scholarly journals Examining the Actor Coalitions and Discourse Coalitions of the Opt-Out Movement in New York: A Discourse Network Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Yinying Wang
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
The State ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Advocacy Coalition ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
Discourse Coalitions ◽  
Network Metrics ◽  
Discourse Coalition

Background/Context Since 2013, opting out of state standardized tests has become a movement—the grassroots, organized efforts to refuse to take high-stakes state standardized tests. In particular, opt-out rates in the state of New York have been consistently fluctuating around 20%. Purpose/Objective This study aims to examine the actor coalitions and discourse coalitions that have propelled the opt-out movement in the state of New York—the movement's epicenter with the highest opt-out rate in the United States. Conceptual Framework This study is conceptually grounded in the advocacy coalition framework (ACF), a prominent conceptual lens to investigate the formation of coalitions and their impact on policymaking. The ACF posits that advocacy coalitions are forged by policy actors who have similar policy preferences. By contrast, differences in policy preferences are manifested in the discourse that serves to defend or propose coherent arguments as justifications for policy preferences held by the opposition coalitions. Research Design This study compiled the Opt-out Discourse Data Set by using data from 323 press articles and 52 archival documents from 2015 to 2018. Each news article or archival document was coded with three variables: movement actors, statements articulated by the actors, and the actors’ sentiment toward the statements. An actor-statement bipartite network, an actor coalition network, and a discourse coalition network were created, respectively. Next, Freeman degree centrality was calculated to identify major actors and their statements. The network metrics of density and connectedness of the two competing coalitions were calculated to compare the coalitions’ network structure. Findings In the actor coalition network, the movement advocacy coalition is clearly more densely connected than the movement opposition coalition in terms of the number of actors, coalition density, and coalition connectedness. The discourse coalition network shows similar patterns: the movement advocacy coalition is densely connected, as evidenced by the numbers of nodes in each coalition and the network metrics of coalition density and connectedness. Conclusions/Recommendations This study concludes with a discussion on how the future of the opt-out movement depends on (1) how the movement advocacy coalition continues to amass power and influence in education policymaking, and (2) how the New York State Education Department exercises its power over implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Moreover, this article demonstrates the application of discourse network analysis to examine qualitative data in education research. The discourse network approach is particularly instrumental in explaining a policy output by identifying coalitions and their interactions within and across the coalitions.

The Opt-Out Movement in New York: A Grassroots Movement to Eliminate High-Stakes Testing and Promote Whole Child Public Schooling

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Zhe Chen ◽  
David Hursh ◽  
Bob Lingard
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Long Island ◽  
New York State ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Whole Child ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
York State ◽  
Opt Out

Purpose Over the last five years, approximately 50% of the students in Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island and 20% across New York State have opted out of the yearly standardized tests for third through eighth grade. This article focuses on two grassroots organizations, New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) and Long Island Opt Out (LIOO), the two parents who have been central to the organizations’ success, and the strategies and tactics that the two organizations have adopted to achieve such a high opt-out rate in New York. Context Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), third through eighth grade public school students have been required to take yearly standardized tests. The most recent version of the exams focused on assessing students, their teachers, and schools based on the Common Core State Standards. Many educators and parents have argued that the standards and assessments negatively affect student learning. In response, educators, parents, teachers, and students have lobbied and publicly testified in an effort to reduce the length of the exams, if not eliminate them. However, the testimonies have had almost no impact on the policymakers. Consequently, some parents concluded that the only way to influence policymakers is to get enough students to opt out of the tests so that the scores were not valid and thus could no longer be used to compare students and teachers within and across schools for accountability purposes. Research Design This study is drawn from a qualitative research project in which we conducted interviews to understand how the opt-out movement developed and the strategies it adopted in relation to high-stakes testing in New York. The interviews with two parent leaders from NYSAPE and LIOO are the main data source for this article. Findings NYSAPE and LIOO can be characterized as real grassroots social movements in that all members have input in the goals and organizing strategies, and unpaid leaders emerge from the membership. Further, because the organizations lack permanent funding, they have to be innovative in using media. By motivating and empowering others and using social media such as Facebook and Twitter, they built a large network and a strong base so that they could influence policymakers and respond quickly at the local and state levels. Conclusion Their organizing strategies exemplified the participatory and grassroots nature of the new social movements as theorized by McAlevey. The opt-out movement is pushing back not only against high-stakes testing but also against the larger neoliberal construction of parents as simply consumers of schooling, rather than as active, informed citizens. The movement also supports whole-child schooling.

scholarly journals Analysts, advocates and applicators: three discourse coalitions of UK evidence and policy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasper Montana ◽  
James Wilsdon
Keyword(s):  
Cross Section ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Advocacy Coalition ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
Policy Field ◽  
Discourse Coalitions ◽  
Discourse Coalition

Background: Continued growth of the evidence and policy field has prompted calls to consolidate findings in pursuit of a more holistic understanding of theory and practice.Aims and objectives: The aim of this paper is to develop and explore an analytical typology that offers a way to consider the heterogeneity of different actors in UK evidence and policy.Methods: We draw upon a discourse coalitions approach to analyse a series of semi-structured interviews with a cross-section of professionals in the evidence and policy field.Findings: We describe an analytical typology that is composed of three discourse coalitions, each with their own framings of the problems of evidence and policy relations, the practices needed to address these, the organisation of people, and their priorities for future development. These are: the analytical coalition, which typically theorises evidence and policy relations in a way that matches empirical observations; the advocacy coalition, which typically normatively refines and prescribes particular evidence and policy relations; and the application coalition, which typically evaluates contextual conditions and enacts techniques to bring evidence into policy and practice.Discussion and conclusions: We discuss the potential of this analytical lens to inform recognised tensions in evidence and policy relations, and consider how greater awareness of the positioning of individuals within these coalitions may help to foster improved collaboration and consolidation in the field. Ultimately, we note that distinct priorities in the three coalitions signify different visions for progress within the field that need to be negotiated.<br />Key messages<ul><li>Consolidation of the evidence and policy field requires a recognition of its heterogeneity.</li><br /><li>We propose three discourse coalitions – analytical, advocacy and application – to describe the field.</li><br /><li>Each discourse coalition reflects different problem perceptions, people, practices, and priorities.</li><br /><li>Recognition of personal positioning in the discourse coalitions could help the field’s development.</li></ul>

Use of Standardized Tests of Mathematics in New York State Secondary Schools

1952 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 436-437
Author(s):  
Sherman N. Tinkelman ◽  
Minerva K. Chapman
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Mathematics Teachers ◽  
New York State ◽  
The State ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
York State ◽  
Advisory Service ◽  
School Year ◽  
State Education

Probably the question asked most frequently of the New York State Education Department's test advisory service is: “What standardized tests are the other schools using and how well satisfied are they with their results?” To obtain a cross-sectional picture of actual practice in the state with respect to the use of standardized tests of mathematics, questionnaires were sent in the fall of 1951 to the approximately 1,300 schools of secondary grade (grades 7-12) in the state. The chairman of the mathematics department or the teacher in charge of mathematics in each school was asked to indicate the standardized tests of mathematics administered in the school during the 1950-1951 school year, the reason for using the tests, and his evaluation of the tests. Such information promises to be helpful to mathematics teachers in deriving suggestions for the evaluation and improvement of their own testing programs.

scholarly journals From policy networks to policy preferences: Organizational networks in the opt-out movement

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 124
Author(s):  
Nancy Green Saraisky ◽  
Oren Pizmony-Levy
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Organizational Networks ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Opting Out ◽  
Policy Ideas ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
Movement Organizations

Organizational networks shape education policy by influencing power holders and elites, but do they have similar effects on grassroots activists? We use data from the National Survey on Opting Out (2016 and 2018; n = 2,909) to examine the role of organizational networks in mobilizing activists in the opt-out movement (a movement in which parents and caregivers refuse to have their children sit for standardized tests). Despite characterizations of the opt-out movement as a bunch of “soccer moms” disappointed with their children’s test scores, our findings show that opt-out is in fact a structured movement reliant on social movement organizations (SMOs) with agendas that go beyond standardized tests. Further, we demonstrate a small but significant correlation between contact with SMOs and individual policy preferences. These patterns suggest that organizational networks may inform education policy by creating a social space for activists to learn about different policy ideas in education. We discuss implications for research and practice.

scholarly journals The social networks and paradoxes of the opt-out movement amid the Common Core State Standards implementation: The case of New York

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yinying Wang
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Standardized Testing ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
The United States ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
The Social ◽  
Policy Solutions

Opting out of state standardized tests has recently become a movement—a series of grassroots, organized efforts to refuse to take high-stakes state standardized tests. In particular, the opt-out rates in the state of New York reached 20% in 2015 and 21% in 2016. This study aims to illustrate the social networks and examine the paradoxes that have propelled the opt-out movement in New York—the movement’s epicenter with the highest opt-out rate in the United States. Drawing on the conceptual frameworks of social movement theory, social network theory, and policy paradox, this study compiled the opt-out corpus by using the data from 221 press-coverage and 30 archival documents. Social network analysis was performed by examining the relational data that suggest coalition ties between movement actors. Further, to explicate how the movement actors forged coalition ties, all data in the corpus were then coded by Stone’s framework of policy paradox regarding how the movement goals were articulated, how the movement was framed, and what policy solutions were mobilized. In addition to identifying the movement actors and two competing coalitions, it is found that to forge coalition ties, the movement actors in the opposing coalitions articulated contested goals of standardized testing, framed the movement via symbols, numbers, and interests, as well as mobilized policy solutions via inducements, rights, and power. The findings have important and timely implications for policymakers and movement actors as they seek and advance on common ground to make substantive changes in education policy. 

Settler Colonialism and the Revolutionary War

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 7-35
Author(s):  
Andrea Lynn Smith
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Revolutionary War ◽  
The State ◽  
The Public ◽  
150Th Anniversary ◽  
End Point ◽  
Indian Land ◽  
Indian Relations ◽  
Major General

The centerpiece of New York State’s 150th anniversary of the Sullivan Expedition of 1779 was a pageant, the “Pageant of Decision.” Major General John Sullivan’s Revolutionary War expedition was designed to eliminate the threat posed by Iroquois allied with the British. It was a genocidal operation that involved the destruction of over forty Indian villages. This article explores the motivations and tactics of state officials as they endeavored to engage the public in this past in pageant form. The pageant was widely popular, and served the state in fixing the expedition as the end point in settler-Indian relations in New York, removing from view decades of expropriations of Indian land that occurred well after Sullivan’s troops left.

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