Author ORCID Identifier
Date Available
4-4-2022
Year of Publication
2022
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
College
Education
Department/School/Program
Education Sciences
First Advisor
Dr. Beth Rous
Abstract
The population of English Learners (ELs) continues to increase across the United States, and these students persistently perform below their native English-speaking peers in measures of academic achievement. Federal government leaders passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, which modified how state and local educational agencies identify, instruct, assess, and reclassify ELs and revised what funding EL programming could receive. In this multiphase study, I investigated how the macropolitics of federal and state policy became enacted in the micropolitics of a mid-sized school district in Kentucky. Through an initial phase of document review followed by a mixed methods approach in the second phase of research, I asked what changes district leaders made to the EL support model for high schools, why they made these changes, and what effects these changes had on ELs’ English language proficiency development at a school site within the district. Results from the study proved inconclusive and have implications for education policymakers and leaders related to unpacking the complexity of policymaking, including all voices in policymaking, and designing policy through a grassroots approach.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2022.041
Recommended Citation
Vannatter, Catherine E., "The Language of Power: An Investigation of How the Macropolitics of Education Policy Affects the Micropolitics of Schooling English Learners" (2022). Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences. 105.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/edsc_etds/105
Included in
Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Educational Leadership Commons, Education Law Commons, Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration Commons, Language and Literacy Education Commons, Secondary Education Commons
