State Postsecondary Education Research: New Methods to Inform Policy and Practice (Higher Education)

ISBN 10: 1579222110 / ISBN 13: 9781579222116

Published by Stylus Publishing, 2007

About this Item

Ships in a BOX from Central Missouri! May not include working access code. Will not include dust jacket. Has used sticker(s) and some writing and/or highlighting. UPS shipping for most packages, (Priority Mail for AK/HI/APO/PO Boxes).

Seller Inventory # 000837091U

Bibliographic Details

• Title: State Postsecondary Education Research: New Methods to Inform Policy and Practice (Higher Education)
• Publisher: Stylus Publishing
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1579222110
• ISBN 13: 9781579222116
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

This is an opportune time for researchers in higher education to examine policy via cross-state comparative analyses. Momentous court, legislative and policy developments that impact state-level higher education policy are emerging at a rapid rate. The states have emerged as postsecondary policy innovators in the areas of student financing, institutional accountability, and student access.Following political scientists’ "rediscovery" of states as units of analysis--because they constitute unique "natural laboratories" for testing theory and hypotheses about political behavior and policy adoption dynamics--this book introduces this perspective as an increasingly important tool for researchers in higher education.State Postsecondary Education Research provides an in-depth examination of the challenges and opportunities inherent in conducting cross-state higher education policy research. The authors of each chapter use their individual research projects to demonstrate the array of methodological, theoretical, analytical, and political challenges inherent in conducting comparative state-level policy research. Among the innovative methods described is the use of pooled cross-sectional time-series analytic techniques and event history analysis--now widespread within the disciplines of economics and political science--to shift the unit of analysis from the state to the state-year, thus expanding greatly both the statistical power of the models being tested and the data-demands of those models.The goal is to introduce comparative state-level postsecondary policy research to a broader audience, and to contribute to discussions of both the challenges and the importance of this approach to higher education policy research.The book is intended as a resource for researchers in higher education policy and as a text for higher education policy courses. It may also appeal to scholars of educational policy as well as higher education policymakers.

About the Author

Donald E. Heller is Director, Center for the Study of Higher Education, and Professor of Education and Senior Scientist, at the College of Education, The Pennsylvania State University. Kathleen M. Shaw is Associate Professor of Urban Education and Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Temple University.