Approach IDENTIFIERS *State Role

This brief describes political challenges to systemic reform and explores the conditions under which coherent policyll.zking might occur. A focus is the role of. states in achieving policy integration. The first section describes political challenges to systemic reform, which include a lack of consensus on student standards, a focus on inputs and processes, and a lack of.coordinated policies. Four impediments to policy coordination are discussed in the next section--a fragmented organizational structure, the focus on political elections, policy overload, and government specialization. The third section describes Kentucky's Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence and the South Carolina Business-Education Subcommittee. The first is a large volunteer citizen's organization and the second is a small leadership group with statutory authority. Both groups: (1) represent a variety of constituencies; (2) act as mechanisms for the incorporation of business interests into larger reform coalitions: (3) serve as training grounds for leadership; (4) act as reporters and monitors of reform; and (5) act as vehicles for dissemination of information to a national audience. (LMI) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ei