| Since the release of A Nation at Risk in 1983, business coalitions have played a central role in state-level policy efforts to improve K--12 public education. Despite their prominent role advocating for standards-based reforms and the improvement of teacher quality, little is known about several aspects of the agendas guiding their work. This study examined the Washington Roundtable, a business coalition in Washington State composed of forty business leaders, to illuminate two dimensions of its education agendas: (1) the influence of internal forces, as well as external forces from the state policy arena, on agendas, and (2) the processes by which agendas are formulated, reformulated, and enacted. Institutional and policy process theories frame the analysis of interview, documentary, and observation data gathered in this single qualitative case study. Data management and analytic strategies were based on an "explanation building" (Yin, 1994) model; triangulation of multiple sources supported the continual honing of grounded assertions using a constant comparative method. Findings suggest an array of forces bear heavily on the Washington Roundtable's education agendas, including rules and norms, values and beliefs, resources, and research and data. The strongest forces are primarily normative in nature, most likely because of the membership-driven needs of this interest group. These forces are also embedded in the Roundtable's agenda setting processes, which have shifted over the past decade in response to dramatic changes in members and member characteristics, roles staff and leaders assume, and state political realities. At the core of both institutional forces and agenda setting processes rests a unifying concept essential for understanding a coalition's education agendas: learning . Learning plays a mediating role in the Roundtable's education agendas. It is interwoven in the forces influencing agendas, primarily through information sharing, debate, and dialogue within and beyond the organization. This study provides an empirical foundation upon which further studies of business coalitions may be based. It also informs further inquiry about business coalition continued work with state and federal educational reform efforts, especially given the passage of the 2002 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the pro-business leanings of the current presidential administration. |
