Joseph Ferrare, Assistant Professor in EPE, recently published an article in the American Journal of Education. The article, “Has the Elite Foundation Agenda Spread Beyond the Gates? An Organizational Network Analysis of Nonmajor Philanthropic Giving in K12 Education,” was co-authored with EPE alum Katherine Reynolds (now at Boston College). An abstract for the article appears below. In addition, you can read a companion blog post for the article at the AJE Forum.
“Has the Elite Foundation Agenda Spread Beyond the Gates? An Organizational Network Analysis of Nonmajor Philanthropic Giving in K–12 Education”
By Joseph J. Ferrare & Katherine Reynolds
Abstract
Previous research focusing on major philanthropic foundations suggests that these actors have collectively converged around a set of jurisdictional challengers promoting market-based education reforms. Using correspondence analysis, network analysis, and geographic information science, this article empirically tests whether this convergence has permeated to less prominent foundations and their grantees, or if these foundations are pursuing alternative organizational strategies to shape K–12 outcomes. The analysis draws from a sample of 15 nonmajor foundations and their 1,069 grantees serving some aspect of K–12 education in 2010. We find that nonmajor foundations have adopted some elements of major foundations’ organizational strategies to influence K–12 education but that their strategies are heterogeneous and reflect both challenges to—and opportunities for—a more varied and democratic structure of policy making.