A Political Explanation of Policy Selection: The Case of Urban School Reform |
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| Authors: | Frederick M Hess |
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| Institution: | Frederick M. Hess is assistant professor in the Department of Government and the Graduate School of Education at the University of Virginia. Currently, his primary areas of interest are public policy, bureaucratic behavior, urban politics, and the politics of education. He received his doctorate in government at Harvard University in 1997. |
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| Abstract: | Amid the torrent of reform activity in urban school systems, some proposals fare better than others. The traditional technocratic presumption is that reforms are chosen for their educational merit. I suggest that, to the contrary, institutional incentives encourage urban policymakers to emphasize symbolic appeal. Data from a 1995 study of 57 urban districts are used to compare the fate of two school reforms. The more symbolically attractive reform was supported, proposed, and enacted much more widely, although neither research nor observer responses suggested its superiority. |
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