Summary of Findings from a Case Study of Policy Entrepreneurship in Higher Education: A Descriptive Portrait

The call for higher education reform in the U.S. intensifies as the gap between the haves and have-nots
widens. Policy actors from across the political spectrum advocate for various policy solutions creating a
policy environment that is complex and often contentious. In such environments, policy entrepreneurs—
those individuals who advocate for policy innovation from within and without government—try to break
through the barriers of incremental politics to create reform. As important as this role is in structuring
higher education policy, it has not yet been explored. This study fills a gap in the extant literature by
cataloging the traits, values, motivation, skills, and strategies that enable higher education policy
entrepreneurs at state and national levels to accomplish sustainable and innovative higher education
reform. This study employed a descriptive, revelatory, singlecase study research design interpreted
from the postpositivist paradigm. Data drawn from interviews with 23 policy entrepreneurs from across
the U.S. were triangulated with document reviews and a multi-level coding strategy. Data were then
juxtaposed against nine propositions extracted from the extant literature to derive the findings. Policy
entrepreneurs in this study are creative political leaders with a passion for improving educational
opportunity. They are pragmatic, resourceful, perseverant, strategic, and influential actors who don’t
work in isolation; rather, they are network dependent and value collaboration, compromise, and
listening. They reach across the aisle, work hard to build credibility and trust, recognize windows of
opportunity, create opportunities to advocate for policy innovation, take calculated risks, and make
sacrifices for their cause.