Carrots, Sticks, and the Bully Pulpit: Lessons from a Half-Century of Federal Efforts to Improve America's Schools

This timely book brings together a remarkable group of authors who examine the federal role in education policy and reform during the past fifty years.

As Frederick M. Hess and Andrew P. Kelly note in their introduction, the book represents a determined effort to move beyond familiar and predictable debates and instead to focus on a number of questions that deserve careful and sustained attention: “What have we learned from the last half-century of federal involvement, especially the last decade or two of significant federal activity? What have we learned about which goals Uncle Sam is well-suited to pursue? What have we learned about how federal efforts play out and about the limits of what federal activity can effectively accomplish?”

These questions are of heightened importance at a time when the federal role in education has expanded so dramatically—and when federal education policy is being so vigorously debated. This book—with a diverse and dynamic lineup of leading figures in education research, policy, politics, and innovation—is an indispensable contribution to our current reconsideration of education policy.

Frederick M. Hess is resident scholar and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). In addition to his Education Week blog “Rick Hess Straight Up,” he is the author of influential books on education, including The Same Thing Over and Over (Harvard University Press, 2010), Education Unbound (ASCD, 2010), Common Sense School Reform (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Revolution at the Margins (Brookings Institution Press, 2002), and Spinning Wheels (Brookings Institution Press, 1998), as well as the coeditor of the new volumes Stretching the School Dollar (Harvard Education Press, 2010) and Customized Schooling (Harvard Education Press, 2011). His work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets such as Teachers College Record, Harvard Education Review, Social Science Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, American Politics Quarterly, Chronicle of Higher Education, Phi Delta Kappan, Educational Leadership, US News and World Report, Washington Post, and National Review. Hess serves as executive editor of Education Next, as lead faculty member for the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program, on the review board for the Broad Prize in Urban Education, and on the boards of directors of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, 4.0 Schools, and the American Board for the Certification of Teaching Excellence. A former high school social studies teacher, he has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Rice University, and Harvard University.

Andrew P. Kelly is a research fellow in education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and is a doctoral candidate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on higher education policy, congressional policy making, and political behavior. As a graduate student, Kelly was a National Science Foundation interdisciplinary training fellow and a graduate student instructor. Previously, he was a research assistant at AEI, where his work focused on the preparation of school leaders, collective bargaining in public schools, and the politics of education. His research has appeared in Teachers College Record, Educational Policy, Policy Studies Journal, Education Next, Education Week, Forbes, and various edited volumes. He is a coauthor of the AEI reports Diplomas and Dropouts: Which Schools Actually Graduate Their Students (and Which Don’t) (2009) and Rising to the Challenge: Hispanic College Graduation Rates as a National Priority (2010).