Fields of Interest: Public Policy, Bureaucracy

Lorraine McDonnell came to UCSB from Rand, where as a senior political scientist from 1975 to 1991, she led research projects on the implementation of state and federal education policies, the political role of teacher unions, and the design of educational accountability systems. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and several foundations. Her book, Politics, Persuasion, and Educational Testing (Harvard University Press, 2004), focuses on the politics of student testing. Currently, she is working with Stephen Weatherford examining U.S. presidential leadership in economic policy.

McDonnell is a member of the Advisory Committee for the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education of the National Research Council and was a member of the NRC's Board on Testing and Assessment for seven years. She is currently the president-elect of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and will become its president in April 2008.

Courses Taught:

PS 170	Public Policy Analysis
PS 180	Bureaucracy
PS 182	Education Politics and Policy
PS 196	Senior Seminar: Politics of Public Policy
PS 297	Public Policy Analysis (graduate seminar)

Selected Recent Publications:

"The Politics of Education: Influencing Policy and Beyond, " in Susan H. Fuhrman, David V. Cohen, and Fritz Mosher, eds., The State of Education Policy Research (Erlbaum, 2007).

"Ronald Reagan as Legislative Advocate: Passing the Reagan Revolution's Budgets in 1981 and 1982" (with M. Stephen Weatherford), Congress and the Presidency 32:1 (2005).

"No Child Left Behind and the Federal Role in Education: Evolution or Revolution?" Peabody Journal of Education 80:2 (2005).

Rediscovering the Democratic Purposes of Education, University Press of Kansas, 2000 (co-edited with Michael Timpane and Roger Benjamin).