2019 Education Policy Practicum

Home » 2019 Education Policy Practicum

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.

---

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: Think Tanks-Aspen Commission on Social Emotional, and Academic Development. Role of Op-Eds
• How Ed Policy is Made 5:  State Legislatures and The Courts-Educational Funding
• How Ed Policy is Made 6: Federal, State, and Independent Commissions- School Safety and Discipline
• How Educational Policy is Made 7: Grassroots and Use of Media-Teacher Evaluation, Testing, and School Closure
• How Educational Policy is Made 8:  Business: Virtual Schooling and Education Entrepreneurs
• Education Policy Challenges 1- Why are teachers not more involved in Ed Policy formation? -TFA and Teacher Strikes
• Education Policy Challenge 2-Making Education Policy in a Changing Landscape-How to strengthen the research and practice to policy connection- Design Thinking