What exactly is education policy, why is it important, and how is it implemented in the real world? Jerome Delaney, a professor of educational administration and former high school principal, answers the big questions about education policy in this powerful and practical primer for students. Informed by his experience in the public school system, Delaney takes a pragmatic and realistic approach that divides a complicated subject into manageable sub-topics. He grounds the debate at the classroom level: after all, that’s where the effects of high-level policy decisions ultimately play out. Starting from the basics and progressing through to the deeper aspects of education policy, this text provides an excellent introduction to a subject that lies at the foundation of every education system. This second edition includes a new chapter on issues relating to policy implementation, as well as new discussion questions at the end of each chapter. Topics include: A beginner’s overview of education policy studies. - How values influence policy-making. - How education policy is developed, implemented, and evaluated. - The role of policy in education reform. - The future of education policy as schools adapt to changing societies. This book presents a clear and comprehensive overview of policy for academics, administrators, teachers, and students. -- Canadian Journal of Education This book presents a clear and comprehensive overview of policy for academics, administrators, teachers, and students. Jerome G. Delaney is a professor of educational administration in the Faculty of Education at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Prior to his entrance into academia, he was a high school teacher in the Newfoundland public school system and went on to serve as principal in three high schools in the province. His primary research areas are education law, education policy, and effective teaching. CHAPTER 1: AN OVERVIEW OF EDUCATION POLICY The word policy has become quite common in today’s society. We read about public policy, foreign policy, health care policy, board policy, monetary policy, and immigration policy, to mention only a few. Back in 1995, Silver coined the phrase policy rage , which he used to describe society’s preoccupation with policy. Today, policy has taken on an even more vigorous role in society. Some of that may result from our society’s becoming more litigious, meaning that people in general are much more conscious of their legal rights and are less reluctant than ever before to advocate for those rights. In negligence and liability court cases, an institution’s policies come under greater scrutiny and can often be instrumental in helping to decide the outcome of specific cases. Although helping to decide outcomes in specific cases is not necessarily the primary purpose of policy, it is indeed a positive by-product of having policies in place. Education policy is taking on a greater significance in our K–12 school systems, so it is imperative that educators have a working and practical knowledge of what education policy is all about. Education Policy Studies What do we mean when we use the term education policy studies ? Several images come to mind: research centered on the specific subject of the policy; decision-making (ideally) of the shared and collegial kind; the current state of what is happening with that particular subject—the positives and the negatives, and various other related issues and concerns; and what the current research tells us with respect to that subject. Nagel (1980) suggested that policy studies are concerned with “the nature, causes, and effects of alternative public policies” (p. 391). A less erudite conceptualization of policy studies might point to policy analysis, policy development, policy implementation, policy evaluation, and policy revision. Policy analysis involves studying an issue and consulting with the key stakeholders to determine the “slant” a specific policy should take. The other areas similarly involve the actual development and the related processes of implementing, evaluating, and revising of policy to ensure it achieves its objectives. There is a certain degree of ambiguity associated with education policy studies. According to Boyd and Plank (1994), “because of the richness and variety of purposes and approaches involved in policy studies, it is not surprising that there is ambiguity about what constitutes the field” (p. 1836). They attribute part of that difficulty to how dramatically the field has changed since its initial growth spurt in the early 1960s. Wildavsky (1985) concluded that the field has moved from a “macro-macho” approach to a “micro-incremental” approach: “The origins of the ‘macro-macho’ versions of policy analysis—the belief that large national problems, from defense to welfare, are susceptible to solution through applications of economic analysis—were rooted in the intersection between economics, statistics, computing, and the defense ‘t