Issues concerning higher education today (e.g., rising costs, declining public trust, changing state economics) have created new demands for postsecondary institutions to demonstrate their productivity. We examine whether differences in states' political cultures (i.e., underlying traditions, values, and public policy choices) are reflected…

This study takes an inventory of a particular type of intermediary organization ascendant within the state-level higher education policy: ideological think tanks. Our inventory identifies 99 think tanks: 59 affiliated with the conservative State Policy Network and 40 with the Progressive States Network. The analysis shows that state-level…

The authors paint a national portrait of Latina/o trends over more than 30 years in terms of demographic and financial concerns that pertain to access at 4-year institutions. Using a multiple policy streams framework, the authors contend that growing numbers of Latina/os are in the eye of the perfect storm in a global economy that calls for more…

President Obama has proposed a financial aid policy whereby students who complete 100 hours of community service would receive a tax credit of US$4,000 for college. After lawmakers cut this proposal from previous legislation, the administration was tasked with studying the feasibility of implementation. However, the implications of the policy for…

This research examines how the conservative movement has used both conservative think tanks and the media to gain entry into the field of education policy. The study examines how the conservative movement has attempted to use think tanks as legitimating organizations to enter the education policy arena by (a) measuring the historical growth in the…

Professionalization is an important but overlooked dimension in education politics, particularly the politics of accountability. To isolate the importance of professionalization, this article compares accountability movements in K-12 education with similar movements in higher education. I draw on three pairs of reports that have sought to impose…

Over the years that I have been writing the Reviewing Policy section of this journal, I have paid particular attention to critical conceptual and empirical work that either overtly supports or directly challenges the taken-for-granted assumptions that tend to guide dominant policies in education. These policies may deal with larger issues…

During its 2013-2014 term, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of Proposal 2, a ballot measure that amended Michigan's state constitution to ban the consideration of race in admissions at public postsecondary institutions. This article outlines the legal questions that have emerged in the case--Schuette v. Coalition to…

In 2004 a near 30-year legal battle over higher education desegregation in Mississippi was settled with the state's historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to receive US$503 million over the course of 17 years. Nearly 65% of this funding is directed toward the recruitment and support of White students, with a significant share of…

Student's access to college is influenced both by their level of academic preparation to do college-level work and the cost of participating in postsecondary education--on this point researchers and policy makers seem to agree (Perna, 2006). The relative importance of each, however, is very much a subject of disagreement and that debate has…

Partnerships between colleges and universities and K-12 school districts attempt to improve access to higher education by tailoring college outreach and teacher professional development programs to local needs as well as aligning high school curricula with higher education admissions criteria. In this article, we conduct a quasi-experimental…

The 1991 restructuring of Massachusetts system of higher education is explained and analyzed using McLendon's "Policy Stream Model of Decentralization Agenda Setting," a revised Garbage Can model, which proves useful insofar as the case is placed in its historical context. Public higher education in Massachusetts has suffered as a "second class"…

This article reports on a three year case study and interview project of a federal initiative to help low income students access college called individual development accounts (IDA). The study focused on partnership development between community agencies that offer IDAs and postsecondary institutions, examining challenges and facilitators. A set…

In attempting to explain state support of public higher education, this study develops a theory-driven, comprehensive conceptualization of the state political system within a larger theoretical framework that consists of state economic and demographic factors and higher education system attributes. Furthermore, although the higher education policy…

This study uses panel data to examine the direct link between state funding and graduation rates at 4-year public institutions. We find some evidence for a positive association between state funding and college graduation rates. When other factors are held constant, a 10% increase in state appropriations per full-time equivalent (FTE) student at…