Educational Reform and Public Policy

Catalog description

This course uses an interdisciplinary approach to explore the policies and reforms that shape the nation's largest social institution: public schools. This course is designed for students interested in understanding broad issues in public policy and in exploring fundamental questions about the United States through the lens of public educational institutions. Drawing from multiple social science disciplines, the course analyzes how ideologies, institutions, and social groups have interacted to shape formal schooling. Both past and present school reforms are used to interpret the relations of schools to historic changes in legal norms, the distribution of power and resources in public institutions, and the access of different social groups to leadership and leverage in the political process of American society. The course has no prerequisites. The lectures, discussions, readings, and projects are designed for students interested in studying public policy and are intended to lead to informed interpretation of educational policy dilemmas.