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Abstract:Counter to narratives of persistently failed school reform, we argue that reforms sometimes succeed, and seek to understand why. Drawing on examples from the founding of public schools to the present, we find that successful system-wide reforms addressed problems that teachers thought they had, by being consistent with prevailing norms and values, by mobilizing a significant public constituency, and building the needed educational infrastructure. We distinguish between system-wide and niche reforms, suggesting that some--particularly those seeking ambitious instruction-failed system-wide but succeeded by creating protected educational niches. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for the Common Core.

ABSTRACT:American educational policy was rapidly transformed between 1980 and 2001. Accountability was introduced into a sphere that had long been loosely coupled, both major political parties reevaluated longstanding positions, and significant institutional control over the schooling shifted to the federal government for the first time in the nation's history. These changes cannot be explained by conventional theories such as interest groups, rational choice, and historical institutionalism. Drawing on extensive archival research and more than 80 interviews, this article argues that this transformation can be explained by a changed policy paradigm which restructured the political landscape around education reform. More generally, while previous scholars have observed that "policies create politics," it should also be recognized that "paradigms create politics."

The black-white gap in achievement, as measured by performance on standardized tests, has received considerable attention from researchers in the past five years. Claude Steele's stereotype threat and disidentification mechanism is perhaps the most heralded of the new explanations for residual racial differences that persist after adjustments for social background are performed. Analyzing data from the National Education Longitudinal Study, we found qualified support for portions of the disidentification explanation. Black students' academic self-evaluations are more weakly associated with their measured academic performances, a difference that could stem from stereotype threat or a belief that the evaluations are racially biased. But this discounting of performance evaluations does not seem to provoke a more complete disidentification with the schooling process or with academic achievement in general. The findings suggest that there is no clear path from being stereotyped to disidentifying, and in conclusion we discuss alternative explanations for why it may be so.

This article considers five methodological challenges in studying rare events such as school shootings. Drawing on the literature on causal analysis in macro-historical and other small-N research, it outlines strategies for studying school shootings using qualitative case studies and illustrates these strategies using data from case studies of two rampage school shootings: Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, and Westside Middle School outside Jonesboro, Arkansas. Strengths and limitations are discussed as well as lessons for studying rare events.