Obamacation or Abomination?

Courtesy Utica Schools

On President Barack Obama’s personal website, he states his overall vision of education in America as that which enables students to compete in the global community.  However, Obama believes our education system, as it stands today, is unable to do so.  During a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire in November 2007, he proclaimed that the nations which beat the US in educational achievement will be much better equipped to play an important role in the global economy.  Further, he stated that China graduates eight time the number of engineers as the US, and that our high school seniors possess lower math and science test scores than much of the rest of the world.  Change is needed, and we need to “Rise to the Top”.

It seems Obama’s main rationale for this inadequacy stems from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (otherwise known as No Child Left Behind, or NCLB for short) – passed during George W. Bush’s presidency.  Now, the President presents the disclaimer that NCLB in itself is not the problem.  In fact, he thinks it is founded on good principles.  However, it is the implementation and funding that are flawed.  One mistake with this legislature is that it makes schools hire and retain highly qualified teachers, attempt to close the achievement gap, increase accountability, and raise learning standards – all without the money needed to do so.  Another misstep he notes is through deeming certain schools and students as failures, yet walking away without support – thus allowing them to be left behind.  Essentially, Obama thinks more funding is needed for NCLB to be effective.

With the problem and potential cause stated, in the opinion of President Obama, he proceeds with his solution:  to reform NCLB.  He has coined the terms “Rise to the Top” and “New Vision for 21st Century Education” to describe his reform.  According to Suite 101’s education blog, in regard to standardized testing mandated by NCLB, “teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests…[President Obama] will improve the assessments used to track student progress to measure readiness for college.”  In regard to federal funding through the Act – as addressed during the New Hampshire meeting – our nation needs to support its schools in need, not punish them through removing funding.  Finally, the President explains that standardized learning goals should not come at the expense of a well-rounded education (such as cutting certain programs, like music, art, or gym), rather they should be a part of this well-rounded education.

At this point in the article, you may be saying to yourself, “great ideologies, but what specifically are you going to do?”  In further analyzing the 2007 town hall meeting, Obama rattles off a list of programs and ideas he plans as part of his reform package.  First, he wishes to make early childhood education more affordable through expanding pre-kindergarten programs, such as Head Start, Children’s First Agenda, and Early Learning Grants.  Second, he plans to recruit and prepare new educators through Service Scholarship programs that staff hard-to-fill rural and urban schools in high-need subjects.  Third, he requires all schools to achieve accreditation.  Fourth, he wishes to institute a national performance assessment for all teacher preparation programs.  Fifth, he hopes to establish official mentoring programs for new teachers.  Sixth, Obama aspires to provide increased pay and resources to reward teachers for making a difference in terms of school and student performance – not just based on standardized test scores.  Seventh, he will implement peer evaluation and peer support systems for all teachers.  Eighth, he will create standardized student standards that diagnose student learning need in which to be helped, such as digital portfolios, technology, and science components – in addition to the other core subjects.  Finally, he places the need for a greater emphasis on science education, which will greatly help US compete on a global level.  This list is quite ambitious, but is it feasible or even possible?

Pie in the sky or it’s about time?  There are plenty of supporters and opponents to Obama’s NCLB reform ideas. Eric Tipler

Courtesy Stanford University

of Huffington Post sees the original NCLB as the non-realistic of the policies.  The proficiency deadline for 2014 was unrealistic in that it held TESOL and ESL students to the same level as native English speakers.  Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) held schools to an unrealistic standard of perfection as its goal, rather than a more realistic goal of relative yearly progress.  Current state standards based on NCLB do not prepare students for college or the working world, and Obama’s idea of national college/career-based standards are more realistic.

Many opponents of NCLB reform see Obama’s emphasis on more funding for early childhood education as inappropriate, because improving this age group’s development should fall in the hands of parents, not the school system – that more emphasis should be place on K-12 education.  Opponents of NCLB reform also believe Obama’s idea of merit pay will not necessarily attract better teachers, as much as attract teachers who enter the field for the pay rather than the virtue of teaching.  Obama’s reform to make higher education more accessible in terms of learning standards ignores the fact that college costs are rising – according to these opponents – and the increase in Pell Grants won’t compensate for these rising costs, they claim.

Can President Obama’s reform occur, given the state of our nation’s economy and given the ever-widening bipartisan split occurring in Congress?  At the time of his election in November 2008, Obama believed more funding was needed for NCLB to be effective, but would be a challenge with the economic downturn before the beginning of his administration.  At that point, NCLB reform was placed on hold. Though his reform ideas were placed on hold initially due to the recession, the president would like these reforms to be reauthorized as a part of the 2011 federal budget.  Andrew Rotherham of Education Sector (a think tank) thinks getting this reform to pass through Congress will be tough.  Many education leaders think Obama’s plan takes on a more forceful role of government on education than experienced before, and that more specifics are needed in order to for the reform plan to be justified.  Personally, I am completely on board with Obama’s ideas of more meaningful and applicable learning standards – including greater emphasis on technology and science – and I believe more funding should go into education.  However, I just do not know where the money will come from at this time.  While I see the spending that has increased our deficit as the best attempt at investing in a stronger future economy, I note that education often takes the back seat and much of the nation’s citizens are fed up with mega-spending.  So my final thought is that NCLB reform will unfortunately go back on the shelf to collect dust.

Courtesy Linda Causey

What are your thoughts?

REFERENCES:

The Better Teacher Project, “Assessing President Obama’s Educational Reform Initiative”,  (accessed 2/2/10, http://betterteacher.org/Professional-Development/Obama-Health-Plan.asp)

Hopkins, Leigh. Suite 101:  Educational Issues, “President Obama’s Proposed Education Agenda: Will No Child Left Behind Be Left Behind in the New President’s Plan” (accessed 2/2/10, http://educationalissues.suite101.com/article.cfm/president_obamas_proposed_education_agenda)

Organizing for America, “Education”, (accessed 2/2/10, http://www.barackobama.com/issues/education/)

Paulson, Amanda. Yahoo! News, “Education reform: Obama budget reboots No Child Left Behind”,  (accessed 2/2/10, http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100202/ts_csm/277450)

White, Deborah. U.S. Liberal Politics, “Obama’s Education Plan to Reform Schools & Reward Teachers”,  (accessed 2/2/10, http://usliberals.about.com/od/education/a/ObamaEdPlan.htm)

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