2021 Education Policy Practicum

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Spring 2021
Wednesdays, 8:30am – 11:30am ET

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

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What Do We Do Now? Educational Policy Making from NCLB to the COVID-19 Moment

Jan 27 — From NCLB to the COVID-19 Moment, Part 1
Intro to ourselves, intro to course and its themes, (1) 20 years of Ed Policy in 50 minutes.  

In-Class Materials

• 15 Years After NCLB Oral History (Video)
• Jal Mehta, COVID-19 and Schools Op-ed
• Biden Administration American Rescue Plan, pp. 6-7
• 1(20) Years of Education Policy PPT (PDF)
• Policy Post-Mortem Topic Assignments List and Dates

Feb 3 — From NCLB to the COVID-19 Moment, Part 2

Readings:

• Sandy Kress Oral history of NCLB creation
• AEI 2004 update on NCLB
• Jal Mehta, Imagining September, COVID-19 response
• Within your group pairing (see Policy Post-Mortem link above for partner assignment), decide who will read the following:
  • Biden Transition team memo from Science of Learning and Development Coalition
  • Open Letter to Biden administration from Brookings Institute Next Generation Community Schools Taskforce

Feb 10 — Follow the Evidence — The Bumpy History of Evidence Based Policy Making

Readings

• Traub New York Times piece on NCLB Evidence-Based Decision Making
• Barbash — The Reading First Controversy, Education Next, 2008
• Balfanz- Power of Penny-Building Knowledge to Invest in What Works in Education, Results for American, 2014 (optional)
• Slavin — National Tutoring Corps Proposal (team reading)
• Proposed COVID-19 Response – Balfanz — Corps for Student Success, 2020 (team reading)
• Lingenfelter, “Proof” Policy and Practice-Understanding Role of Evidence in Improving Education, pp 157-174

In-Class Materials

• Slavin — Blog: Tutoring Could Change Everything
• New York Times — Summer School Is a Hot Idea Right Now. Could It Work?
• Slavin — Why Isn’t Achievement Whirled Enough by Time? (Why Summer School, After School, and Extended Day Do Not Work Very Well)

Assignments

• Policy Post-Mortem — Team 3 & Team 5 present

Feb 17 — Follow the Money — Educational Resources, Inequality, and Student Outcomes

Readings

• Hashim et al. “Have Income-based achievement gaps widened or narrowed?” NBER Working Paper 27714, August 2020
• Dumont & Ready “Do Schools Reduce or Exacerbate Inequality”, AERJ, 2020
• Ladsen-Billings “From Achievement Gap to Education Debt”, Oct. 2006
• Coley and Baker — Poverty and Education: A Way Forward- Educational Testing Service, 2013, pp 7-39

In-Class Materials

• Sargrad et. al. Public Education Opportunity Grants, Center for American Progress, Oct. 2020

Assignments

• Policy Post Mortem — Team 2 & Team 6

Feb 24 — What Happened to the Common Core? And the Rise of the Whole Child

Readings

• Sanders — Research Findings from Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, 1998
• Education Next Forum A Decade on has Common Core Failed? Education Next 2020
• Kirst, Common Core has not failed in California, Education Next, 2020
• Immordino-Yang — The brain basis for integrated social-emotional-academic development, Aspen Commission, 2019
• Jager — Equity and Social-Emotional Learning: A Cultural Analysis, 2018

In-Class Materials

• Goldstein — What Happened to the Common Core, New York Times, 2019
• Barnum — Did the Common Core Work, Chalkbeat, 2019
• Balfanz — Ed Next Podcast on Social-Emotional Learning
• Ford — Social-Emotional Learning for Black Students is Ineffective When it is Culture-Blind

Assignments

• Policy Post Mortem — Team 1 & Team 4

March 3 — Building Pathways to Adult Success-College and Career Readiness

Readings

• Balfanz — Why We Need to Build Better Pathways to Adult Success — What the Data Says (Video) 2019
• Roderick — Potholes on Road to College, Chicago Consortium of School Research, 2011
• Patrick — Inequities in Advance Coursework, Education Trust, 2020
• Smith — Advancing Racial Equity in CTE, Center for American Progress Blog, 2019
• Carnevale — Our Separate and Unequal Public College, Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, 2018
• Racial Inequity in Higher Education Funding

In-Class Assignment

• Balfanz — Expanding AmeriCorps to Help Those Still in Schools, Op-ed, Baltimore Sun, 2020
  • Balfanz Op-ed (PDF)

Assignments

• Policy Post-Mortem — Team 7 & Team 8
• Preview Op-ed assignment

March 10 — The Elephant in the Room: Structural Racism and Policy for Who?

Readings

• Noguera — Structural Racism and the Urban Geography of Education, Phi Delta Kappan article, 2020
• Pedro Noguera: Structural Racism and the Urban Geography of Education (Podcast)
• Lofton — Plessay’s Tracks: African American Students Confronting Academic Placement in a Racially Diverse School and African American Community, 2021
• Losen — Lost Opportunities — How disparate school discipline continues to drive difference in opportunity to learn, Center for Civil Rights Remedies, 2020, through page 58
• Daniel — A Step Closer to Racial Equity: Towards a Culturally Sustaining Model for Community Schools, Urban Education, 2020

In-Class Materials

• Next Generation Community Schools Task Force
• American Rescue Plan Act SENATE

Assignments

• Op-Ed’s — Group 1 (individual assignment — members from Team 3 & Team 5)

March 17 — Ed Policy Players-Lawmakers and Regulators: Dept of Education and Congress

Readings

• Balfanz 2007 Senate Testimony
• How ESSA Passed, chapter 3 of The Every Student Succeeds Act, eds F.M. Hess & M. Eden
• ESSA, read:
  o pages 7-9, Sec. 1003 School Improvement
  o pages 18-19, Sec. 1111 (B) Challenging State Academic Standard
  o pages 39-40, Sec. 1111 (D) Identification of Schools

Assignments

• Op-eds — Group 2 (individual assignment — members from Team 2 & Team 6)

March 24 — Ed Policy Players-Influencers: Think Tanks, Membership Organizations, Foundations, and Policy Advocates

Readings

• The Billionaire Boys’ Club, excerpt from The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch
• “The Race,” pages 1 – 9 in Class Warfare by S. Brill
• Bill Gates 2011 Letter on Teaching
• Gates Foundation 2021 K-12 Education Strategy Overview
• Brookings Taskforce on Next Generation Community Schools – Webpage material
• AEI, Where Conservatives Should Lead on Federal Education Policy (partner reading)
• Progressive Policy Institute, Third Way Guide to Implementing Innovation Schools Page 1 to 38 (partner reading)

Assignments

• Op-eds — Group 3 (individual assignment — members from Team 1 & Team 4)

March 31 — Ed Policy Players: State and Local Actors: Governors, Mayors, State Dept of Ed, School Boards and District Leaders

Readings

• The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools? by Dale Russakoff, chapters 1 & 2
• Cutting School, Chapter 5: Educational Dreams and Virtual Nightmares
• Rahm Emmanuel on Mayors view of Education Reform
• Paul Revile on Role Mayors Can Play in Education Improvement
• XQ Website on School Boards

Assignments

• Op-eds — Group 4 (individual assignment — members from Team 7 & Team 8)

April 7 — Ed Policy Players; Outsiders-Courts and Grassroots organizations

Readings

• Education Policy Litigation as Devolution, Harvard Law Review
• Ghosts in the Schoolyard, chapter 1 What School Means
• Waiting for Superman (VIDEO)
  (also available on Netflix)

Assignments

• Draft Policy Briefs and Presentations — Group 1 (individual assignment — members from Team 3 & Team 5)

April 21 — Ed Policy Players: Voices of the Moment: Teachers and Students

Readings

• Learning Beyond COVID-19: A Vision for Thriving in Public Education
• American Federation of Teachers (website)
• National Education Association (website)
• Where Edtech and Its Investors Miss the Mark
• Elevating Student Voice in Education
  • Elevating Student Voice in Education (PDF)
• Harnessing Tensions: A Both/And Approach to School Recovery and Reinvention (PDF)
• Lessons Learned: Charting the Path to Educational Equity Post-COVID-19 (video)

Assignments

• Draft Policy Briefs and Presentations — Group 2 (individual assignment — members from Team 2 & Team 6)

April 28 — What do we do now: From NCLB to the COVID-19 Moment — Part 1

Readings

• Looking Back to Accelerate Forward: Toward a Policy Paradigm that Advances Equity and Improvement

Assignments

• Draft Policy Briefs and Presentations — Group 3 (individual assignment — members from Team 1 & Team 4)

May 5 — What do we do now: From NCLB to the COVID-19 Moment — Part 2

Reading

• Harnessing Tensions: A Both/And Approach to School Recovery and Reinvention
• Picket Signs & Shovels, New Profit

Assignments

• Draft Policy Briefs and Presentations — Group 4 (individual assignment — members from Team 7 & Team 8)