POLICY EVALUATION BENCHMARK
Policy Evaluation Benchmark Assignment
Tawanda Heim-Jones
School of Education, Liberty University
Author Note
Tawanda Heim-Jones
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Tawanda Heim-Jones
Email: tsheimjones@liberty.edu
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ABSTRACT
This paper describes how educational policies have changed overtime to bring improvement to
K-12 education. Through the years many policies that were adopted needed to be revised due to
bad publicity or some common error in reaching all populations equally. Educational policies are
everchanging to meet the rights of all populations and create a pedagogical system that is flexible
for the diverse learning styles of the K-12 education population. It further discusses the effects of
the federal, state, and local government policy implementations have played a major role in K-12
education. The complexity of implementing educational policies can be a difficult process
leading to success if given the appropriate attention or a failure if it is overshadowed or ignored.
Administrators and all educational stakeholders are a responsible for understanding how the
implementation process works in the government systems. Knowing that through the
implementation process, adopted policies are carried out by bureaucracies at the federal, state,
and local levels. Government officials, the implementers, are the major actors in education
policies along with the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE), superintendents, school boards,
district officials, school administrators, and sometimes teachers.
Education policy implementation
Over the years, policy actors have grown. More people in the community began to get
involved and speak up to bring a change that was beneficial to all populations. Many parents
begin to make their own clubs or organizations to bring forth a change in special education
programs being funded more with an emphasis on inclusion in the classrooms, for example.
“Regional and local administrators, school representatives, principals, teachers, parents and other
actors are keen to defend their own vision of education, based on deeply rooted and largely
personal belief systems” Veinnet & Pont, 2017, p. 12). As education policies are everchanging,
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“school leaders must be prepared to guide districts, schools, and teachers through the oftendifficult task of changing to meet new experiences” (Fowler, 2013, p. 241). These changes are
not easy to come across and should be handled with great motives and appropriate reasons.
Implementers or government officials need to be sold on a policy in order to even consider it.
The motive behind educational policies need to be a solution to a widely focused problem that is
not productive in the K-12 education system. This can be along the lines of student-teacher ratios
or government funding for transportation, resources in the classroom, or school zoning.
Governmental Roles
Although the federal government have an influence on the education policies
implemented, state and local governments are primarily responsible for education in the United
States. Education is primarily a State and local responsibility in the United States, and has been
for many years. Nevertheless, federal governments still fund education in the United states to
some extent. The federal budget contributes to the state and local governments based off the
needs of the area according to the census. Through the use of the census, the federal government
will disburse more to one area over another area to ensure the needs are met. States have
departments superintendents who oversees the needs of the area and advocate for funding with
the support of other appointed officials in the district.
School Choice
Because the funding is the most important factor in education, school choice is important
to parents when making decisions on where their children will attend school. Many schools seem
to have a lack of resources which gives a negative perspective to parents. Geographic and
demographics have always been a topic of importance to parents making the best decisions for
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their student’s education. If the funding is not available, then the teachers will not be available as
well. For this reason, you may have a school graded as a “D” or “F” because of inconsistent staff
or teacher turnaround. Recruiting teachers become a challenge that many districts faces when the
funding is low and the student population decreases. Government spending has been a great
factor in the success and failure of K-12 education. Over the last 30 plus years, increased
government funding has not resulted in favorable educational outcomes or closed the gaps on
student learning. Even more recent with the COVID-19 pandemic, government spending is being
used to address school choice, various dilemmas facing families, and the need of a consistent
staff. K-12 students need flexibility and various resources to be successful moving forward.
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References
Fowler, F. (2013). Policy studies for educational leaders: An introduction (4th ed.). Pearson.
Viennet, R. & Pont, B. (2017). EDUCATION POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: A
LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROPOSED FRAMEWORK. OECD
https://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=EDU/WKP(20
17)11&docLanguage=En