings

• How Ed Policy is Made 1: Role of Foundations
  • The Billionaire Boys’ Club, excerpt from The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch
  • The Expanding Role of Philanthropy in Education Politics by Sarah Reckhow and Jeffrey W. Snyder
  • The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools? by Dale Russakoff, chapters 1 & 2
• How Ed Policy is Made 2: Inside Institutional Players – Common Core (Feb. 20)
  • History of Common Core State Standards, US News & World Report
  • “Education Report and the Deep State: An Alternative Universe” chapter 7, The Origins of the Common Core by D. Owens
  • “The Race”, pages 1 – 9 in Class Warfare by S. Brill
  • Strong Standards – Achieve, read High Level Overview ELA p. 4 and Math p. 26
• How Ed Policy is Made 3: Congressional Committees – ESSA (Feb. 27)
  • Balfanz 2007 Senate Testimony
  • Obama Administration State Waivers from NCLB
  • How ESSA Passed, chapter 3 of The Every Student Succeeds Ace eds F.M. Hess & M. Eden
  • ESSA Accountability Rules Overturned, Ed Week
  • ESSA, read
    • pages 7-9, Sec. 1003 School Improvement
    • pages 18-19, Sec. 1111 (B) Challenging State Academic Standard
    • pages 39-40, Sec. 1111 (D) Identification of Schools
  • ESSA and State Capacity, chapter 7 from The Every Student Succeeds Act eds F.M. Hess & M. Eden
• How Ed Policy is Made 4: Commissions (Mar. 13)
  • The School Discipline Consensus Report – Executive Summary, The Justice Center
  • School Safety Report, read through page 21
  • How Learning Happens: Supporting Students’ Social, Emotional, and Academic Development Report – Executive Summary, The Aspen Institute
  • How to Communicate with Parents, Aspen Commission
  • Cops and No Counselors: How the Lack of School Mental Health Staff is Harming Students, ACLU
• How Ed Policy is Made 5:  State Legislatures and The Courts-Educational Funding (Mar. 27)
  • It’s Not Nothing: The Role of Money in Improving Education, Brookings Institute
  • Why Our Education Funding Systems are Derailing the American Dream, Learning Policy Institute
  • Cutting School, Chapter 5: Educational Dreams and Virtual Nightmares
  • Education Policy Litigation as Devolution, Harvard Law Review
• How Educational Policy is Made 6: Grassroots and Use of Media-Teacher Evaluation, Testing, and School Closure (Apr. 3)
  • Parents Opt Out of MCAS/PARCC Testing at School Committee Meeting (VIDEO)
  • Failing U.S. Schools are ‘Waiting for Superman’ (VIDEO)
  • Waiting for Superman (VIDEO)
  • Anna Deavere Smith brings criminal injustice to the stage (VIDEO)
  • Ghosts in the Schoolyard, chapter 1 What School Means
  • Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education, chapter 7
• How Educational Policy is Made 7:  Business: Virtual Schooling and Education Entrepreneurs (Apr. 10)
  • For Education Entrepreneurs, Innovation Yields High Returns, Education Next
  • Venture Philanthropy and Teacher Education Policy in the U.S.: The Role of the New Schools Venture Fund, Teachers College Record
  • The Origins of the Common Core: How the Free Market Became Public Education Policy, chapter 4
  • ASU GSV Summit, April 8-10, 2019
• Education Policy Challenges 1- Why are teachers not more involved in Ed Policy formation? -TFA and Teacher Strikes (Apr. 17)
  • This is Why Teachers in Los Angeles are on Strike, HBO (VIDEO)
  • “Public Education Is Not Your Plaything”: L.A. Teachers Strike Against Privatization & Underfunding, Democracy Now! (VIDEO)
• Education Policy Challenge 2-Making Education Policy in a Changing Landscape-How to strengthen the research and practice to policy connection- Design Thinking (Apr. 24)
  • The Power of a Penny: Building Knowledge to Invest in What Works in Education, by Robert Balfanz
  • Doing the Impossible: The Limits of Schooling, the Power of Poverty, by Charles M. Payne and Cristina M. Ortiz