Knowledge Distribution as Policy Limitation? Governance Over State Teacher Equity Plans

• In Event: 68.035 - Federal Policy as Teacher Policy

Abstract

Purpose. This paper seeks to disentangle how knowledge sponsors, knowledge producers, and knowledge distributers influenced the construction and legitimation of narrative frames within states’ teacher equity plans, and in turn constricted policy options. Specifically, this paper seeks to identify whether states whose teacher equity plans cite fewer references associated with federal government knowledge distribution sites tend to have a greater dispersion of narrative frames than states with a heavier concentration of references from federal government sources.
Perspective. The theoretical framework draws from Carol and Pedersen’s (2014) work on knowledge regimes, conceived as, “ the organizational and institutional machinery that generates data, research, policy recommendations, and other ideas that influence public debate and policymaking” (2014, p.2). For these analysts, knowledge regimes contribute the ideas, in the form of data, research, theories, and policy recommendations that influence public policy.
Method and Data. This paper concentrates on five state teacher equity plans--California, Ohio, New York, Wisconsin, and Washington State--via a mixed-methods approach. Through bibliometric analysis, knowledge sources (i.e. articles, documents, and/or reports) are recorded in terms of relative influence and centrality in the state teacher equity plans. Also noted is whether this knowledge originates from one of three federal distribution sites: The Center for Great Teachers and Leaders at the American Institutes for Research; The Reform Support Network; and the USED Frequently Asked Questions document distributed to state departments of education to guide the planning process. A discourse analysis will identify the diagnostic and prognostic frames operating within the referenced citations.
Results. A number of the identified root causes and strategies mentioned in the state teacher equity plans are puzzling. Many of the strategies do not take steps to ensure poor and minority children are not taught at higher rates by inexperienced, out-of-field, or unqualified teachers, but may exacerbate inequities in teaching quality. For instance, a number of the plans advocate the expansion of alternative teacher certification programs, despite the lack of an established warrant that these programs improve teacher quality. Other policy solutions adopted within the state equity plans ratchet up teacher preparation program accountability tied to their graduates’ ability to increase student achievement. This policy and others like it may have the unintended consequence of discouraging teacher education programs from engaging in community work in minority communities and reinforce systems that encourage teacher preparation and job placement in what are already high performing, well-resourced schools.
Significance. Questions concerning the federal government’s role as a knowledge distributor have implications for deliberative democracy. This paper argues that the framing provided by the federal guidance effectively limits the menu of alternative solutions available to policymakers constraining the discourse as it unfolds in the negotiations over the plans between the federal government and the states

Author

• Jesslyn Hollar, Edgewood College