America’s fragmented, decentralized, politicized, and bureaucratic system of education governance is a major impediment to school reform. In Education Governance for the Twenty-First Century: Overcoming the Structural Barriers to School Reform, a number of leading education scholars, analysts, and practitioners show that understanding the impact of specific policy changes in areas such as standards, testing, teachers, or school choice requires careful analysis of the broader governing arrangements that influence their content, implementation, and impact.
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Education Governance for the Twenty-First Century comprehensively assesses the strengths and weaknesses of what remains of the old in education governance, scrutinizes how traditional governance forms are changing, and suggests how governing arrangements might be further altered to produce better educational outcomes for children.
Paul Manna, Patrick McGuinn, and their colleagues provide the analysis and alternatives that will inform attempts to adapt nineteenth and twentieth century governance structures to the new demands and opportunities of today.
*Copublished with the Brookings Institution and the Center for American Progress
Table of Contents
1. Education Governance in America: Who Leads When Everyone is in Charge?, Patrick McGuinn and Paul Manna
Part I. The Problem
2. The Failures of U.S. Education Governance Today, Chester E. Finn Jr. and Michael J. Petrilli
3. How Current Education Governance Distorts Financial Decisionmaking, Marguerite Roza
4. Governance Challenges to Innovators within the System, Michelle R. Davis
5. Governance Challenges to Innovators outside the System, Steven F. Wilson
Part II. Traditional Institutions in Flux
6. Rethinking District Governance, Frederick M. Hess and Olivia M. Meeks
7. Interstate Governance of Standards and Testing, Kathryn A. McDermott
8. Education Governance in Performance-Based Federalism, Kenneth K. Wong
9. The Rise of Education Executives in the White House, State House, and Mayor's Office, Jeffrey R. Henig
Part III. Lessons from Other Nations and Sectors
10. English Perspectives on Education Governance and Delivery, Michael Barber
11. Education Governance in Canada and the United States, Sandra Vergari
12. Education Governance in Comparative Perspective, Michael Mintrom and Richard Walley
13. Governance Lessons from the Health Care and Environment Sectors, Barry G. Rabe
Part IV. Paths Forward
14. Toward a Coherent and Fair Funding System, Cynthia G. Brown
15. Picturing a Different Governance Structure for Public Education, Paul T. Hill
16. From Theory to Results in Governance Reform, Kenneth J. Meier
17. The Tall Task of Education Governance Reform, Paul Manna and Patrick McGuinn
