Suitable execution of moderation policy is challenging but crucial for the trustworthiness and credibility of internal high-stakes assessment systems. In formal education, policies are rarely implemented as intended. Instead, they are "enacted" in ways influenced by mediating factors including the internal and external contexts of…

This study presents some of the current methodological issues regarding the analysis and comprehension of educational policy transfer, with particular emphasis on the issue of structure and agency. It suggests some shortcomings of current educational policy transfer research in dealing with the complex interaction between structure and agency. To…

How might a theory of communicative rationality be applied to policymaking to secure the morally justifiable administration of public education? In answer, Darron Kelly uses conceptual resources found in Habermasian practical discourse to outline development of a survey instrument. The survey is designed to measure constituent satisfaction with…

We employ a policy assemblage, mobilities, and mutations framework to analyze the geographies that constitute and reflect educational policy circulation at the regional or supranational level in trans-regional regimes and/or quasi-federal polities such as the European Union (EU) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Recognizing that policies are…

Notwithstanding the contributions of a few policy experts, overall physical education is constrained by policy illiteracy and neglect. A brief historical perspective on physical education policy provides a foundation for "a policy primer" founded on three recurring needs: (1) antecedent and corequisite factors meriting attention in…

Despite data indicating that schools are safe, and safer today than they were 20 years ago, it is not uncommon for both the general public and school policymakers to exaggerate safety threats following high-fatality school shootings such as the attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Often this leads to reactionary…

The aim of this Afterword is to foreground and discuss some of the key themes emerging from the four studies in this special issue. I first consider the critical ethnographic approach to language policy and planning adopted in the studies, and the attention to language policy processes unfolding on different scales of social and institutional…

Administrative leadership at School District 7 navigates diverse perspectives on implementing artificial intelligence (AI) in their high schools. Planning for the new school year, the superintendent grapples with AI and how it has impacted her four high schools in the past year. This case is written for k-12 school policy and leadership students…

Understanding how to make the world a better place requires interdisciplinary knowledge. Public policy analysis helps policymakers arrive at informed policy decisions. The policy analysis process involves public problem definition and data collection, stakeholder identification, a rationale for government involvement, evaluation criteria,…

Situated within the context of globalization, the purpose of this historical policy analysis study is to identify and describe the ways in which multiple actors shape national higher education internationalization policy within the U.S., and to capture the emerging direction in higher education internationalization policy at the national level…

Policy analysts often concern themselves with understanding the messiness of implementation. Scholar Milbrey McLaughlin urged scholars to follow the "policy footprint" approach, and this article introduces this concept's application in studying arts education policy implementation. Specifically, I explore several important questions.…

This article theorizes the wait list as an underexamined vehicle of administrative burden. Wait lists are now common within the U.S. social safety net, yet little research has considered their administration. Drawing on a surprising case of Massachusetts' declining wait list for subsidized childcare, I find that administrative burdens were…

Marketization of education in South Africa accelerated at the crossroads of the postapartheid democratic transition and global neoliberal turn, reflecting both educational policy impacts of the country's protracted negotiated settlement and transnational trends. A controversial 2018 provincial amendment further entrenched marketization in the…

In the United States, political polarization has increased markedly since 2000, with consequences for local governments and state-level policymaking. Redistricting, and the role of social media as the dominant source of information for many in the U.S. has contributed to state and national legislatures that reflect more extreme political views. A…

In this paper we discuss recent policy attempts (in 2017) to introduce new frameworks for Australian higher education access and equity programs. These include introducing fees and a tendering process for access or 'enabling' programs, as they are called in Australia, and an evaluation framework based on an evidence hierarchy for widening…