Equity Discourses in State Accountability Policy: From “Champions of Equity” to Passing the Microphone

• In Event: Centering Equity in State Policy-Making Processes

Abstract

While existing studies revealed contested logics of equity conceptions in accountability policies, little has been known about how State Education Agencies (SEAs) strategize their use of “equity” in their accountability policymaking. This paper aims to explore how equity has been framed, including how it has shifted within the Nebraska education policy and accountability context since ESSA started. Drawing on policy as political spectacle and critical policy analysis, we analyze various data sources produced by NDE between 2016-2022 that focus on equity in the ESSA era. Nebraska’s shifting rhetoric around equity post-ESSA illuminates (a) the performative nature of policymaking and (b) the pitfalls and possibilities in the role of the SEA in disrupting inequities, particularly as it relates to accountability.

Authors

• Taeyeon Kim, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Aprille J. Phillips, University of Nebraska - Kearney

• Edmund T. Hamann, University of Nebraska - Lincoln