This chapter discusses the importance of political power in educational decision-making and examines in turn methods of gathering data for political analyses and types of conceptual models that are useful in studying the politics of education. Five methods for gathering political data are reviewed, including survey analysis, reputational analysis, issue analysis, socio-anthropological field analysis, and comparative analysis. After briefly discussing each of these methods and some of their strengths and weaknesses, the author then examines six classifications of models for analyzing educational politics. These model classifications include general systems models, class structure models, ideal typical models, participation models, comparative-descriptive models, and political-psychological models. In conclusion, the author attempts to classify each of the model types, except the comparative-descriptive and political-psychological models, along a continuum from political participation to nonparticipation. (JG)