Reforming Education: From Origins to Outcomes

This book is not so much about reform around the world as it is about a series of complex policy issues surrounding educational reform. [Benjamin Levin] carries out his analysis of each jurisdiction at senior levels of government, sometimes Cabinet, sometimes the Department or Ministry of Education, often at both levels at the same time. Lobby groups and special-interest groups scurry around the fringes. Using documentation from government publications, reports, Hansard, and other retrievable documents, analyzing interviews mainly with high-level officials, and reviewing academic sources, Levin provides an analysis of reforms from five different jurisdictions: To focus the discussion of this disparate set of jurisdictions, Levin employs a model with four major elements: the origins, the adoption, the implementation, and the outcomes of each reform. For origins, Levin uses the conceptual model of John Kingdon, involving the intersection of three processes: political events, problem recognition, and policy proposals. For adoption, he notes the lack of research-based formulations in this area and develops his own model, focusing on internal political debate, political opposition, and consultation processes. He traces the development of implementation from early formulations related to U.S. poverty programs to a more current interest in organizational learning. He emphasizes outcomes around three issues: concern with what happens to students, impact on the education system itself, and broad social outcomes. The choice of jurisdictions is a bit awkward, despite Levin's attempts to explain. Really, he used a convenience sampling technique. The fact is that England and New Zealand experienced massive reforms at the national level, whereas the other cases are more circumscribed and less fundamental in many ways. In fact, Levin really has little to say about either Minnesota or Alberta, and though he is quite familiar with Manitoba, the reforms themselves lack the drama of the two large cases.