The Coevolution of School Choice and Alternative Certification Issue Networks, 2000–2012

• In Event: 56.041 - Theories and Analysis in Relational Governance: Shaping Policy Through Research, Ideas, and Networks

Abstract

Research strongly indicates that state and local education policy domains are undergoing an extended period of change related to the emergence of school choice and alternative certification policies (Cibulka, 2001; Kirst, 2007; Vergari, 2007; Lacireno-Paquet & Holyoke, 2007; Au & Ferrare, 2014; Reckhow & Snyder, 2014). Charter school reform and alternative certification reforms are both examples of major, dynamic policy changes characterized by the dissolution of long-standing political coalitions and the emergence of new, powerful alliances across educational policy systems in the U.S. Moreover, emerging political analysis indicates that members of these reform coalitions coordinate across multiple federal, state and local policymaking venues constituting a powerful national policy network. Yet few educational scholars have systematically investigated the co-evolutions of these networks, or utilized longitudinal network analysis to understand major, macro-level policy change. This paper utilizes policy network analysis (PNA) to interrogate the institutional and normative mechanisms, namely the networks of organizational actors and ideas, driving the contemporary policy convergence around school choice and alternative certification policies. We draw on research on idea brokerage (e.g., Reckhow, Galey, & Ferrare, 2016) and idea-based policy change (e.g., Leifeld, 2013) to investigate: (a) the evolution of the structural relationship between school choice and alternative certification issue networks, the organizations that coordinate between the two over time, and how (a) and (b) effect the convergence (or divergence) of policy preferences over time.

The primary dataset for the analysis includes archival data that was collected from U.S. Congressional hearings (2010-2012), media outlets, and research citation networks coded for policy preferences, and used to generate two-mode longitudinal discourse networks of policy actors linked by shared beliefs. To investigate our research questions, we created two longitudinal issue networks using the ties that indicated support for school choice and alternative certification policies. Using network techniques we identified “idea brokers” between the two coalitions at different time points as an indicator of actors engaging in idea convergence over time (see Reckhow et al., 2015). Finally, we employed exponential random graph modeling (ERGMs) (Robbins, Lewis, & Wang, 2012) to interrogate the co-evolution of charter school and alternative certification coalitions, organizational influence on idea convergence, and the impact of both on policy convergence over time. We find some evidence that nontraditional private organizations, as well as local and state educational agencies, have a significant influence on bring these coalitions together, suggesting these types of actors play an important role as idea brokers in policy convergence. Preliminary results also suggest that the concentration of brokers during certain time periods is predictive of a period of increasingly shared preferences across the two coalitions, providing some evidence of uneven policy change and accelerated change during policy windows. Overall, this study provides support for recent findings that policy entrepreneurs embedded in non-traditional private organizations have had a strong influence on the integration of the policy discourse around school choice and alternative certification policies. We also demonstrate the usefulness of longitudinal network models for examining the influence of issue networks and shifting idea preferences on dynamic policy change.

Authors

• Sarah Hilary Galey, Michigan State University

• Joseph J. Ferrare, University of Kentucky

• Joshua Michael Rosenberg, The University of Tennessee - Knoxville