is Associate Professor of Urban Education and Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Temple University.

is Director, Center for the Study of Higher Education, and Professor of Education and Senior Scientist, at the College of Education, The Pennsylvania State University.

"Sparked by the biannual 50-State Report Card on Higher Education…published since 2000, interest in comparative state performance on a variety of educational measures has intensified. This excellent volume, with articles by several of those who have been pioneers in this field, will be of great value to scholars, policy analysts, and legislative staffers charged with understanding and developing sensible state policies for higher education." -- David W. Breneman, University Professor and Dean Newton and Rita Meyers Professor in Economics of Education, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia

Introduction: The Challenges of Comparative State-Level Higher Education Policy Research--Donald E. Heller, The Pennsylvania State University; The Challenges of Conducting Comparative Analyses of State-Level Policy Change Toward Community Colleges: Testing a Theory of Change Across Six Diverse States--Kathleen M. Shaw, Temple University and Thomas Bailey, Teachers College, Columbia University; Incorporating Political-System Data into Comparative-State Research on Postsecondary Policy: The Opportunities and Challenges of Space and Time--Michael K. McLendon & James C. Hearn, Vanderbilt University; The Role of Higher Education in State Budgets--Jennifer Delaney, Stanford University and Will Doyle, Vanderbilt University; Tracking How New Ideas Become Higher Education Policy and Practice: The Challenges of Gathering Comparative Policy Implementation Data--Sara Y. Goldrick-Rab, University of Wisconsin, Madison and Kathleen M. Shaw, Temple University; Higher Education Resources and Performance: Challenges in Collecting Comparative Financial And Outcome Data--Will Doyle, Vanderbilt University; Setting Agendas and Developing Policies: Understanding the Politics of State Higher Education Policymaking--Christopher Mazzeo