How do education policy processes and networks operate in sectors that have been chronically defunded? This article discusses elements of contestation and doubt in the context of a policy agenda around impact measurement in youth services in England. Drawing on interviews with policy makers, influencers and critics, it combines analysis of a…

Antiblackness is a persistent feature of American society with continued implications for the experiences, outcomes, and well-being of Black communities. In the wake of widespread protests against antiblack police brutality and heightened awareness of racial injustices in 2020, federal, state, and local political actors swiftly began a concerted…

This article evaluates the design of the official language policy of the Norwegian government in the field of higher education, which was set out in two white papers in 2008 and 2020. The language policy aims to avoid domain loss of the Norwegian language and thus keep it 'complete' and able to function as a unifying factor in society. In the two…

Policy and research engagement is a timely topic for researchers, decision-makers, and higher education institutions that aim to promote engagement and impact. Examination of the complex research-policy relationship in the higher education sector has been largely overlooked. This paper addresses this issue by presenting findings from in-depth…

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teacher advocacy is a particular skillset within STEM teacher leadership, but little is known about how STEM teacher leaders develop their identity as advocates for STEM education. To glean a more nuanced and deeper understanding of developing advocate identity among STEM teacher leaders, we…

Sometimes, public policy outcomes disappoint when unintended consequences arise. In many such cases, the problems might be traced back to poor reasoning. For most of antiquity, logic was considered the core element for successful human endeavour. In this work, we argue that Aristotelian logic -- specifically, the syllogism -- remains highly…

While reference societies as an "externalization" process are often used to justify borrowing policies from abroad, a concerted attempt to understand how "power" influences this process, particularly regarding "semiperipheral" references to the periphery, remains absent. This article explores the externalization…

Background/Context: The reckoning with racial injustice and growing inequality that have become hallmarks of the early 2020s in the United States has implications for impact analysis and the evidence it produced for public policy decision-making. Various researchers have highlighted the shortcomings that impact analyses have when estimating the…

This interview-based study examines how justice-oriented K-12 administrators and teachers in Iowa make sense of the recent state-level education policy, H.F. 802. Synthesizing literature on Critical Policy Analysis and epistemic justice, we introduce Critical Epistemic Policy Analysis to understand the micro-level impact of divisive education…

This study examines the impact of statewide Restorative Justice (RJ) policy reforms in Michigan and Texas on student disciplinary outcomes and behavior, in light of increasing concerns over the negative effects of zero-tolerance policies. As schools move away from exclusionary discipline practices, this research focuses on three primary questions:…

Countries in the global South, such as Pakistan, face challenges to determine their education policies without any external pressures. The national sphere of authority of the state has to deal with both global and national policy pressures. The travelling policy gets embedded in the local context adjusting to the local demands. However, for this…

The article explores the relationship between education policy change and policy transfer, focusing on Georgia's School Board of Trustees. It analyzes how Western practices have been implemented in the education policies of post-Soviet countries. To achieve this, the article utilizes instrumental case studies and in-depth interviews. It views…

This document provides an overview of historic policy reforms that have improved student success and close racial equity gaps in completion at California Community Colleges.

We investigated U.S. state and national trends in the enrollment of students ages 6 to 21 years under the specific learning disability (SLD) category across 15 consecutive school years (2005-2006 to 2019-2020). We used multi-level modeling to estimate the effects of state and time on SLD enrollment and conducted a policy analysis of three states…

Higher education remains a pivotal driver of social and economic mobility, with college graduates earning significantly more over their lifetimes compared to their peers without a degree. However, the benefits of higher education remain out of reach for an increasing number of students, as enrollments decline and stopout rates climb. In recent…