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Presidential Prescriptions for State Policy

Obama's Race to the Top Initiative

Bibliographic Data

ID11680487
AuthorsWilliam G Howell (0000-0003-1733-2127, corresponding author), Asya Magazinnik (0000-0002-6822-4153)
Year2017
Volume36
Issue3
Pages502-531
Publication date2017-05-22
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Policy Analysis and Management (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0276-8739 • E-ISSN: 1520-6688
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/pam.21986
OpenAlexW2617212271
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited50

With increasing frequency, U.S. presidents have orchestrated relations between federal and state governments. A defining feature of this "executive federalism" is a pragmatic willingness to both borrow from and reconstitute very different types of past federalisms. A case in point is President Barack Obama's Race to the Top (RttT) initiative, which sought to stimulate the adoption of specific education reforms in state governments around the country through a series of highly prescriptive but entirely voluntary policy competitions. This paper evaluates the results of such efforts. To do so, it draws on four original data sets: a nationally representative survey of state legislators, an analysis of State of the State speeches, another of state applications to the competitions themselves, and finally, an inventory of state policymaking trends in a range of education policies that were awarded under the competition. This paper then relies upon a variety of identification strategies to gauge the influence of RttT on the nation's education policy landscape. Taken as a whole the evidence suggests that RttT, through both direct and indirect means, augmented the production of state policies that were central components of the president's education agenda

Competition (biology · Education policy · Federalism · Higher education · Identification (biology · Policy analysis · Political science · Politics · Presidential system · Race (biology · Race to the Top · Sociology · State (computer science · Variety (cybernetics · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Policy Transfer and Learning · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research

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Unique citing works18
Citations per year2,25
Citation span2018 - 2026 (9)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 16
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