Philanthropic Foundations' Sponsorship of Policy Networks: The Case of Teacher Quality, 2000–2014

• In Event: From Philanthropists to Parents: Interest Groups in the Battles for and Against Education Reform

Abstract

We examine the spread and influence of ideas supported by philanthropic foundations within the context of a broader policy network. Our case focuses on the development of policy related to teacher quality—a field involving considerable academic research, think tank involvement, and interest group participation.

Congressional hearings are an important formal venue for communicating policy information, and information provided in congressional testimony about policy effectiveness is positively associated with proposal enactment (Burstein and Hirsh 2007). Actors who deliver testimony in hearings have the opportunity to provide valuable information that policymakers could act upon and adopt as new preferences; but receptiveness to new information is likely to depend upon existing preferences and prior agreement with organizations participating in the hearing. Furthermore, when actors are able to strategically coordinate the provision of information across interest groups that represent different segments of a policy community, they may significantly reduce the perceived complexity of an issue and advance more rapid policy change. Foundations that fund a wide variety of interest groups as well as research could be well positioned to catalyze the formation of interest group and research-based networks around a common issue position.

Our study is based on analysis of testimony from 197 congressional hearings from 2000 to 2014 on the topic of teacher quality in education. We use Discourse Network Analysis to examine network ties based on shared policy preferences expressed in hearings, which can be used to create networks linking policy actors and stated policy preferences. Additionally, we conducted more than 40 interviews with funders, grantees, and policymakers involved in the policy debate over teacher quality. We show how participants in congressional hearings refer to research and reports sponsored by philanthropic funders. Using longitudinal social network analysis, we are able to predict the uptake of new ideas to reform or improve teacher quality. Specifically, we examine the spread of a key policy reform promoted by the Gates Foundation and other major funders: test-score based evaluation of teachers. We show that the uptake of this idea is predicted by witness affiliation with organizations supported by major funders and by shared references to research promoted by philanthropically funded groups. We find that a group of major national foundations – notably Gates, Broad, Robertson and Dell – were key figures in terms of funding and promoting the advocacy groups that were central in congressional hearings. We further examine the relationships between funders, researchers, and advocacy groups based on our interviews. Our analysis also shows the rising participation and influence of philanthropists and foundation grantees in congressional hearings, while our interviews demonstrate the role of funders as significant and central coordinating forces among key actors in the network.

(An earlier version of this paper will be presented at the American Political Science Association annual meeting in September 2017, and will be published in Interest Groups and Advocacy.)

Authors

• Sarah Reckhow, Michigan State University

• Megan Elizabeth Tompkins-Stange, University of Michigan