Measuring Attention Shifts and Regulatory Agenda Change in U.S. Education Policy

• In Event: The Politics of Regulatory Rule Making

Abstract

We introduce a new way to measure the attention shifts that result in regulatory agenda change. Our approach allows us to understand shifts in issue attention as a result of broader efforts at regulatory reform and the groups participating in the development of regulations. We map the regulatory policy space for education policy in the United States and show that changes in attention to regulatory topics can be understood in terms of the layering of reform over existing agendas and how groups behave in the wake of these changes. Our approach has the advantage of allowing us to study regulatory topics at a finer level of detail than existing topic coding systems. The findings have clear implications for how we measure regulatory agenda change within specific policy areas and the understanding of group coalitions and competition in regulatory policy.

Authors

• Samuel Workman, University of Oklahoma

• Deven Carlson, University of Oklahoma

• Tracey Bark, Auburn University at Montgomery

• Elizabeth Bell