Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations
Preface
1 What Happens after Reforms?
2 Inherited Terrains: The Political, Economic, and Social Foundations of American Public Schools
3 How Reforms Create Problems: New Policies, Inherited Terrains, and New Problems
4 Problems of Policy Spillover
5 Problems of Policy Overload
With Cadence Willse
6 Problems of Policy Pockets
With Cadence Willse
7 Problems of Policy Sparks
8 Learning from Reforms to the Reform
Technical Appendix A: Supplemental Tables
Technical Appendix B: Methodological Approach
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Susan L. Moffitt is associate professor at Brown University, holding joint appointments in the Department of Political Science and the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. Michaela Krug O’Neill is a research investigator at the University of Michigan School of Education. David K. Cohen (1934–2020) was the John Dewey Collegiate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Michigan and a visiting professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. He is the author and coauthor of several books, including Improvement by Design, also published by the University of Chicago Press. 
 

Reviews

"Reforming the Reform, a substantive work of public policy research, looks at 30 years of cumulative reforms imposed upon education, usually by legislative bodies. . . .  What brings the book to life are its thoughtful quotes and vignettes."
*School Administrator*

"This multifaceted and fascinating book contributes on so many levels. Like no other work, it illuminates the policymaking stages between legislative passage of policy reforms and frontline implementation, centering on mid-level actors whose consequential decisions occur far from the limelight.  As a case study in contemporary education policy, it vividly demonstrates the complications of foisting social policy responsibilities onto K-12 schools, to compensate for the threadbare safety net elsewhere. And it gives voice to teachers, principals, district officials, and others who must navigate the fresh problems arising from the collision of new reform efforts with old capacities and policy terrains. An unparalleled, expert analysis of the promise and pitfalls of the American policymaking system in education and well beyond."   
 
*Andrea Louise Campbell, author of Trapped in America’s Safety Net*

"This book meticulously analyzes an enduring tension between change and continuity in education policy. Focusing on policymaking in the middle, between national legislation and frontline practice, the authors cogently theorize how knowledge, organization, and politics interact to enable and constrain policy and practice. By using the words and experiences of policymakers in state agencies, county offices, and school districts, the authors animate mezzo-level policymaking and its entailments for policy implementation.  A must-read for all education policy scholars and for practitioners of policymaking and implementation!"
*James Spillane, Northwestern University*

“Reforming the Reform provides an original conceptual framework for thinking through the processes the reform sparks and the obstacles that challenge making those reforms work and stick. Offering an up-to-date and wide-ranging review of major policy initiatives, it will find a wide audience among education policy scholars and policy makers.”
*Jeffrey Henig, Teachers College, Columbia University*