Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T08:13:15.809Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lessons learned: how parents respond to school mandates and sanctions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 August 2016

Lesley Lavery
Lesley Lavery*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Macalester College, USA E-mail: llavery@macalester.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Over the past three decades, a reform movement bent on improving schools and educational outcomes through standards-based accountability systems and market-like competitive pressures has dominated policy debates. Many have examined reform policies’ effects on academic outcomes, but few have explored these policies’ influence on citizens’ political orientations. In this study, using data from an original survey, I examine whether and how No Child Left Behind’s accountability-based architecture influences parents’ attitudes towards the government and federal involvement in education. I find little evidence that diversity in parents’ lived policy experiences shapes their political orientations. However, the results of a survey experiment suggest that information linking school experience to policy and government action may increase parents’ confidence in their ability to contribute to the political process. Understanding whether and under what conditions parents use public school experiences to inform orientations towards the government can improve the design of future reforms.

Keywords

accountabilityeducationpolicy feedbackpolitical learningsocial welfare
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 205 - 232
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press, 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abernathy, S. (2005) School Choice and the Future of American Democracy. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, R. D. (1992) The Logic of Congressional Action. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Bruch, S. K., Ferree, M. M. and Soss, J. (2010) From policy to polity democracy, paternalism, and the incorporation of disadvantaged citizens. American Sociological Review 75(2): 205–226.Google Scholar
Bushaw, W. J. and McNee, J. A. (2009) The 41st Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools Americans Speak Out: Are Educators and Policy Makers Listening? Phi Delta Kappan 91(1): 8–23.Google Scholar
Campbell, A. L. (2003) How Policies Make Citizens: Senior Political Activism and the American Welfare State. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, A. L. (2012) Policy makes mass politics. Annual Review of Political Science 15: 333–351.Google Scholar
Carpini, M. X. D. and Keeter, S. (1997) What Americans Know About Politics and Why it Matters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dee, T. S. and Jacob, B. (2011) The Impact of No Child Left Behind on Student Achievement. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 30(3): 418–446.Google Scholar
The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation (2008) The 2008 Broad Prize for Urban Education: Seattle Public Schools, Washington, http://www.broadprize.org/asset/1216-seattle_wa.pdf (accessed 9 December 2014).Google Scholar
Fleming, D. J. (2014) Learning From Schools: School Choice, Political Learning, and Policy Feedback. Policy Studies Journal 42(1): 55–78.Google Scholar
Flora, P. and Heidenheimer, A. J. (eds.) (1981) The Development of Welfare States in Europe and America. Rutgers, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Gerber, A. S. and Green, D. P. (2000) The Effects of Canvassing, Telephone Calls, and Direct Mail on Voter Turnout: A Field Experiment. American Political Science Review 94(3): 653–663.Google Scholar
Hanushek E. A. and Raymond M. E. (2005) Does School Accountability Lead to Improved Student Performance? Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 24(2): 297–327.Google Scholar
Hess, F. and Finn, C. (eds.) (2004) Leaving No Child Behind? Options for Kids in Failing Schools. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Holbein J. B. (2015) Left Behind? Citizen Responsiveness to Government Performance Information. Revised and Resubmitted, American Political Science Review, https://sanford.duke.edu/people/student/holbein-john.Google Scholar
Howard, C. (2007) The Welfare State Nobody Knows: Debunking Myths About US Social Policy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Howell, W. (2006) Switching Schools? A Closer Look at Parents’ Initial Interest in and Knowledge About the Choice Provisions of No Child Left Behind. Peabody Journal of Education 81(1): 140–179.Google Scholar
Howell, W. G., Wolf, P. J., Campbell, D. E. and Peterson, P. E. (2002) School Vouchers and Academic Performance: Results From Three Randomized Field Trials. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 21(2): 191–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeynes W. H. (2005) A Meta-Analysis of the Relation of Parental Involvement to Urban Elementary School Student Academic Achievement. Urban Education 40(3): 237–269.Google Scholar
Jeynes W. H. (2007) The Relationship Between Parental Involvement and Urban Secondary School Student Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analysis. Urban Education 42(1): 82–110.Google Scholar
Karch, A. (2010) Policy Feedback and Preschool Funding in the American States. Policy Studies Journal 38(2): 217–234.Google Scholar
Lavery, L. (2014) Parents as Participants: Policy Design to Inform and Empower. American Politics Research 42(6): 1010–1033.Google Scholar
Lavery, L. (2015) What Parents Still Do Not Know About No Child Left Behind and Why it Matters. Journal of Education Policy 31(3): 1–19.Google Scholar
The Leadership Conference Education Fund (2016) Parent and Family Engagement Provisions in the Every Student Succeeds Act, http://civilrightsdocs.info/pdf/education/ESSA-Parent-Family-Engagement.pdf (accessed 10 February 2016).Google Scholar
Manna, P. (2007) NCLB in the States: Fragmented Governance, Uneven Implementation. In Hess, F. M. and Finn, C. E. (eds.), No Remedy Left Behind: Lessons From a Half-Decade of NCLB. Washington, DC: AEI Press, 17–42.Google Scholar
Manna, P. (2010) Collision Course: Federal Education Policy Meets State and Local Realities. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Mettler, S. (2005) Soldiers to Citizens: The GI Bill and the Making of the Greatest Generation. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mettler, S. (2011) The Submerged State: How Invisible Government Policies Undermine American Democracy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mettler, S. and Soss, J. (2004) The Consequences of Public Policy for Democratic Citizenship: Bridging Policy Studies and Mass Politics. Perspectives on Politics 2(1): 55–73.Google Scholar
Moses, M. S. and Nanna, M. J. (2007) The Testing Culture and the Persistence of High Stakes Testing Reforms. Education and Culture 23(1): 55–72.Google Scholar
Patashnik E. and Zelizer J. E. (2009) When Policy Does Not Remake Politics: The Limits of Policy Feedback. APSA 2009 Toronto Meeting Paper, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1449996.Google Scholar
Rhodes, J. H. (2014) Learning Citizenship? How State Education Reforms Affect Parents’ Political Attitudes and Behavior. Political Behavior 37(1): 181–220.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, E. E. (1963) Politics, Pressures and the Tariff: A Study of Free Private Enterprise in Pressure Politics, as Shown in the 1929–1930 Revision of the Tariff. Hamden, Conn: Archon Books.Google Scholar
Schneider, M., Teske, P. and Marschall, M. (2000) Choosing Schools: Consumer Choice and the Quality of American Schools. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sides, J. (2010) Stories, Science and Public Opinion on the Estate Tax. Paper Posted at the Monkey Cage, http://home.gwu.edu/~jsides/estatetax.pdf (accessed 26 July 2016).Google Scholar
Soss, J. (1999) Lessons of Welfare: Policy Design, Political Learning, and Political Action. American Political Science Review 93(2): 363–380.Google Scholar
Soss, J. (2002) Unwanted Claims: The Politics of Participation in the US Welfare System. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Stewart E. B. (2008). School Structural Characteristics, Student Effort, Peer Associations, and Parental Involvement: The Influence of School- and Individual-Level Factors on Academic Achievement. Education and Urban Society 40(2): 179–204.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Education (2009) State and Local Implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act: Volume VII – Title I School Choice and Supplemental Education Services: Final Report, http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/choice/nclb-choice-ses-final/choice-ses-final.pdf (accessed 9 December 2014).Google Scholar
Verba, S., Schlozman, K. L. and Brady, H. E. (1995) Voice and Equality: Civic Volunteerism in American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Weaver, V. M. and Lerman, A. E. (2010) Political Consequences of the Carceral State. American Political Science Review 104(4): 817–833.Google Scholar
Zaller, J. (1992) The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar