Policy Analysis for Educational Leaders

<p><strong>Dedication</strong></p> <p><strong>Chapter 1: Laying the groundwork</strong></p> <p>Chapter objectives</p> <p>Education vignette</p> <p>Why should leaders study policy analysis</p> <p>Players on the leadership landscape</p> <p>What policy analysis can do</p> <p>The role of persuasion</p> <p>Users of policy analysis</p> <p>Why use this text?</p> <p>What is policy analysis?</p> <p>A brief definition</p> <p>Why policy analysis?</p> <p>The goal of policy analysis</p> <p>Types of policy analysis</p> <p>Ex Post and Ex Ante Analysis</p> <p>Forecasting, prescribing, monitoring, evaluating</p> <p>Rational, Structural, Cultural Lens</p> <p>Transparency versus Objectivity</p> <p>Philosophies of education</p> <p>Values: Cornerstone of worldviews and philosophies</p> <p>Brief overview of worldviews</p> <p>Eight common values</p> <p>Defining philosophy</p> <p>Key philosophies and their role in education policy</p> <p>Idealism</p> <p>Realism</p> <p>Pragmatism</p> <p>Phenomenology and existentialism</p> <p>Neo-Marxism</p> <p>Postmodernism and critical theory</p> <p>Policy values in action</p> <p>Chapter summary</p> <p>Review questions</p> <p>News story for analysis</p> <p>Discussion Questions</p> <p>Selected websites</p> <p>Selected references</p> <p><strong>Chapter 2: Getting started at the beginning: thinking of policy analysis as problem analysis</strong></p> <p>Chapter objectives</p> <p>Education vignette</p> <p>Where do you start?</p> <p>The role of leaders</p> <p>Policy analysis as problem analysis</p> <p>The problem is the beginning of analysis</p> <p>Differences between condition, policy problems, and policy issues</p> <p>The policy analysis process</p> <p>The complexities of policy analysis</p> <p>Policy analysis versus policymaking</p> <p>The role of policy analysts</p> <p>Phases in policymaking</p> <p>Problem stream</p> <p>Politics stream</p> <p>Policy stream</p> <p>Stages of the policy-making process</p> <p>Issue definition Agenda setting</p> <p>Policy formulation</p> <p>Policy adoption Policy implementation Policy evaluation</p> <p>Policy Analysis is not Policy Evaluation</p> <p>Focusing on the problem</p> <p>Policy evaluation</p> <p>Policy evaluation as feedback</p> <p>Policy evaluation as summative judgment</p> <p>Going beyond evaluation</p> <p>The steps to policy analysis</p> <p>The craft of policy analysis</p> <p>Key questions of the policy analysis process</p> <p>Creating a policy analysis roadmap</p> <p>Ten steps of policy analysis</p> <p>Define the problem</p> <p>Make the case</p> <p>Establish your driving values</p> <p>Come up with alternatives</p> <p>Weigh your options</p> <p>Make recommendation</p> <p>Persuade us</p> <p>Implement solution</p> <p>Monitor outputs</p> <p>Evaluate outcomes</p> <p>Stepping stones of policy analysis</p> <p>Chapter summary</p> <p>Review questions</p> <p>News story for analysis</p> <p>Discussion Questions</p> <p>Selected websites</p> <p>Selected references</p> <p><strong>Chapter 3: Taking the first step: Define the problem</strong></p> <p>Chapter objectives</p> <p>Education vignette</p> <p>Structuring the problem</p> <p>Writing a clear description of the problem</p> <p>Different phases in problem structuring</p> <p>Problematic Characteristics of policy problems</p> <p>Personal versus policy problem</p> <p>Interdependence of problems</p> <p>Subjectivity and artificiality of structuring policy problem</p> <p>Dynamic nature of policy problems</p> <p>Building on your condition statement</p> <p>Making the condition a problem</p> <p>Scope of the problem</p> <p>Bounding the problem</p> <p>Who is included?</p> <p>Causes of the problem</p> <p>Rational perspective</p> <p>Institutional perspective</p> <p>Cultural perspective</p> <p>Goals and objectives of solving the problem identified</p> <p>The goal is the obverse of the problem</p> <p>Objectives are working definitions of goals</p> <p>Chapter summary</p> <p>Review questions</p> <p>News story for analysis</p> <p>Discussion Questions</p> <p>Selected websites</p> <p>Selected references</p> <p><strong>Chapter 4: Make the case by assembling the evidence</strong></p> <p>Chapter objectives</p> <p>Education vignette</p> <p>Purpose of assembling the evidence</p> <p>Functions of research</p> <p>Transforming data into evidence</p> <p>Assessing the nature and extent of the problem</p> <p>Assessing the particular features of an identified policy situation</p> <p>Assessing past policies</p> <p>Using the purpose of the evidence to determine what is needed</p> <p>Evidence for monitoring</p> <p>Evidence for prescription\</p> <p>Evidence for evaluation</p> <p>Evidence for forecasting</p> <p>Determining the value of specific data</p> <p>How do you make good use of data</p> <p>Building your argument</p> <p>Assessing data contexts</p> <p>How to locate relevant sources</p> <p>People and documents are key</p> <p>Collection strategies</p> <p>Data from people within and without your organization</p> <p>Data from documents from within and without your organization</p> <p>How to categorize types of data</p> <p>Quantitative or qualitative debate</p> <p>Chapter summary</p> <p>Review questions</p> <p>News story for analysis</p> <p>Discussion Questions</p> <p>Selected websites</p> <p>Selected references</p> <p><strong>Chapter 5: Establish your driving values</strong></p> <p>Chapter objectives</p> <p>Education vignette</p> <p>What do you care about?</p> <p>Establish evaluative criteria</p> <p>Relationship between values and criteria</p> <p>What does success look like?</p> <p>What are the specific criteria that frame policy decisions</p> <p>Does it work?</p> <p>How will you know?</p> <p>Is it fair?</p> <p>Horizontal equity</p> <p>Vertical equity</p> <p>Transitional equity</p> <p>Ability to pay</p> <p>Benefits principle</p> <p>Can we afford it?</p> <p>What is the role of economics?</p> <p>Opportunity costs</p> <p>Private versus public benefits</p> <p>Market failures</p> <p>Provision versus production</p> <p>Counting the costs</p> <p>Costs versus benefits</p> <p>Decision tools</p> <p>How can you tell?</p> <p>Using the economic tools</p> <p>Cost-benefit analysis</p> <p>Will people support it?</p> <p>How acceptable is the alternative to different groups?</p> <p>What factors will influence the political acceptability of policy?</p> <p>How can you measure the acceptability of a policy?</p> <p>How can you change the acceptability of policy intervention?</p> <p>Who will implement it?</p> <p>Is there sufficient administrative capacity?</p> <p>What are the major organizational limitations?</p> <p>How can you tell?</p> <p>Difference from the status quo</p> <p>Policy instrument</p> <p>Personnel support</p> <p>Available resources</p> <p>What if the criteria conflict?</p> <p>Chapter summary</p> <p>Review questions</p> <p>News story for analysis</p> <p>Discussion Questions</p> <p>Selected websites</p> <p>Selected references</p> <p><strong>Chapter 6: Come up with alternatives</strong></p> <p>Chapter objectives</p> <p>Education vignette</p> <p>What are alternatives?</p> <p>Alternatives are not outcomes</p> <p>Alternatives are not an implementation plan</p> <p>Basic alternatives and their variants</p> <p>Finding alternatives by modeling the system</p> <p>The metaphor of the market</p> <p>Production metaphor</p> <p>Evolutionary models</p> <p>Doing nothing different</p> <p>How do you generate alternatives</p> <p>Sources of alternatives</p> <p>Generic alternatives</p> <p>Customizing policy interventions</p> <p>Policy types</p> <p>Policy mechanisms and best practice context</p> <p>Inducements</p> <p>Capacity-building</p> <p>System change</p> <p>Mandates</p> <p>Hortatory</p> <p>Chapter summary</p> <p>Review questions</p> <p>News story for analysis</p> <p>Discussion Questions</p> <p>Selected websites</p> <p>Selected references</p> <p><strong>Chapter 7: Weigh your options (Evaluating alternatives)</strong></p> <p>Chapter objectives</p> <p>Education vignette</p> <p>How do you weigh your options?</p> <p>Anticipating the future</p> <p>Safeguards in forecasting</p> <p>Discussing relevant criteria</p> <p>Measuring effectiveness</p> <p>Measuring equity</p> <p>Measuring costs</p> <p>Measuring political feasibility</p> <p>Measuring implementability</p> <p>Packaging your alternatives</p> <p>Distinguishing between alternatives</p> <p>Using quick quantitative analysis</p> <p>Creating a scorecard</p> <p>Evaluating alternatives – single step, “norm based” approach</p> <p>Evaluating alternatives<strong> – </strong>two-step, “criterion-base” approach</p> <p>Chapter summary</p> <p>Review questions</p> <p>News story for analysis</p> <p>Discussion Questions</p> <p>Selected websites</p> <p>Selected references</p> <p><strong>Chapter 8: Make Recommendation</strong></p> <p>Chapter objectives</p> <p>Education vignette</p> <p>Transforming tradeoffs into preferred results</p> <p>Beyond eenie, meenie, minie, moe</p> <p>Role of the analyst</p> <p>Transform values into results</p> <p>Education leader as researcher, bureaucrat, or entrepreneur</p> <p>Policy analyst as advisor and decision maker</p> <p>Need for advocacy</p> <p>Value laden arguments</p> <p>Ethically complex arguments</p> <p>Is there one best way?</p> <p>Refine approaches to recommendation</p> <p>Testing the credibility of your recommendation</p> <p>Chapter summary</p> <p>Review questions</p> <p>News story for analysis</p> <p>Discussion Questions</p> <p>Selected websites</p> <p>Selected references</p> <p><strong>Chapter 9: Persuade us</strong></p> <p>Chapter objectives</p> <p>Education vignette</p> <p>The art of communication</p> <p>How to convey your analysis</p> <p>Who is your audience?</p> <p>Expectations of audience</p> <p>Audience knowledge and understanding</p> <p>Audience response to solution</p> <p>Audience forum</p> <p>Homogenous or diverse</p> <p>Complete or abridged analysis</p> <p>Time</p> <p>Making the policy argument</p> <p>Authority</p> <p>Method</p> <p>Generalization</p> <p>Classification</p> <p>Cause</p> <p>Sign</p> <p>Motivation</p> <p>Intuition</p> <p>Analogy</p> <p>Parallel case</p> <p>Ethics</p> <p>Checklist of communicating analysis</p> <p>Timeliness</p> <p>Clarity of findings</p> <p>So what?</p> <p>Chapter summary</p> <p>Review questions</p> <p>News story for analysis</p> <p>Discussion Questions</p> <p>Selected websites</p> <p>Selected references</p> <p><strong>Chapter 10: Implement recommended action</strong></p> <p>Chapter objectives</p> <p>Education vignette</p> <p>Setting the stage for change</p> <p>Why won’t it work</p> <p>Creating an implementation plan</p> <p>Outline the plan</p> <p>Expand the outline</p> <p>Check your plan</p> <p>Implementing strategically</p> <p>Major implementation challenges</p> <p>Human (people-related) problems</p> <p>Process (program-related) problems</p> <p>Structural (setting-related) problems</p> <p>Institutional (program; setting-related) problems</p> <p>Stages in implementation</p> <p>Mobilization</p> <p>Implementation proper</p> <p>Institutionalization</p> <p>Chapter summary</p> <p>Review questions</p> <p>News story for analysis</p> <p>Selected websites</p> <p>Selected references</p> <p><strong>Chapter 11: Monitor outputs of action</strong></p> <p>Chapter objectives</p> <p>Education vignette</p> <p>What is monitoring?</p> <p>Functions of monitoring</p> <p>Compliance</p> <p>Accounting</p> <p>Auditing</p> <p>Explanation</p> <p>What should we track?</p> <p>Functions, data, and data sources</p> <p>Three key monitoring questions</p> <p>Why should we track these data?</p> <p>Who should track the required data?</p> <p>How often should we track these data?</p> <p>Methods of tracking</p> <p>Establishing baselines</p> <p>Determining what change is being measured</p> <p>Measurement across space and time</p> <p>Units of analysis</p> <p>Displaying data</p> <p>Chapter summary</p> <p>Review questions</p> <p>News Story for Analysis</p> <p>Discussion Questions</p> <p>Selected websites</p> <p>Selected references</p> <p><strong>Chapter 12: Evaluate outcomes</strong></p> <p>Chapter objectives</p> <p>Education vignette</p> <p>Evaluating versus monitoring</p> <p>Focus of evaluation</p> <p>Types of evaluation</p> <p>Purpose of evaluation</p> <p>Formative evaluations</p> <p>Summative evaluations</p> <p>Users of evaluation</p> <p>Approaches to evaluation</p> <p>Methods of evaluation</p> <p>Components of an evaluation plan</p> <p>Analytical considerations</p> <p>Common methods of assessment</p> <p>Randomized control trials</p> <p>Direct controlled experiments</p> <p>Quasi-experimental models</p> <p>Matching</p> <p>Before and after comparisons</p> <p>With and without comparisons</p> <p>Non-experimental direct analysis</p> <p>Political considerations</p> <p>Chapter summary</p> <p>Review questions</p> <p>News Story for Analysis</p> <p>Discussion Questions S</p> <p>elected websites S</p> <p>elected references</p> <p><strong>Chapter 13: Concluding remarks and Pullout Field guide </strong></p> <p>Chapter objectives</p> <p>Education vignette</p> <p>Remember why we do policy analysis</p> <p>Policy analysis and you</p> <p>Policy analysis and the community</p> <p>Policy analysis and change</p> <p>Policy analysis and evaluation</p> <p>An Illustration of the steps in Policy Analysis using an existing policy example Elementary and Secondary Education Act</p> <p>Define the problem</p> <p>Make the case</p> <p>Establish your driving values</p> <p>Come up with alternatives</p> <p>Weigh your options</p> <p>Make recommendation</p> <p>Persuade us</p> <p>Implement solution</p> <p>Monitor outputs</p> <p>Evaluate outcomes</p> <p>Chapter summary</p> <p>Review questions</p> <p>News Story for Analysis</p> <p>Discussion Questions</p> <p>Selected websites</p> <p>Selected references</p> <p>Summary of checklist for each step (Pullout field guide)</p> <p><strong>References</strong></p>