Educational policy has too frequently been understood as that body of weighty pronouncements on educational matters issued by higher authorities. Encapsuled in official reports and policy statements, educational policy appears rigid, changing only as one official document replaces another. Consequently, the study of educational policy has also acquired a static, one-dimensional quality in some hands. Emphasizing the contents of reports and their relationships to previous and subsequent policy statements, these analyses fail to penetrate the surface to reach a more profound understanding of educational policy.