Public Policy Workshop I

Catalog description

This course will be an in-depth, intensive examination of educational policy and politics in American schooling. We will explore major policy issues and practices that influence the experiences of teachers and children in educational institutions while locating educational politics in larger social policy contexts. Students will develop their skills for policy inquiry through analysis of the development, implementation, evaluation, and revision of policy initiatives and explore how policy issues are experienced within school sites. In addition, students will deepen their understandings of the roles of the federal, state, and local government in education, and will broaden their understanding and familiarity with major interest groups that have influence (formal and informal) over the politics of education. Finally, students will assess how competing values, preferences and purposes in education influence the ways in which we assess and evaluate educational policy. We will center issues of race, racism, and justice each day.