State Educational Agencies in an Uncertain Environment - Understanding State-Provided Networks of English Language Arts Curricular Resources

Oct 15, 2026

Rapid adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the Race to the Top (RTTT) competition, and subsequent backlash generated uncertainty for state educational agencies (SEAs). The study argues SEAs sought guidance through professional networks, geographic neighbors, or other highly regarded SEAs when deciding how to support standards implementation. Drawing on institutional theory and isomorphism, coercive forces are contrasted with mimetic and normative forces.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages32

Reading Time1 h 21 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Keywords

Methods and Data

SPECIAL ISSUE Researching 21st Century Education Policy Through Social Network Analysis education policy analysis archives A peer-reviewed, independent, open access, multilingual journal Arizona State University Volume 28 Number 125 August 17 , 2020 ISSN 1068-2341 State Educational Agencies in an Uncertain Environment: Understanding State-Provided Networks of English Language Arts Curricular Resources Serena J. Salloum Ball State University United States Emily M. Hodge Monclair State University United States & Susanna L. Benko Ball State University United States Citation: Salloum, S. J., Hodge, E. M., & Benko, S. L. (2020) . State educational agencies in an uncertain environment: Understanding state provided networks of English Language Arts curricular resources. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 28 (125) . [https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.28.4494](https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.28.4494) [EPAA will assign the DOI] This article is part of the special issue, Researching 21st Century Education Policy Through Social Network Analysis, guested edited by Emily Hodge, Joshua Childs, and Wayne Au. Abstract: Rapid adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the Race to the Top (RTTT) competition, and backlash around these policies created widespread uncertainty among state educational agencies (SEAs) . SEAs may have not had a clear direction about how to support standards implementation in a new context, and therefore, may have looked to their professional networks, their geographic neighbors or other highly regarded SEAs, or other sources for information and resources to guide their decisions about where to send teachers for information about standards. Drawing on institutional theory (Meyer & Rowan, 1977) and isomorphism specifically (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983), we posit that coercive forces (primarily due to RTTT application and CCSS status) as compared to mimetic and normative forces influenced the organizations to which SEAs turn for curriculum materials. Using Multiple Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure and a data set of over 2,000 stateprovided resources for secondary English Language Arts teachers from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., we indeed found that coercive forces had a relationship with shared organizational ties, demonstrating that RTTT application and CCSS adoption influenced resource provision. Keywords: Common Core State Standards; Curriculum; State Educational Agencies; Social Network Analysis; Isomorphism Agencias educativas estatales en un entorno incierto: Comprensión de las redes de recursos curriculares de artes del idioma inglés proporcionadas por el estado Resumen: La rápida adopción de los Common Core State Standards (CCSS), la competencia Race to the Top (RTTT) y la reacción violenta en torno a estas políticascrearon una incertidumbre generalizada entre las agencias educativas estatales (SEA) . Las SEA pueden haber buscado en sus redes profesionales, sus vecinos geográficos u otras SEA de gran prestigio, u otras fuentes de información y recursos para guiar sus decisiones sobre dónde enviar a los maestros para obtener información sobre los estándares. Basándonos en la teoría institucional (Meyer & Rowan, 1977) y el isomorfismoespecíficamente (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983), postulamos que las fuerzas co ercitivas (principalmente debidas a la aplicación RTTT y el estado de la CCSS) en comparación con las fuerzas miméticas y normativas influyeron en las organizaciones a las que SEA Busque los materiales del plan de estudios. Usando el Procedimiento de Asignación Cuadrática de Regresión Múltiple y un conjunto de datos de más de 2,000 recursos proporcionados porel estado para maestros de artes del lenguaje inglés de secundaria de los 50 estados y Washington, DC, de hecho encontramos que las fuerzas coercitivas tenían una relacióncon lazos organizacionales compartidos, lo que demuestra que la aplicación RTTT y laadopción de CCSS influyó en la provisión de recur

FAQs

What uncertainties affected state educational agencies after adopting CCSS and RTTT?

Widespread policy adoption and backlash created uncertainty for SEAs about how to support standards implementation in a new context.

How does the study explain why SEAs sought certain curriculum information sources?

It applies institutional theory and isomorphism, proposing that coercive forces shaped which organizations SEAs turned to for curriculum materials.

What data and method were used to test these relationships?

The study uses multiple regression quadratic assignment procedure and a dataset of over 2,000 state-provided resources for secondary English Language Arts teachers across all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Oct 15, 2026

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