Educational Policy Goes to School

Educational policies explicitly implemented in order to reduce educational gaps and promote access and success for disenfranchised youth can backfire—and often have the unintended result of widening those gaps. In this interdisciplinary collection of case studies, contributors examine cases of policy backfire, when policies don’t work, have unintended consequences, and when policies help. Although policy reform is thought of as an effective way to improve schooling structures and to diminish the achievement gap, many such attempts to reform the system do not adequately address the legacy of unequal policies and the historic and pervasive inequalities that persist in schools. Exploring the roots of school inequality and examining often-ignored negative policy outcomes, contributors illuminate the causes and consequences of poor policymaking decisions and demonstrate how policies can backfire, fail, or have unintended success.

Gilberto Q. Conchas is Professor of Educational Policy and Social Context, University of California, Irvine, USA.Michael A. Gottfried is Assistant Professor of Education Policy, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.Briana M. Hinga is Assistant Professor of Clinical Education, University of Southern California, USA.Leticia Oseguera is an Associate Professor of Higher Education at the Pennsylvania State University, USA.