ABSTRACT
Co-published by Routledge for the American Educational Research Association (AERA)
Educational policy continues to be of major concern. Policy debates about economic growth and national competitiveness, for example, commonly focus on the importance of human capital and a highly educated workforce. Defining the theoretical boundaries and methodological approaches of education policy research are the two primary themes of this comprehensive, AERA-sponsored Handbook.
Organized into seven sections, the Handbook focuses on (1) disciplinary foundations of educational policy, (2) methodological perspectives, (3) the policy process, (4) resources, management, and organization, (5) teaching and learning policy, (6) actors and institutions, and (7) education access and differentiation.
Drawing from multiple disciplines, the Handbook’s over one hundred authors address three central questions: What policy issues and questions have oriented current policy research? What research strategies and methods have proven most fruitful? And what issues, questions, and methods will drive future policy research? Topics such as early childhood education, school choice, access to higher education, teacher accountability, and testing and measurement cut across the 63 chapters in the volume. The politics surrounding these and other issues are objectively analyzed by authors and commentators.
Each of the seven sections concludes with two commentaries by leading scholars in the field. The first considers the current state of policy design, and the second addresses the current state of policy research.
This book is appropriate for scholars and graduate students working in the field of education policy and for the growing number of academic, government, and think-tank researchers engaged in policy research.
For more information on the American Educational Research Association, please visit: https://www.aera.net/.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |14 pages
Introduction
part |2 pages
Section I Social Science Disciplines and Education Policy Research
chapter |10 pages
Historians and Educational Policy Research in the United States
chapter |12 pages
Policy Research in Education: The Economic View
chapter |18 pages
The Economic Value of Education and Cognitive Skills
chapter |14 pages
A Political Science Perspective on Education Policy Analysis
chapter |10 pages
Current Approaches to Research in Anthropology and Education
chapter |8 pages
Making Education Research More Policy-Analytic
chapter |5 pages
COMMENTARY: Disciplined Education Policy Research
part |2 pages
Section II Conducting Policy Research: Methodological Perspectives
chapter |10 pages
The Use of Randomized Trials to Inform Education Policy
chapter |15 pages
Causal Inference in Non-Experimental Educational Policy Research
chapter |9 pages
Research Synthesis and Education Policy
chapter |13 pages
Complementary Methods for Policy Research
chapter |15 pages
Assessment Policy: Making Sense of the Babel
part |2 pages
Section III Politics and the Policy Process
chapter |18 pages
Race, Ethnicity, and Education
chapter |19 pages
Rhetoric and Symbolic Action in the Policy Process
chapter |11 pages
Teacher Collective Bargaining: What We Know and What We Need to Know
chapter |12 pages
The Voice of the People in Education Policy
chapter |14 pages
Assessment Policy and Politics of Information
chapter |10 pages
Public Choice and the Political Economy of American Education
chapter |26 pages
Research in the Policy Process
chapter |4 pages
31COMMENTARY: Politics and the Policy Process
part |2 pages
Section IV Policy Implications of Educational Resources, Management, and Organization
chapter |12 pages
What Do We Know About Reducing Class and School Size?
chapter |11 pages
Whether and How Money Matters in K-12 Education
chapter |14 pages
School Reconstitution and School Improvement: Theory and Evidence
chapter |13 pages
Charter School Policy Issues and Research Questions
chapter |11 pages
Vouchers
chapter |11 pages
A Market for Knowledge?
chapter |15 pages
Market Reforms in Education
part |2 pages
Section V Teaching and Learning Policy
chapter |19 pages
Opportunity to Learn
chapter |21 pages
The Reading and Math Wars
chapter |15 pages
Language Policy in Education
chapter |17 pages
Teacher Quality and Teacher Labor Markets
chapter |10 pages
Closing Achievement Gaps
chapter |23 pages
New Technology
chapter |11 pages
Education and the Shrinking State
chapter |5 pages
COMMENTARY: Research on Teaching and Learning
chapter |5 pages
COMMENTARY: Informing Teaching and Learning Policy
part |2 pages
Section VI Actors and Institutions in the Policy Process
chapter |14 pages
New Approaches to Understanding Federal Involvement in Education
chapter |18 pages
The Expansion of State Policy Research
chapter |18 pages
The District Role in Instructional Improvement
chapter |12 pages
Local Democracy in Education
chapter |14 pages
The Politics of (Im)Prudent State-Level Homeschooling Policies
part |2 pages
Section VII Educational Access and Differentiation