Obama’s approach to education in the 2014 State of the Union | Cloaking Inequity

Obama’s approach to education in the 2014 State of the Union | Cloaking Inequity:

Obama’s approach to education in the 2014 State of the Union

With bated breath, last evening I watched the 2014 State of the Union (SOTU) address.  I wondered if Barack Obama would propose anything controversial for our nation’s schools… or even go in a new direction…

I was asked by The Conversation to cover the 2014 SOTU.  The Conversation UK is an independent news and commentary website produced by “academics and journalists in collaboration, sourcing news, commentary and the latest research from the academic community.” The website, connects a team of professional journalists with academic authors to “unlock their expertise, apply it to topical issues, and make it available to the public.”

My deadline was 5 a.m. this past morning. Maybe that is why I am just waking up. Here is my response to the 2014 SOTU published at The Conversation:

In 2008, I was full of hope that Barack Obama would change the American approach to education. I volunteered for his campaign’s educational policy committee and was selected as an Obama delegate for the 2008 Texas state convention.

Many in the education community were encouraged that his 2008 campaign’s education advisor was Linda Darling-Hammond, a scholar and world-renowned school reform expert. The promise was palpable that she would become his Secretary of Education.

Then reality set in when Obama chose Arne Duncan, a non-educator basketball buddy as his Secretary of Education. Duncan was a former superintendent of Chicago schools, left the district in shambles and his signature reform — school “turnarounds” — largely failed.

The reality of Obama’s approach to education during the past five years is that his policies are not forward-thinking, but rather a recycling of old ideas.

Obama’s current approach to educational policy may even be borderline plagiarism. President George W Bush’s No Child Left Behind, the genesis of nationally mandated high-stakes testing and accountability in the United States has been left alone. Obama’s “waivers” and Race to the Top policies toincentivise reform are focused on more of the same standardised and federally-controlled approach to education. Obama is actually quite retro when it comes to education policy.

Watched with hope

So with the hope that Obama would finally move forward, I tuned in to watch the 2014 State of the Union. The president began by mentioning a teacher and then quickly turned to the pronouncement