Education Policy Networks: The Co-Optation, Coordination, and Commodification of the School-to-Prison Pipeline Critique

This study utilizes social network visualization and content analysis of policy reports to explore the changing structure and function of a network of organizations, including government agencies, philanthropies, think tanks, advocacy groups, research centers, and edu-businesses active in school discipline policy formation at the federal level from 2000 to 2014. This study illuminates the mechanism by which the state, working through a complex public-private network of education policy actors, co-opts more radical demands to address the school-to-prison pipeline, coordinates interests across a range of social forces with particular attention to law enforcement, and commodifies the school-to-prison pipeline critique into marketable products and services for schools and school districts.