The Creation and Development of an Interest Group: Life at the Intersection of Big Business and Education Reform

Abstract

Responding to calls from the president of the United Sates and the Business Roundtable, business leaders have become increasingly involved in setting the education reform agenda. Using five interest group theories and longitudinal data; the authors examined the formation, agenda setting, and maintenance of an organization of business leaders. Moderate support was found for each of the theories. Analyses further revealed that policy interests and to a lesser degree, functional interests were important to the formation and activity of the interest group. To forge successful partnerships and to implement effective reform, educators, policy makers, and researchers must better understand the motives and actions that impel business involvement in education

Who Are the Influentials? A Cross-State Social Network Analysis of the Reading Policy Domain

“…Thomas and Hrebenar (1992) likewise define an interest group as "any association of individuals, whether formally organized or not, that attempts to influence public policy" (p. 153). In a recent study of education interest groups, Sipple, Miskel, Matheney, and Kearney (1997) stress the importance of adopting a broad definition so that few assumptions are made about interest groups, their memberships, or their ideologies. For the purpose of this study, ideas from a number of scholars (e.g., Baumgartner & Leech, 1998;Hrebenar, 1997;Kollman, 1998;Thomas & Hrebenar, 1992) are combined to form the following broad definition: interest groups refer to membership organizations, advocacy organizations not accepting members, businesses, and other organizations or institutions, whether formally organized or not, that try to influence public policy.…”

Public-Private Partnerships, Civic Engagement, and School Reform

“…During much of the previous century, school of•cials were less than enthusiastic about teaming up with external agencies and organizations-primarily because they accepted the bureaucratic tenet that such connections diminished technical ef•ciency (Hanson, 2003). Though this underlying assumption continued to be held by many educators during the past few decades (Davies, 2002), demands for reform and advocacy for public-private partnerships after 1983 basically trumped this reservation (Rist, 1990;Sipple, Matheney, & Miskel, 1997). Concurrently, school of•cials began recognizing that collaborating with high pro•le executives could enhance their social capital (Wang, Haertel, & Walbert, 1995)-an asset they could use to counteract public criticism.…”

Micropolitical Dynamics of Education Interests: A View From Within

“…Research examining the internal politics of educational interest groups is sparse. The conceptual literature is scattered, and the empirical literature lean (Sipple et al, 1997;Steele et al, 1981). 2 These conditions necessitate the use of literature from political science to inform the discussion that follows.…”