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Focus Area:
Politics of Change

CRPE analyzes how politics—especially polarization and partisan divides—impact enacting and sustaining meaningful education reform. Political dynamics have often hindered progress, stalling promising innovations and narrowing the space for bipartisan solutions. Our work examines these tensions, identifies strategies to navigate them, and highlights opportunities for leaders to move reforms forward despite political headwinds.

  • Blogs    
  • The Lens    

Beyond the Headlines: What Civics Education Looks Like Right Now

Maddy Sims, Lydia Rainey, Lisa Chu

As the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday in 2026, debates over democracy, rights, and free speech dominate headlines.

  • Research Reports    

What Counts as Civics? A Look at How Districts Define and Facilitate Civic Learning

Maddy Sims, Lisa Chu, AK Keskin, Lydia Rainey, Melissa Kay Diliberti

A new report from the American School District Panel, a research partnership between RAND and CRPE, examines how districts define and facilitate civic learning in an era of political polarization, competing instructional priorities, and uneven state support.

  • The Lens    

Eliminating the Department of Education Won’t Fix Education’s Dysfunctions—But Neither Will Denying They Exist

Robin Lake

Announcing a new forum for bold ideas to build momentum Proposals to eliminate the Department of Education (ED) have been a Republican talking point since Ronald Reagan first suggested it in the early 1980s.

  • The Lens    

Lessons from School Leaders: Managing Debates on CRT and AP African American Studies

Erin Richards

The debate over how schools should teach about race heightened this week when the College Board released a framework for a new Advanced Placement course in African-American studies that reduced some of the content from a pilot version — content supported by hundreds of Black scholars and progressives but criticized by prominent conservatives.

  • Research Reports    

Navigating Political Tensions over Schooling: Findings from the Fall 2022 American School District Panel Survey

Ashley Jochim, Melissa Kay Diliberti, Heather Schwartz, Kate Destler, Paul Hill

Public schooling has always been politically fraught, but current disagreements over issues related to race, sexuality, gender, and Covid-19 have reached a tipping point.

  • The Lens    

The Unavoidable Politics of Education Reform

Robin Lake

In K–12 education, politics is the great equalizer. It has killed initiatives from the right and from the left, from top-down district curriculum mandates to site-based management.

  • Research Reports    

The Street-Level Politics of School Reform

Paul Hill, Ashley Jochim

Paul Hill and Ashley Jochim profile portfolio strategy efforts in five cities and offer lessons for leaders to sustain long-term education reform amid political opposition.

  • Research Reports    

Legal and Policy Barriers to Redesigning California High Schools

Mitch Price

This report presents the results of an analysis of legal, regulatory, and policy barriers to high school redesign in California.

  • Research Reports    

Priority Shift: The Fate of Mandatory Busing for School Desegregation in Seattle and the Nation

Laura Kohn

This paper examines the trend in school districts, across the country and in Seattle, of substantially withdrawing from mandatory integration policies.

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Research Experts
  • Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND

  • Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Villanova University

  • Vice President of Care & Education, Mission Driven Finance

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