Education is a key component of a society’s ability to govern, foster the well-being of its citizens, and participate productively in a global economy. As such, education reform is frequently controversial and highly politicized, particularly in election seasons. This course discusses and analyzes the hotly debated issues of the day and the policy decisions that have been or are being made that affect our nation’s students and educators. The issues we will cover are as follows: federal v state/local role in education; civil rights and education; accountaiblity movement; Common Core; school choice; teacher labor markets, unions, preparation, and evaluation; DACA; gender, race and equity in higher ed; Title IX in higher ed; higher ed funding; and, effective policy design. The course will provide you with a thorough grounding in major education policy movements in the U.S.—the discourse, prominent players, consequences, and current events—and an ability to sift through many conflicting points of view to develop a well-informed stance on the issues and to develop your own policy memos and policies.
Syllabus forthcoming
About the Instructor: Professor Guarino is Professor of Education and Public Policy at the University of California Riverside. She obtained her PhD in the Economics of Education from Stanford University in 1999 with an emphasis on labor economics, and has held prior positions as an economist at the Rand Corporation and on the faculties of Michigan State and Indiana Universities. Her research focuses on educational equity, teacher quality, teacher labor markets, school choice, and issues in which health and education are linked. Recent work has included several studies related to value-added measures of teacher performance, teacher effectiveness in the early grades, school choice, teacher mobility, and special needs identification. She has led numerous grants from a variety of sponsors, including the Institute of Education Sciences and various state agencies and foundation. She has taught courses in education policy, economics of education, value-added, policy analysis, quantitative research methods, school choice, and microeconomics.