What is Policy Analysis?

It is the analysis of the policies implications.
Policy == political — in what ways:

  • interests of the shareholders
  • agenda attached

Policy Formulation

Different levels of analysis

  • Federal
  • State
  • Institutions
  • Local (evaluate a particular policy and its effect on individuals)

Policy has a legitimate authority to shape practices
Policy and practice

Example: Some schools have policies about relationships between faculty/staff and student

We can think of policies in these multiple levels — most appropriate

Identify:

  • policy is operating at
  • what we want to pay attention to

analysis == intended and unintended effects

  • How do policies shape local practices? How does it shape external policies?
  • How does it shape the whole?
  • We have to understand it within its context — and how the other policies shape it within the enterprise (i.e. if we talk about desegregating schools we have to talk about re-regulating)

additional readings

  • Rhoads, Saenz, Carducci — Affirmative Action as a Social Movement
  • Pasquaix — politics of education and the policy making process — Milner’s framework of seen/unseen (Ed Researcher 2007) comes from a research method — what are the potential consequences of this policy that we know of — what we can and cannot see — how do we account for the policies that are unforeseen
  • Annon — intersections of multiple policies

Competing Rationale with respect to Affirmative Action
For:
Benefits for white people
Assimilation