The Rising State

How State Power is Transforming Our Nation's Schools

Edited by Bonnie C. Fusarelli & Bruce S. Cooper

Subjects: Education, Public Policy
Paperback : 9780791476949, 288 pages, January 2010
Hardcover : 9780791476932, 288 pages, March 2009

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Table of contents

List of Figures and Tables
Foreword by Michael W. Kirstix
1. Setting the Stage: Where State Power and Education Meet
Bruce S. Cooper and Bonnie C. Fusarelli
Part I. State Case Studies
2. California
Lawrence O. Picus
3. Kentucky
Tricia Browne-Ferrigno
4. New Jersey
Bruce S. Cooper and Philip H. Nisonoff
5. New York
Sandra Vergari
6. Texas
Brendan D. Maxcy, Andrea K. Rorrer, and  Enrique Aleman, Jr.
7. Kansas
Bruce D. Baker and Preston C. Green
Part II. Comparative and National Trends
8. The Roots of Difference in State Educational Policy
Karen Seashore, Molly Gordon, Judy Meath, and Emanda Thomas
9. State Power and Equity
Kevin P. Brady
10. The Incremental Revolution: Nationalizing Education Accountability Policy
Kathryn A. McDermott and Elizabeth DeBray-Pelot
11. Reading from the Top: State Impact on Reading Curriculum and Instruction
Mengli Song
Part III. Trends and Conclusions
12. Improvement or Interference?: Reenvisioning the “State” in Education Reform
Lance D. Fusarelli
List of Contributors
Index

Examines how federal and state governments have assumed ever-greater control over the education process since the 1960s.

Description

State and national policymakers are increasingly important in shaping the nature, scope, and direction of education initiatives, resulting in the erosion of local control. The Rising State weaves together leading national experts' perspectives that focus on equity, comparative differences in state educational policies, agenda setting, and the nationalization of education policy. The contributors provide policymakers, teachers, administrators, parents, and the general public with an opportunity and means to understand the success and failure of the growth of state power and centralization of control of education in the United States and offer forecasts for future developments.

Bonnie C. Fusarelli is Assistant Professor of Education at North Carolina State University. Bruce S. Cooper is Professor of Education Leadership and Policy at Fordham University and the author and editor of many books, including Better Policies, Better Schools: Theories and Applications, coedited with Lance D. Fusarelli and E. Vance Randall.