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THE LOCAL POLITICS of CIVIC EDUCATION Eleni Maria Mantas

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THE LOCAL POLITICS of CIVIC EDUCATION Eleni Maria Mantas IN THE TRENCHES: THE LOCAL POLITICS OF CIVIC EDUCATION Eleni Maria Mantas-Kourounis Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2021 © 2021 Eleni Maria Mantas-Kourounis All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT IN THE TRENCHES: THE LOCAL POLITICS OF CIVIC EDUCATION Eleni Maria Mantas-Kourounis Civic education is once again at the center of education policy debates. Over the past five years, policy reform has been enacted in 46 states and, with some exceptions, has consisted of states embracing two initiatives: the College, Career, and Civic Life Framework for Social Studies (C3) and the Civic Education Initiative (CEI). Both initiatives were born out of sustained advocacy efforts of nonprofit organizations responding to a perceived marginalization of civic education as state and national education policies became more narrowly focused on testing, math, and literacy. They offer competing visions of civic education with the C3 focusing on inquiry, skills, and dispositions and the CEI on content and testing. Both aim to enhance civic outcomes of students and come at a time of high polarization in American politics when many view civic education as a possible solution to the erosion of democratic ideals. The dissertation examines what, if anything, happened when these state mandates hit the local level. It mobilizes a theoretical framework based on policy feedback and a qualitative research design to analyze the implementation and sustainability of civic education policies in school districts in Utah and Connecticut. It finds that in both states implementation of the policies varied between and, in some cases within, the school districts, but policy sustainability was challenged only in Utah. The varied implementation outcomes are attributed primarily to how willing teachers were to implement the policies, while the varied sustainability outcomes stem from differences in policy design and that school districts in Utah were asked to respond to dual, conflicting mandates. The findings suggest that school districts operate in institutional contexts that leave them room to ignore or superficially respond to state mandates. The findings also suggest that teachers react differently to legislative initiatives than to those coming from state education officials with the former more likely to be seen as top-down mandates to be ignored or resisted. Finally, the findings demonstrate that sustainable policy outcomes are not always equitable, suggesting that those looking to civic education policies to foster equitable civic outcomes, may have to look elsewhere. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ vi List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. vii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1 CHAPTER II – CIVIC EDUCATION POST-NCLB: A SPUTNIK MOMENT? .......................10 Post-NCLB Federal Initiatives on Civic Education ...................................................................13 Policies and Ideologies: Bush, Obama, and Trump on Civic Education ................................14 Federal Legislation and Appropriations on Civic Education .................................................19 The Role of Nonprofits in Civic Education Policy Reform .......................................................26 The NCLB-Inspired “Call to Action” ....................................................................................26 Calls for Reform, Based on What Evidence? The Literature on Civic Education .................31 The Civic Education Narrative and Its Critics .......................................................................35 From “Call to Action” to National Policy Initiatives .................................................................39 The Common Core Window of Opportunity ..........................................................................40 The National Initiatives: The C3 Framework and the Civic Education Initiative ..................47 The C3 Framework ............................................................................................................47 The Civic Education Initiative ...........................................................................................53 The Timing of Civic Education Reform: Same Story, Difference Decade? ..............................57 CHAPTER III – LITERATURE REVIEW: IMPLEMENTATION & POLICY FEEDBACK....62 On Implementation: A Review of the Literature........................................................................64 Implementation and Education: A Review of the Literature .....................................................68 i On Policy Feedback: A Review of the Literature ......................................................................72 CHAPTER IV – CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: THE POLITICS OF CIVIC EDUCATION POLICY REFORM ........................................................................................................................80 The Role of Policy Design .........................................................................................................81 Implementation, Feedback Effects, and Sustainability ..............................................................82 CHAPTER V – METHODOLOGY ..............................................................................................89 Research Questions ....................................................................................................................89 Case Selection ............................................................................................................................89 Establishing Chronological Boundaries .................................................................................90 Confirming Commitment and Variation ................................................................................92 Selecting District Characteristics ..........................................................................................99 Methods and Data Collection ...................................................................................................102 Interview Data ......................................................................................................................104 Documentary Analysis .........................................................................................................106 Data Analysis .......................................................................................................................107 Study Design Limitations .........................................................................................................110 CHAPTER VI – THE POLITICS OF CIVIC EDUCATION POLICY REFORM IN UTAH ...112 Utah’s Civic Education Initiative: The Politics of Implementation .........................................113 The Policy Design Phase of SB60 ........................................................................................115 Enactment Coalition Beliefs and Theory of Action .........................................................116 Origins..............................................................................................................................119 Nature of Change ............................................................................................................120 Policy Targets .................................................................................................................120 ii Policy Instruments ..........................................................................................................124 Institutional Structures and Rules ...................................................................................125 The Implementation Phase of SB60 .....................................................................................129 District-level Administrative Capacity and Interpretive Frameworks ............................132 Teacher-level Interpretive Frameworks ..........................................................................139 The Utah Social Studies Standards: The Politics of Implementation ......................................145 The Policy Design Phase of the Standards ...........................................................................146 Enactment Coalition Beliefs and Theory of Action .........................................................147 Origins and Type of Change ............................................................................................151 Policy Targets .................................................................................................................152 Policy Instruments ..........................................................................................................153 Institutional Structures and Rules ...................................................................................156 The Implementation Phase of the Standards ........................................................................157 District-level Administrative Capacity and Interpretive
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