Overview
Policy analysis and research provide crucial information
to ensure a quality education for all students. Policy
links standards-based reform to education advocacy and
school finance litigation, and provides insight and
guidance for effective and innovative programs and services.
Policy organizations
and academic institutions conduct important research
on critical issues, such as:
 Teaching
quality,
School facilities,
Early childhood education, and
Rural education.
All of these policy areas play an important role in
creating a successful system of public education. Public
engagement, parent and community involvement, and civic
capacity building are also keys to success and subjects
of extensive research.
Much of the fundamental research on education and school
finance is conducted by faculty at graduate schools
of education and schools of public administration (for
example Syracuse University's Maxwell
School), many of whom are members of the American
Educational Research Association and/or the American
Education Finance Association. The Consortium
for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) is a collaboration
of five of the nation's top research universities in
an effort to improve student learning through research
on education reform, policy, and finance. An online
collection of much of this research is available at
the ERIC
information center.
Because education has traditionally been a state issue,
many policy organizations are state-based, such as the
California
Budget Project, the Center
for Public Policy Priorities, and the Fiscal
Policy Institute. For other state policy organizations,
see the State-by-State
pages.
Many national organizations have also developed strong
programs in education policy, which provide research
and analysis. These include the Center
on Education Policy, the Alliance
for Excellent Education, and Public
Education Network.
The Government
Accountability Office (GAO) and the National
Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) analyze
data on the local, state and national levels. Moreover,
the Regional Education Laboratories work to ensure that
people involved in educational improvement have access
to information from research and educational practice.
There is also a growing interest in the federal
role in education, as the debate over the efficacy
of the federal No Child Left Behind law rages. Organizations
such as the Aspen
Institute and the Education
Trust have devoted enormous resources to understanding
the implications, successes, and failures of this influential
federal policy.
Recent Developments
Among the many significant recent developments in policy
analysis affecting education and school funding reform
are:
 The
increasing use of costing-out
studies to determine the cost of providing an
adequate education;
Greater
emphasis on closing
achievement gaps;
Better
understanding of programs
that work for "at-risk" students, including:
 Facilities,
High
quality early education,
High
quality teaching,
Strong
accountability programs; and
Emerging
criticisms of the No
Child Left Behind Act.
Updated November 2006 |
