Kara Finnigan | University of Michigan (original) (raw)

PhD, University of Wisconsin - Madison (educational policy studies)
MA, Stanford University (education administration and policy analysis)
BA, Dartmouth College (English)

Kara Finnigan joined the Warner School in 2003. She teaches in the educational leadership program and is the director of the doctoral and master's programs in educational policy. Her courses focus on educational policy and politics, sociology of education, and research methods.

Finnigan began her work in education as a substitute teacher in Anchorage, Alaska. She has conducted research and evaluations of K-12 educational policies and programs at the local, state, and federal levels for more than 19 years through her work at several prominent national research organizations, including SRI International, RPP International, and the George Lucas Educational Foundation. She has written extensively on the topics of low-performing schools and high-stakes accountability, principal leadership, teacher motivation, and charter schools. Finnigan’s research blends perspectives in education, sociology, and political science; employs both qualitative and quantitative methods; and focuses on urban school districts. She has published articles in the American Educational Research Journal, Journal of Educational Change, Educational Policy, Educational Administration Quarterly, Journal of School Leadership, Leadership and Policy in Schools, Journal of School Choice, Urban Review, and Education Policy Analysis Archives.

Finnigan’s current research focuses on social network analysis in low-performing schools and districts; school improvement under sanction; inter-district choice; district-wide reform; accountability policies; school closure; and the role of districts and states in school improvement. She is Associate Editor of the Social and Institutional Analysis section of the American Educational Research Journal.

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Books by Kara Finnigan

Harvard Education Press, 2018

Using Research Evidence in Education, 2014

Using Research Evidence in Education, 2014

Papers-Accountability, Evidence, Social Networks by Kara Finnigan

American Educational Research Journal, Jan 1, 2011

Una serie de académicos han estudiado el contexto del distrito en el que se encuentran inmersos l... more Una serie de académicos han estudiado el contexto del distrito en el que se encuentran inmersos los centros educativos. Estos estudios sugieren la importancia de las oficinas municipales como apoyo o limitación del trabajo de los centros educativos ofreciendo estrategias para construir las relaciones entre los distritos y los líderes locales. Esta es una tarea importante y, sin embargo, frecuentemente se pasa por alto que las mejoras de los esfuerzos organizativos se construyen socialmente. Por ello, el análisis de las redes sociales y la confianza entre los líderes del distrito y de los centros educativos puede proporcionar una visión desde dentro respecto a los apoyos y limitaciones relacionados con la mejora. En este estudio de caso se utiliza una red social y datos sobre la confianza para explorar las mejores prácticas relacionadas con los líderes, en un distrito escolar de tamaño medio con bajo rendimiento. Los resultados sugieren unos lazos sociales de la red débiles, bajos niveles de confianza y una previsible relación entre la confianza y los intercambios recíprocos con las mejores prácticas relacionadas con la mejora.

Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Vancouver, Canada. Retrieved from http://www. wtgrantfoundation. org/resources/studying-the-use-of-research-evidence, 2012

In 2002 when the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) act was passed it contained clear-cut language t... more In 2002 when the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) act was passed it contained clear-cut language that reoriented educators and policymakers toward alignment between federal dollars and the use of research-based evidence, or “scientifically based research.” In fact, such was the importance of this idea that there are more than 100 references to the use of scientifically based research contained within the legislation (Smith, 2003). Despite the law's emphasis there is scant empirical research regarding the systematic definition, use, ...

ABSTRACT Leader successions are powerful events that can create disruptions in the flow of vertic... more ABSTRACT Leader successions are powerful events that can create disruptions in the flow of vertical communication. To investigate how new leaders gain access to key information, we examine two types of behaviors that facilitate this process—upward voice behaviors by subordinates and pro-active selection of communication partners by the new leader. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a longitudinal study in two public elementary schools undergoing changes in principal, gathering data both before and after the leadership succession event. Our findings suggest that, immediately after succession, employees' voice behavior and the leader's choice of communication partners are predicted by pre-succession attributes of the organizational members. For example, organization members who are high change self-efficacy engage in more upward voice and are likely targets of initial leader ties. After initial socialization period, we found that that pre-succession factors have less impact on voice and tie creation. Rather, these behaviors—employee upward voice and new leader tie creation—mutually reinforce each other over time. Members’ upward voice predicts tie creation from leaders and vice-versa.

Using Research Evidence in Education, 2014

Journal of Educational Change, 2010

Harvard Education Press, 2018

Using Research Evidence in Education, 2014

Using Research Evidence in Education, 2014

American Educational Research Journal, Jan 1, 2011

Una serie de académicos han estudiado el contexto del distrito en el que se encuentran inmersos l... more Una serie de académicos han estudiado el contexto del distrito en el que se encuentran inmersos los centros educativos. Estos estudios sugieren la importancia de las oficinas municipales como apoyo o limitación del trabajo de los centros educativos ofreciendo estrategias para construir las relaciones entre los distritos y los líderes locales. Esta es una tarea importante y, sin embargo, frecuentemente se pasa por alto que las mejoras de los esfuerzos organizativos se construyen socialmente. Por ello, el análisis de las redes sociales y la confianza entre los líderes del distrito y de los centros educativos puede proporcionar una visión desde dentro respecto a los apoyos y limitaciones relacionados con la mejora. En este estudio de caso se utiliza una red social y datos sobre la confianza para explorar las mejores prácticas relacionadas con los líderes, en un distrito escolar de tamaño medio con bajo rendimiento. Los resultados sugieren unos lazos sociales de la red débiles, bajos niveles de confianza y una previsible relación entre la confianza y los intercambios recíprocos con las mejores prácticas relacionadas con la mejora.

Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Vancouver, Canada. Retrieved from http://www. wtgrantfoundation. org/resources/studying-the-use-of-research-evidence, 2012

In 2002 when the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) act was passed it contained clear-cut language t... more In 2002 when the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) act was passed it contained clear-cut language that reoriented educators and policymakers toward alignment between federal dollars and the use of research-based evidence, or “scientifically based research.” In fact, such was the importance of this idea that there are more than 100 references to the use of scientifically based research contained within the legislation (Smith, 2003). Despite the law's emphasis there is scant empirical research regarding the systematic definition, use, ...

ABSTRACT Leader successions are powerful events that can create disruptions in the flow of vertic... more ABSTRACT Leader successions are powerful events that can create disruptions in the flow of vertical communication. To investigate how new leaders gain access to key information, we examine two types of behaviors that facilitate this process—upward voice behaviors by subordinates and pro-active selection of communication partners by the new leader. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a longitudinal study in two public elementary schools undergoing changes in principal, gathering data both before and after the leadership succession event. Our findings suggest that, immediately after succession, employees' voice behavior and the leader's choice of communication partners are predicted by pre-succession attributes of the organizational members. For example, organization members who are high change self-efficacy engage in more upward voice and are likely targets of initial leader ties. After initial socialization period, we found that that pre-succession factors have less impact on voice and tie creation. Rather, these behaviors—employee upward voice and new leader tie creation—mutually reinforce each other over time. Members’ upward voice predicts tie creation from leaders and vice-versa.

Using Research Evidence in Education, 2014

Journal of Educational Change, 2010

Background: This article examines the contemporary implications of the Milliken v. Bradley (1974)... more Background: This article examines the contemporary implications of the Milliken v. Bradley (1974) decision for educational inequality between school districts in U.S. metropolitan areas. We focus upon four metropolitan areas that were highly segregated in the 1970s but which met different fates in court: We first examine Detroit and Philadelphia, where plaintiffs sought but ultimately failed to obtain a metropolitan-wide desegregation ruling. We then examine St. Louis, where a court imposed a metropolitan desegregation remedy. We finally include Jefferson County, where the court order resulted in a merger of city and suburban schools.

Objective: Through this comparative analysis we seek to tease out the effects of the ruling on patterns of inequity between urban and suburban school districts over time. We specifically examine how districts within these metro areas differed over time in terms of patterns of school
segregation, fiscal resources, and academic performance.

Research Design: We employed qualitative case study methodology. We purposively selected three case study districts within each of the four metro areas (total of 12 school districts) based on their contextual status in 1970, i.e., whether they were in each of these three categories: urban,
segregated suburban, or affluent suburban. We compared them along three dimensions: patterns of segregation, academic outcomes, and fiscal resources.

Conclusions: We found that the segregated and high poverty districts in the three metro areas where courts left districts intact (Detroit, Philadelphia, and St. Louis) have been, since Milliken, increasingly hemmed in by their boundaries: struggling with growing concentrations of need, low resources to meet those needs, and as a result falling into fiscal and academic
decline. In contrast, the maintenance of district boundaries by the courts has allowed the affluent suburbs in these contexts, over time, to benefit from a number of policies and practices that allowed them to accrue and protect advantage through exclusionary zoning policies and housing discrimination. Together, these policies have promoted and protected
the affluence and advantage in each of these contexts, which has in turn attracted investment and allowed these districts to maintain strong financial standing over time. Our study suggests that socially constructed political boundaries, like school district boundary lines, by carving up political geography along the lines of race and class, can take on an active role in the reproduction of inequality.

Although regional equity scholars have demonstrated how cross-jurisdictional collaboration on tra... more Although regional equity scholars have demonstrated how cross-jurisdictional collaboration on transportation, housing, and employment can promote opportunity for low-income families, few have paid serious attention to the potential of regional educational policy to improve opportunity for children. This study seeks to address this gap by examining inter-district “collaboratives” or cooperative agreements between school districts within a metropolitan area. These collaborative arrangements address two inter-related demographic shifts: the rising level of segregation in public schools and the shift from within district segregation to between-district segregation. This article examines three regional collaboratives (Rochester, NY, Omaha, NE, and Minneapolis, MN) that involve varying degrees of cooperation, funding, and legal force. Drawing on 60 in-depth interviews across the three sites, this analysis considers how each program’s design features interact with local political dynamics to shape the degree to which these collaboratives are able to achieve policy goals.

Journal of Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research, 2017

ABSTRACT: This article is a historical case study of an attempt to build a citywide coalition in ... more ABSTRACT: This article is a historical case study of an attempt to build a citywide coalition in Rochester, NY. The coalition wanted to improve urban education by implementing community based wrap-around supports in a similar from as the well-respected Harlem Children's Zone. Our study found that groups had difficulty creating buy-in for this reform effort because of fragmented coalitions, changeover in leadership, and ambitious, yet evolving goals. Political theories relating to coalition building and civic capacity suggest fragmented coalitions can hamper initiatives when bridging between communities of color and power elites fails to take place, but our study suggests additional limitations when varying communities of color are not aligned in their efforts. Our historical case study suggests that strategic development of trust and coalition building is necessary to build civic capacity relating to urban education improvement - particularly between communities of color and power elites, as well as across cmmnunities of color.

Unpublished report. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Education, 2001

Journal of School Leadership, Jan 1, 2009

American Educational Research Journal, Jan 1, 2007

Leadership and Policy in Schools, Jan 1, 2010

annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Seattle, WA, 2001

Educational Administration Quarterly, 2003

Abstract: This 5-year study is evaluating the Public Charter Schools Program (PCSP), a federal ef... more Abstract: This 5-year study is evaluating the Public Charter Schools Program (PCSP), a federal effort to help charter schools meet planning, startup, and early implementation costs. It is gathering local, state, and federal information about the program, documenting the evolution of the charter school movement. Researchers are studying the operations and impacts of the PCSP, characteristics of charter schools, and charter school flexibility and accountability. The 2000-01 study involved telephone surveys of nationally representative ...

Abstract: This paper presents national 2000-01 data from charter schools and charter-school autho... more Abstract: This paper presents national 2000-01 data from charter schools and charter-school authorizers in the United States regarding the various stages of the accountability process: the charter application stage, the monitoring stage, and the sanctions stage. The larger accountability context of public schools and its impact on charter schools are also discussed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the continuing mismatch between the theory and the reality of charter-school accountability. The authors maintain that the original vision of ...

Washington, DC: SRI INTERNATIONAL, Nov 1, 2002

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Public Charter Schools Program (PCSP), established in 1994, represents the ... more EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Public Charter Schools Program (PCSP), established in 1994, represents the federal government's commitment to help charter schools meet planning, start-up, and early implementation costs. By helping charter schools overcome financial barriers, the PCSP is also designed to increase the number of charter schools nationwide. The PCSP is a discretionary grant program, administered by the Office of School Improvement Programs in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education of the US Department of ...

Journal of School Choice, Dec 10, 2009

Surprisingly little is know about the financial management practices of charter schools. The lite... more Surprisingly little is know about the financial management practices of charter schools. The literature offer policymakers only anecdotal answers to the following important questions: Who manages charter school finances and what educational and previous employment experiences do they bring to their positions? What do audited financial statements reveal about the fiscal management practices of charter schools? What fiscal management training opportunities do the charter business officials and trustees receive and want? This article ...

SCHOOL BUSINESS AFFAIRS, 2008

School Business Affairs, 2009

We spend our days making decisions. Often, the consequences of our choices seemingly affect only ... more We spend our days making decisions. Often, the consequences of our choices seemingly affect only a handful of stakeholders. Few, for example, would anticipate much praise (or scorn) to follow their selection of a waste management company, although timely garbage removal is certainly important to students and staff. In this instance, the apparent trivial nature of the decision affords us much discretion and invokes limited scrutiny.

As the debate about high-stakes accountability policies, including the No Child Left Behind Act (... more As the debate about high-stakes accountability policies, including the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), becomes widespread, stopping to consider the statistical discourse that comprise these debates, as well as the underlying politics guiding this discourse is worthwhile. Amanda Walker Johnson attempts to do just that in her recent book, Objectifying Measures: The Dominance of High-Stakes Testing and the Politics of Schooling. Focusing on high-stakes testing policies in Texas, particularly those requiring students to take a ...

American Educational Research Journal, 2012

Education Policy Analysis Archives, Aug 28, 2023

Routledge eBooks, Jun 1, 2023

Peabody Journal of Education, Aug 8, 2018

Educational Policy, Nov 29, 2022

This article discusses what we know about the underlying social and political conditions shaping ... more This article discusses what we know about the underlying social and political conditions shaping research evidence use in education and how this applies to Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs). It discusses types of use, political dynamics and processes, brokers and intermediaries, and racial dynamics and lenses. It also recommends strategies for RPPs in light of these political and social contexts to improve the quality of use and reduce the misuse of research evidence, ending with implications for future research.

The ... Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Apr 4, 2005

Complementary Research Methods for Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, 2018

This chapter describes the theories and analytic methods associated with Social Network Analysis ... more This chapter describes the theories and analytic methods associated with Social Network Analysis (SNA), and considers the application of SNA in educational policy research. SNA is based upon an understanding that individuals in a social system are interdependent and that these underlying relationships shape opportunities and outcomes in ways that require distinct analytic techniques. In education, SNA remains an extremely powerful yet underutilized methodological approach. The chapter begins by providing detailed information regarding collecting and analyzing social network data. The chapter next discusses common theoretical lenses used in SNA studies; highlights SNA research in education and in education policy, especially around policy advocacy and policy implementation; and provides guidance to educational policy scholars as they consider ways to use SNA in their future work.

Networks, Knowledge Brokers, and the Public Policymaking Process, 2021

Thinking and Acting Systemically: Improving School Districts Under Pressure, 2016

Daly, A. J., Finnigan, K. S., & Liou, Y.-H. (2016). How leadership churn undermines learn... more Daly, A. J., Finnigan, K. S., & Liou, Y.-H. (2016). How leadership churn undermines learning and improvement in low-performing school districts. In Daly, A. J., & Finnigan, K. S. (Eds.), Thinking and acting systemically: Improving school districts under pressure (pp. 183-208). US: American Educational Research Association [AERA].