EDUC 407 - Foundations of Educational Policy

This seminar is designed to provide students with an understanding of the systems, structures, and forces that shape K-12 educational policy. It examines who makes policy for education, how contending policy agendas and goals for education are negotiated, how systems and the educators within them respond to policy and how implementation changes policy on the ground. These questions will be explored by analyzing selected contemporary policy issues confronting education in the United States, and investigating the evidence that research brings to bear on the debates. The course will explore K-12 educational politics and policymaking at the federal, state, and local levels, and will specifically explore policies related to standards, assessment and accountability; Local Control Funding Formula in CA; teacher evaluation and other teacher policies; and school reform and school choice. Students will read about these issues in general and explore them in more detail through their assignments. The course is designed to help students become educated consumers of a variety of current education policy discussions.
Units: 4
Course Type: Seminar