Reforming Education Ambitious programs of education reform have been introduced by many governments around the world. Reforming Education is an important study of large-scale education reform in five different settings: England, New Zealand, the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Manitoba and the US state of Minnesota. The book looks at a variety of reforms, covering: • school choice; • charter schools; • increased testing of students; • stricter curriculum guidelines; • local school management. Drawing from theoretical and empirical work in education, political theory, organizational theory and public administration, Reforming Education provides a clearly developed conceptual framework for analyzing reform programs. The author reviews the political origins of the reforms, the process of adop- tion into law, the implementation processes used to support the reforms, and the results of the reforms for students, schools and communities. The explicit political and comparative orientation of Reforming Education enables readers to look at reforms across different settings and to make judgements about the assumptions, processes and outcomes in large-scale reforms. It will be of interest to those working in education policy or public policy. Benjamin Levin is Deputy Minister of Education and Training for the Province of Manitoba. He is also a Professor of Educational Administration at the University of Manitoba. His research interests are in education policy, politics and economics. Educational Change and Development Series editors: Andy Hargreaves Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Canada Ivor F. Goodson Centre for Applied Research in Education, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, and Warner Graduate School, University of Rochester, New York, USA Re-Schooling Society David Hartley The Gender Politics of Educational Change Amanda Datnow The Rules of School Reform Max Angus Whose School Is It Anyway? Power and Politics Kathryn Riley Developing Teachers The Challenges of Lifelong Learning Chris Day Change Forces The Sequel Michael Fullan The Color of Teaching June A. Gordon The Sharp Edge of Educational Change Teaching, Leading and the Realities of Reform Nina Bascia and Andy Hargreaves Reforming Education From Origins to Outcomes Benjamin Levin Reforming Education From origins to outcomes Benjamin Levin London and New York First published 2001 by RoutledgeFalmer 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeFalmer 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” RoutledgeFalmer is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2001 Benjamin Levin All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this title ISBN 0-203-48219-0 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-63165-X (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–750–70982–0 (hbk) ISBN 0–750–70981–2 (pbk) Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 1 The Changing Nature of Education Policy 7 2 Conceptualizing Education Reform 19 3 The Five Settings and the Reform Programs: A Brief Description 35 4 Origins 65 5 Adoption 115 6 Implementation 142 7 Outcomes 165 8 Reconsidering Education Reform 190 Appendix 1: Guide to the Literature 203 Appendix 2: Chronologies of Reform 207 Formal Interviews 210 References 211 Index 220 v Acknowledgments I acknowledge gratefully the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in the conduct of this research. All findings and opinions are solely my own. Intellectual work always has an important collaborative element. Many people have contributed to this book in important ways. My friend and colleague Jonathan Young has worked with me throughout this project, always trying to guard against my tendencies to glib generalizations and hasty conclusions. He has steadfastly declined to share authorship, which I took as an indication of his modesty but which should perhaps be a warning that the book does not meet his standards! Colleagues around the world helped me think about the issues and read versions of this work. In particular I want to thank Stephen Ball, John Beresford, Mike Bottery, Bill Boyd, Carol-Anne Browning, Jim Cibulka, Marian Court, Scott Davies, Yehezkel Dror, Lorna Earl, John Fitz, Frances Fowler, Sharon Gewirtz, Ron Glatter, David Halpin, Andy Hargreaves, David Hargreaves, Mark Holmes, David Hopkins, Heather Hunter, Joce Jesson, Reynold Macpherson, Hanne Mawhinney, Michael Mintrom, Frank Peters, Sally Power, Tony Riffel, Nancy Roberts, Heather-jane Robertson, Jan Robertson, Viviane Robinson, Jane Strachan, Martin Thrupp, Geoff Walford, Darrell Ward, Mel West, Geoff Whitty, John Wiens, Phil Woods and Cathy Wylie. At the same time, it should be clear that the interpreta- tions are my own. I know that at least some of the colleagues mentioned above would disagree with parts of the argument developed in the book. A number of colleagues in New Zealand were especially helpful in helping me understand developments in that country and in arranging meet- ings with key people during my visit there. The School of Education at the University of Cambridge in England offered me a home away from home on two extended occasions, for which I am very grateful to Donald MacIntyre, Gill Morley and Mel West. James Aryee provided tireless research assistance, and Yolande Choiselat and Mary Franceschet assisted in the late stages of the work. I thank all those who agreed to be interviewed for this study, and all those who provided reports, documents, data and other information. vii Acknowledgements I changed jobs twice during this project. Shortly after it began I was appointed Dean of the Continuing Education Division at the University of Manitoba. My colleagues there – as fine a group as anyone could hope to work with – were endlessly tolerant of my taking time away from them for this research. In the last year of the work I became Deputy Minister of Education and Training for the Province of Manitoba, and had excellent support from my new colleagues in the Manitoba Department of Education and Training. I want especially to thank the Minister of Education and Training, Drew Caldwell, for his understanding and support of my academic work in a world where there are always far more pressing matters than writing a book! A full and satisfying home life makes writing possible and, much more importantly, life worth living. My boundless thanks to my wife, Barbara Wiktorowicz, my three daughters, Clare, Anna and Ruth, and my extended family. Their combination of tolerance, support, pressure and criticism is exemplary. viii Introduction In recent years education has been a major focus of government policy in many countries. Governments have legislated or otherwise attempted changes in many aspects of education provision, including curriculum, testing, governance, finance, teaching methods and teacher training. This book examines changing education policy in five settings in indus- trialized, English-speaking countries. It looks at national policy in New Zealand and England, at the US state of Minnesota, and at the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Manitoba. Each case examines a program of reform that occurred over a period of years – in some cases over the term of more than one government. The book focuses on the sources of reforms, the politics of their adoption and implementation, and on their outcomes in an attempt to examine the possibilities and limits of education reform. The book is about both the process and substance of education policy. It describes and analyzes actual policy developments in these five settings, explaining what was done and why. At the same time, the book is a discus- sion of the process of policy development, looking in a more general way at the forces that shape education policy and its implementation. Many of these reforms have been controversial. While proponents claim they will improve standards and outcomes, and will help countries to be successful socially and economically, opponents attack reforms as increasing inequity, demoralizing teachers, and destroying a proud tradition of success in public schooling. Education reform in the 1980s and 1990s has been politically contentious in a way that the enormous expansion of the 1960s was not. Another important feature of recent reform projects has been their cross- national element. In a world of global exchange, states are increasingly interested in learning about what other states are doing in similar policy fields. Reforms are influenced by “the spirit of the times,” which increas- ingly has an international flavor to it. Yet everything we know about the process of policy change and imple- mentation leads to caution about the impact of reform. It is very difficult to change well-established institutions in a lasting and meaningful way. And 1 Introduction the consequences of reforms are not always those that were anticipated, by either proponents