ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the meta-framework the author's used for examining policy processes in higher education. It considers the role of policy frames as the logic structures used in political processes to rationalize advocacy for specific policy decisions. The chapter discusses how the authors' use reviews of research on the effects of policy decisions—econometric and policy studies along with their own research—to examine federal policy rationales, and to interpret policy outcomes in the state cases. It uses a three-level approach to presenting and analyzing policy in higher education. These include: policy frames as an approach to the review of claims made in the policy discourse, the analytic frames used to examine the impact of policies, and the uses of evidence relative to links between policies and outcomes and as a basis of information for reconstruction of policy. Privatization, market forces, and student Educational choice are all now integral parts of national, state, and campus policy decisions.
