Policy, positionality, and power : an examination of the network of actors surrounding the Every Student Succeeds Act

Federal education policy often shapes the priorities on all levels of education, including within states and local districts (Jennings, 2018). The legislation passed on the federal level has long lasting and powerful implications for how education state and local policy is both created and enacted. From the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1964, to No Child Left Behind in 2001, Race to the Top in 2009, and the current iteration, the Every Student Succeeds Act, federal policy has influenced and shaped education from the top down. This study highlights a network of over 1500 actors connected to the congressional hearings surrounding the reauthorization of the Every Student Succeeds act. By determining the actors’ relationships to each other, their policy preferences and other attributes, we can begin to understand how the network influences educational policy. Examining the actors, very few demonstrated a high level of centrality to the network, with the majority of those with the highest centrality being State Education Agencies. Major foundations and interest groups also showed a high level of centrality, with Bellwether and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation being notably influential in the network. Influential actors tended to focus on Student Assessment policy, both in favor and against altering the assessment system. The network shows that policy preferences are correlated to influence within the network, and that majorly influentially actors functioned as advocates for their policy, only receiving marginal influence from their ties.Educational Leadership and Polic