Examining the Theater of “Listening” & “Learning”

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an example of how critical policy analysis, specifically the dramaturgical analysis of policymaking, is able to broaden the examination of discourses in isolation. This chapter expands the field of the discourse analyses often found within critical policy work by examining how dominant discourses (privileged and inscribed language) are constructed through the deliberative performance of politics (performative act of policymaking). The focus for analysis in this chapter is the Obama/Duncan Administration’s Listening & Learning Tour (L&L Tour). By examining the orchestrated interaction between discourses and performative politics during the L&L tour this chapter provides readers with a critical policy analysis of how dominant discourses and deliberative politics codetermined which definition of school improvement would shape the Obama/Duncan revision of the Title I School Improvement Grant (SIG).

Appendix: Participants & Roles

Actors (both helicopter interviews and key informants) whose ideas shaped both the formative and summative stages of sense making, but whose direct comments did not appear in this portion of a larger study.

Participant	Description
Advocacy/interest actors
Beth Antunez	Beth Antunez was the assistant director in educational issues at the American Federation of Teachers, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO that represents preK-12 teachers; paraprofessionals and other school- related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state, and local government employees; and nurses and other healthcare professionals.
Justin Cohen	Justin Cohen was the President of the School Turnaround Group at Mass Insight Education and the former director of the Office of Portfolio Management and senior advisor to Chancellor Michelle Rhee at the District of Columbia Public Schools. The Mass Insight Turnaround Group is a nonprofit organization that partners with school districts and state education agencies to redesign the ways they support low- performing schools.

1. (continued)

Participant	Description
Daria Hall	Daria Hall was the director of K-12 policy development at the Education Trust, where she focuses on issues pertaining to accountability; high school graduation; standards; and the identification of high-poverty, high-minority, high-performing schools. The Education Trust is a policy organization that focuses on issues pertaining to academic achievement for all students.
William Mathis	William Mathis was the managing director of the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the former superintendent of schools for the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union in Brandon, Vermont. The National Education Policy Center employs scholars and policy analysts who produce and disseminate peer- reviewed research on a variety of educational issues.
Vicki Phillips	Vicki Phillips was the director of the Education, College Ready in the United States Program at the Gates Foundation and a former education specialist at the U.S. Office of Education in Washington, DC. The Gates Foundation funds a variety of initiatives that focus on the preparation of college- and career-ready students and the attainment of postsecondary education.
Cynthia Brown	Cynthia G. Brown was the vice-president for education policy at the Center for American Progress, a former director of the Resource Center on Educational Equity of the Council of Chief State School Officers, and the former assistant secretary for civil rights in the U.S. Department of Education (appointed by President Carter). The Center for American Progress is a policy advocacy organization supportive of the “progressive movement.” Brown’s work focuses on issues pertaining to the education of low-income and minority students, standards-based education, federal education programs, state education agency operations, state education policy, federal civil rights enforcement in education, and preschool education.
Diane Stark Rentner	Diane Stark Rentner was the director of national programs for the Center on Education Policy and a former legislative associate for the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and Labor. The Center on Education Policy is an independent advocacy organization that focuses on issues pertaining to the role of public education in a democracy and the need to improve the academic quality of public schools.
Advocacy/interest & federal actors
Andy Rotherham	Andy Rotherham is a cofounder and partner at Bellwether Education and a former White House Special Assistant to President Clinton for Domestic Policy. Bellwether Education Partners is a national nonprofit organization that focuses on issues pertaining to the achievement of low-income students.
University Actors
Daniel Duke	Daniel Duke is a professor at the University of Virginia, where he is recognized as a nationally recognized expert on educational change and reform, school leadership and accountability policy, and issues pertaining to the turnaround of low-performing schools.

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Participant	Description
Betty Malen	Betty Malen is a professor at the University of Maryland, where she is recognized for her work in education politics, policy, and leadership and issues pertaining to reconstitution reform efforts targeting low- performing schools.
Joseph Murphy	Joseph Murphy is the chair of education and associate dean at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, where he focuses on issues pertaining to school improvement, turnaround reform, leadership, and policy.
Joe Johnson	Dr. Joseph Johnson is the executive director of the National Center for Urban School Transformation and the former director of student achievement and school accountability at the U.S. Department of Education, where he was responsible for directing the federal Title I program and several related programs.
Diane Ravitch	Diane Ravitch was a professor at New York University, where she focuses on the history of education and education reform. She was Assistant Secretary of Education during the presidency of George H. W. Bush.