Education Policy Course Schedule

Part 1, The background and context of schooling in America


Aug 26: Meet online via Collaborate on Blackboard Thursday at 6pm - First day. Introductions and expectations


Sept 2: Meet online via Collaborate on Blackboard Thursday at 6pm - A brief history of ed policy


Sept 9 Meet online via Collaborate on Blackboard Thursday at 6pm

Social inequities and their impact on education

  • Orfield, Gary and Chungmei Lee. 2005. Why Segregation Matters: Poverty and Educational Inequality. (pp 1-17).

  • Mehta, J. Deeper Learning has a Race Problem available on Blackboard site under "readings"

  • Jonathan Kozol. 1991. Savage Inequalities. East St. Louis Chapter

  • Complete Journal #1

  • There are three primary questions that should guide your journal this week:

    • As I reflect on the course materials so far this semester, what new insights do I have about Social inequities and their impact on education

    • Do these insights indicate to me any changes that I would recommend in my local context and if so how would I practically execute those changes? (answering this question by saying that you must simply "do better" is not helpful in the same way it would not be helpful for a doctor to tell their patient to simply "feel better" - you have to understand the root causes of the issue to develop a plan for doing something about it)

    • How do I apply what I have learned so far to my future context as a leader? In other words, how does this knowledge inform your understanding of how other people you might be working with make decisions and as a leader how can you use this information to create a system, climate, and culture where there is consistently more equitable system of education?

Sept 16: Meet online via Collaborate on Blackboard Thursday at 6pm - How We Got Here


Sept 23: Meet online via Collaborate on Blackboard Thursday at 6pm - A proposal to fundamentally change how we think about schooling

  • Your work this week is to take a deep dive in Journal #2 exploring your own problem of practice. I would like you to share how poverty plays a role in your problem of practice and what sorts of specific reform efforts would you propose to ameliorate the impact of poverty as it relates to your problem of practice. You will revisit this journal in part for the final week of class. I will discuss the problem of practice in class on Sept 17th.

  • Watch Ronald Ferguson Lecture

Part II, Efforts to improve schools

Sepr 30: Meet online via Collaborate on Blackboard Thursday at 6pm

The school reform movement

  • Watch Video from Pedro Noguera, A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education

  • Payne, Charles. 2008. So Much Reform, So Little Change: The Persistence of Failure in American Public Schools. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press. Available on the Blackboard site under the Readings tab

  • Paul Tough, What it Takes to Make a Student, New York Times Magazine, Nov. 26, 2006.

  • Goldstein, Dana. 2009. The Education Wars. American Prospect

  • No required journals this week

Oct 7: Meet online via Collaborate on Blackboard Thursday at 6pm

The promise and the reality of change


Part III, Schools that work

Oct 14: Meet online via Collaborate on Blackboard Thursday at 6pm

  • Recovering from the pandemic

  • No required journals this week

Oct 21: No class this week (Doctoral Seminar Week)

Oct 28: Meet online via Collaborate on Blackboard Thursday at 6pm

Approaches to training, hiring and retaining teachers

  • Watch video on course website (posted no later than Monday morning each week)

  • Complete Journal #3

    1. As I reflect on the course materials so far this semester, what new insights do I have about approaches to training, hiring and retaining teachers?

    2. Do these insights indicate to me any changes that I would recommend in my local context and if so how would I practically execute those changes? (answering this question by saying that you must simply "do better" is not helpful in the same way it would not be helpful for a doctor to tell their patient to simply "feel better" - you have to understand the root causes of the issue to develop a plan for doing something about it)

    3. How do I apply what I have learned so far to my future context as a leader or in advocating for effective policy? In other words, how does this knowledge inform your understanding of how other people you might be working with make decisions and as a leader how can you use this information to create a system, climate, and culture where there is consistently more equitable system of education?

  • Susanna Loeb, Luke C. Miller, and James Wyckoff, “Performance Screens for School Improvement: The Case of Teacher Tenure Reform in New York City,” Working Paper 115 (Washington, D.C.: National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research, June 2014).

  • Elmore, Richard. 1997. Investing in Teacher Learning: Staff Development and Instructional Improvement in Community School District #2. Working paper, Harvard University.

  • Watch Tenure Reform Increases Voluntary Attrition of Less Effective Teachers in New York City


Nov 4: Meet online via Collaborate on Blackboard Thursday at 6pm

The federal agenda

  • Watch video on course website (posted no later than Monday morning each week)

  • Review Joe Biden Education Agenda from campaign website

  • Review Donald Trump Education Agenda from campaign website found as a screenshot in Blackboard, and because it is only 2 bullet points also read the EdWeek article in Blackboard giving more context and analysis of Donald Trump's education agenda

  • Complete Journal #4

    1. As I reflect on the course materials so far this semester, what new insights do I have about the federal education policy agenda?

    2. Do these insights indicate to me any changes that I would recommend in my local context and if so how would I practically execute those changes? (answering this question by saying that you must simply "do better" is not helpful in the same way it would not be helpful for a doctor to tell their patient to simply "feel better" - you have to understand the root causes of the issue to develop a plan for doing something about it)

    3. How do I apply what I have learned so far to my future context as a leader or in advocating for effective policy? In other words, how does this knowledge inform your understanding of how other people you might be working with make decisions and as a leader how can you use this information to create a system, climate, and culture where there is consistently more equitable system of education?

  • ESSA (2018) Measure What Matters

  • 2018 AASA Legislative Agenda

  • 2018 Congressional Spending Bill and the DeVos Agenda


Nov 11: No collaborate meeting this week for UCEA Conference

Motivation and change leadership

  • Watch video on course website (posted no later than Monday morning each week)

  • Complete Journal #5

    1. As I reflect on the course materials so far this semester, what new insights do I have about how motivation and change leadership influence how policy is formed and executed?

    2. Do these insights indicate to me any changes that I would recommend in my local context and if so how would I practically execute those changes? (answering this question by saying that you must simply "do better" is not helpful in the same way it would not be helpful for a doctor to tell their patient to simply "feel better" - you have to understand the root causes of the issue to develop a plan for doing something about it)

    3. How do I apply what I have learned so far to my future context as a leader or in advocating for effective policy? In other words, how does this knowledge inform your understanding of how other people you might be working with make decisions and as a leader how can you use this information to create a system, climate, and culture where there is consistently more equitable system of education?

  • Read Putting development in professional development: Understanding immunities to change

  • Read Grissom and Loeb Triangulating Principal Effectiveness, available on Blackboard site under "readings"

  • Watch Ted Sizer I cannot teach a child I do not know

  • Read Motivation to Learn an Interview with Daniel Pink

  • Watch the Surprising truth about what motivates us


Nov 18: Meet online via Collaborate on Blackboard Thursday at 6pm

Markets and charter schools

  • Watch video Caroline Hoxby: "What Makes Charter Schools Effective?"

  • Complete Journal #6

    1. As I reflect on the course materials so far this semester, what new insights do I have about market based approaches to k-12 education?

    2. Do these insights indicate to me any changes that I would recommend in my local context (particularly in either advocating for particular approaches or exploring "micro-market approaches") and if so how would I practically execute those changes? (answering this question by saying that you must simply "do better" is not helpful in the same way it would not be helpful for a doctor to tell their patient to simply "feel better" - you have to understand the root causes of the issue to develop a plan for doing something about it)

    3. How do I apply what I have learned so far to my future context as a leader or in advocating for effective policy? In other words, how does this knowledge inform your understanding of how other people you might be working with make decisions and as a leader how can you use this information to create a system, climate, and culture where there is consistently more equitable system of education?

  • Patrick Wolf and Anna Egalite, “Pursuing Innovation: How can Educational Choice Transform K-12 Education in the U.S.?"


Part IV, Reform where the rubber meets the road: change at the district level

Nov 25 Thanksgiving Break

Dec 2: Meet online via Collaborate on Blackboard Thursday at 6pm - Districts and radical change

More proposals to fundamentally change how we think about schooling

  • Wagner, Tony. 2008. Rigor Redefined Education Leadership 66(2): 20-25

  • Deborah Meier and Chester E. Finn, Jr. (2009). E Pluribus Unum? Education Next 9(2).

  • Complete Journal #7 - Use this space as an open prompt to reflect on the most important takeaways from the material we have covered in class this semester for improving you practice.

Cases


Dec 9: Meet online via Collaborate on Blackboard Thursday at 6pm

Districts, working within the system

  • Complete Journal #8 - Policy Brief