Evaluating the “Crazy Quilt”: Educational Governance in California Dr. Dominic J. Brewer Professor of Education, Economics, and Policy Rossier School of Education University of Southern California Waite Phillips Hall, 901D Los Angeles, CA 90089-4039 Tel: 213-821-1953. Fax: 213-749-2707 Email:
[email protected] Website: http://www.usc.edu/dept/education/cegov/ Dr. Joanna Smith Research Fellow 865 36th Street Boulder, CO 80303 Tel: 303-443-2705 Email:
[email protected] © December 2006 Center on Educational Governance, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California. All Rights Reserved. i PREFACE This report was prepared for the Irvine, Gates, Stuart and Hewlett Foundations as part of a series of studies in support of the California Governor’s Advisory Committee on Education Excellence. i PREFACE i LIST OF FIGURES iv LIST OF TABLES v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY viii 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 DEFINING EDUCATIONAL GOVERNANCE 1 1.2 WHY EDUCATIONAL GOVERNANCE MATTERS 4 1.3 STUDY DATA, METHODS AND OVERVIEW OF CHAPTERS 7 2. A FRAMEWORK FOR DESCRIBING EDUCATIONAL GOVERNANCE 12 2.1 INTRODUCTION 12 2.2 FUNCTIONS: THE “WHAT” OF EDUCATIONAL GOVERNANCE 14 2.3 INSTITUTIONS: THE “WHO” OF EDUCATIONAL GOVERNANCE 15 2.4 INSTRUMENTS: THE “HOW” OF EDUCATIONAL GOVERNANCE 18 2.5 RATING THE STATE ON FIVE GOVERNANCE CHARACTERISTICS 20 3. THE WHO OF CALIFORNIA’S EDUCATIONAL GOVERNANCE 26 3.1 INTRODUCTION 26 3.2 OVERVIEW OF THE SYSTEM 26 3.3 STATE LEVEL 28 3.3.1 Governor and Secretary of Education 29 3.3.2 State Legislature 31 3.3.3 State Board of Education (SBE) 36 3.3.4 Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) 40 3.3.5 California Department of Education (CDE) 48 3.3.6 State Commissions and Other Bodies 57 3.4 DISTRICT LEVEL 58 3.5 COUNTY LEVEL 71 3.6 THE SCHOOL LEVEL 78 3.7 OTHER INSTITUTIONS, ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS 79 3.8 CONCLUSIONS 82 4.