A study of an agenda-setting model as applied to the passage of the National Defense Education Act of 1958

The purpose of this study is to describe and explicate the rise to agenda status of the issue of federal aid to education represented by the passage of the National Defense Education Act of 1958 (NDEA) using a punctuated equilibrium model. A secondary purpose is to assess the robustness of the analytical model in relation to its capacity to explain the rise to agenda status of the focal issue. The contingent contextual factors which frame this study include events which triggered public policies related to federal aid to education as a solution to certain problems.;Popular American myth holds that the emergence of federal aid to education was the direct result of the Cold War threat to American defense symbolized by the Soviet launch of Sputnik I. This does not fully explicate the passage of NDEA, or the broad range of educational programs authorized by the Act. The variety of predecessor initiatives provides evidence that the Act was the result of the efforts of many policy actors who, over the course of many years, promoted federal aid as a solution to educational problems.;The punctuated equilibrium model of agenda-setting is based on the premise that an issue emerges and recedes periodically from the public agenda. During a period of issue recession, institutional structures come into place and create the illusion of equilibrium.;A new issue definition, education for national defense, prompted by the Cold War abruptly shifted focus away from the deadlocked struggle for aid to education. The new issue definition combined with the equilibrium punctuating event, the launch of Sputnik I, resulted in the passage of NDEA. NDEA would redefine the federal government's financial role in American education.