Mediating Middlemen Education Service Agencies Essay

Mediating Middlemen: Education Service Agencies as Policy Interpreters Theoretical Framework This research employs a cognitive/interpretive frame on policy implementation to unpack the ways in which ESA officials understand their roles, interpret state and federal policy and, in the process, mediate how districts approach and respond to federal and state policy. In our approach, we adopt the view that policy implementation is an analytical enterprise that is the result of certain implementation decisions that are made and actions that are taken by individuals at the local, regional, state and federal levels. As research in the cognitive/interpretive frame has shown, policy implementation behaviors are shaped by the decision-making environment, the type of policy at stake, and characteristics of the implementing organizations and the people involved in policy implementation (Goggin, 1986). In essence, every individual interprets policy within a unique context, drawing upon his or her own beliefs, experiences, history and agenda (Cohen, 1990; Spillane et al., 2002; Spillane, Reiser Reimer, 2006; Cohen, Moffit Goldin, 2007). Policy interpreters and implementers are also situated in professional and discourse communities that help shape their beliefs and worldviews and ultimately their interpretations of policy messages (Coburn, 2001; Hill, 2001; McLaughlin Talbert, 2001; Spillane, Kim Frank, 2012). Utilizing this cognitive/interpretive frame on policy implementation,