Politics and Policy Knowledge in Federal Education: Confronting the Evidence-Based Proverb

ISBN-13: 9783030383978 / Angielski / Miękka / 2021 / 215 str.

Steven Putansu

Spis treści

Chapter 1: Policy Knowledge, Politics, and a Proverb of Decision Making

The Evidence-Based Proverb and Policy Knowledge as Panacea

A Research Approach to Tackle the Evidence-Based Proverb

Organization of the Book

Chapter 2: No Panacea - The Purposes, Uses, and Limitations of Policy Knowledge

Defining a Typology of Policy Knowledge

The Purposes and Creation of Policy Knowledge

Direct and Indirect Uses of Data, Information, and Evidence

Program Design and the Production of Policy Knowledge

Chapter 3: Challenging the Proverb: A Balanced Model for Governance Decisions

Politics and Policy Knowledge as Drivers of Decision Making 

A Balanced Framework of Politics and Policy Knowledge

Political Elements of Policy Knowledge

Chapter 4: The Performance Movement and other Evidence-Based Reforms

The Performance Movement: 50 Years of Evidence-Based Reforms

Evidence-Based Policy: The Modern Reform Agenda

Decision Making in Federal Education Policy

Chapter 5: The Roots of Modern Federal Education Policy

Three Transformations of Education in the United States

A Federal Role for Elementary and Secondary Education

A Federal Role for Higher Education

Implications for the Case Studies

Chapter 6: Improving Access to Higher Education

HEA Titles and Background

Politics and Policy Knowledge at HEA's Passage

Major Eras of Student Loan Programs

Summary of the Case

Chapter 7: Education for the Disadvantaged

ESEA Titles and Background

Politics and Policy Knowledge at ESEA's Passage

Major Eras of Title I Grant Programs

Summary of the Case

Chapter 8: Contending with the Evidence-Based Proverb

The Political-Rational Continuum

Incremental and Comprehensive Decisions

The Implications of Program Goals and Design

Quality versus Purpose: Which Policy Knowledge gets Used?

Chapter 9: Moving Beyond the Evidence-Based Proverb

Unanswered Questions and a Research Agenda

Creating Policy Knowledge: Purpose and Quality

Understanding, Influencing, and Improving Decisions

Looking Forward: Federal Education Policy and Evidence-Based Policy

O autorze

Steven Putansu is a Senior Design Methodologist at the US Government Accountability Office, Professorial Lecturer at American University, USA, and recipient of a 2017 Arthur S. Flemming Award for Federal Management and Leadership.

Blurb

“In this important book, Putansu argues cogently that a simplistic adherence to ‘evidence-based policy’ has negatively impacted how we understand the interplay of policy knowledge, decisions purposes and politics.”

—Jenny M Lewis, Professor of Public Policy, The University of Melbourne, Australia

“Putansu offers a compelling assessment of policymakers’ struggle to put policy knowledge to good use, while signposting the factors that make a more realistic marriage of policy knowledge and policy making.”

—Donald Moynihan, Professor, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University, USA

“Putansu skillfully unpacks the complexities and politics information production and consumption in the US federal government.”

—William Resh, Associate Professor, Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California, USA

Policy knowledge derived from data, information, and evidence is a powerful tool for contributing to policy discussions and debates, and for understanding and improving the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of government action. For decades, politicians, advocates, reformers, and researchers have simultaneously espoused this value, while also paradoxically lamenting the lack of impact of policy knowledge on decision making, and the failure of related reforms. This text explores this paradox, identifying the reliance on a proverb of using policy knowledge to supplant politics as a primary culprit for these perceived failures. The evidence in this book suggests that any consideration of the role of policy knowledge in decision making must be considered alongside, rather than in place of, considerations of the ideologies, interests, and institutional factors that shape political decisions. This contextually rich approach offers practical insights to understand the role of policy knowledge, and to better leverage it to support good governance decisions.

Steven Putansu is a Senior Design Methodologist at the US Government Accountability Office, Professorial Lecturer at American University, USA, and recipient of a 2017 Arthur S. Flemming Award for Federal Management and Leadership.