Creative Compliance in a State’s Governance of the NCLB Supplemental Educational Services Project

Westbury, Ian; Crockett, Michele D.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/105482 Copy

Description

Title

Creative Compliance in a State’s Governance of the NCLB Supplemental Educational Services Project

Author(s)

• Westbury, Ian
• Crockett, Michele D.

Issue Date

2019-09-16

Keyword(s)

• Supplemental Educational Services
• No Child Left Behind Act
• public administration
• school policy implementation
• Illinois State Board of Education

Geographic Coverage

Illinois

Abstract

In this historical case study, we examine the trajectory of the Illinois State Board of Education’s (ISBE) governance and management of the No Child Left Behind legislation’s Supplemental Educational Services (SES) program between 2002 and 2013. ISBE found the federal mandates for the educational governance of SES to be aspirational and difficult to manage on the ground. SES also presented ISBE with major problems of deployment as well as an initially unrecognized potential for significant reputational risk. As ISBE became aware of the risks around the program the agency came to recognize that (1) while the federal aspirations as embedded in the legislative and regulatory framework had to remain in place, the situation required administratively manageable re-interpretations of these mandates; and (2) a regime of control was needed in order to detect and remediate ISBE’s potential political, reputational and liability risks around the program. The outcomes was a decision to largely ignore the governance of the educational aspects of the program in favor of a focus on the management and governance of the local private-public marketplaces for SES. This outcome can be characterized as “creative compliance.”

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105482

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