The Obama Administration and Educational Reform: Volume 10

The nature of early care and education (ECE) programs in the United States, serving children from birth through age eight, has shifted dramatically in the last 20 years. With his 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama positioned ECE at the top of his educational reform agenda. His acknowledgment of the importance of the early years in providing a foundation for children’s lifelong learning and the critical need for national reform is welcoming to those of us in the field; yet, we meet it with some trepidation. ECE has a history of fragmented services for children and families, relying primarily on inconsistent state funds. Additionally, the pressure to be more competitive with our global counterparts has led to an academic push down at all levels of education, including ECE, rather than an increase in support for schools to meet the diverse needs of young children. The President’s proposed initiative further contributes to this pressure on our youngest children, their families, and their ECE caregivers.

In this chapter, we examine the current state of the ECE field, with an emphasis on the years prior to kindergarten.

We analyze two federal ECE initiatives, and argue for a return to the original purposes of ECE that best serve young children and families.

The author describes the continuous development of federal education policy from the Bush Administration’s No Child Left Behind Act through the Obama Administration’s Race to the Top state competition, noting critical similarities and results. Scholars of education and society agree that socioeconomic status of a school’s population is the most reliable indicator of a school’s success. Ravitch (2013) has emphasized the correlation of both racial isolation and poverty of communities with the standardized test scores of the communities’ students.

The author explores the main components of the Race to the Top competition, including its emphasis on measuring both student and teacher success at least partially in the form of standardized test scores, alongside the similarly standardized test-centric No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

Through a critical comparison of the two administrations’ policies, the author demonstrates that federal education policy since 2001 has supported an increasingly powerful “educational reform” movement whose actions have been harmful to American public schools. Existing research in education overwhelmingly rejects the actions represented by federal education policy.

Both major American political parties have enthusiastically embraced an increasingly powerful “educational reform” movement whose actions have been harmful to American public schools. Teachers, scholars of education, students, parents, and other stakeholders must continue to demonstrate in the public sphere their dissatisfaction with standardized test-centric policies; school closings euphemistically titled “turnarounds”; and other hallmarks of the “educational reformers.”

President Obama’s policies, while broad in scope, offer some specific attention to college and career readiness (CCR) and are necessary for urban youth to realize their career potentials. However, by primarily defining CCR in terms of academic achievement, many of the previously mentioned policies ignore the varied college access skills needed to ensure successful preparation for, enrollment in, and graduation from postsecondary institutions.

This chapter explores the current definition of CCR represented in the Obama administration’s policies, while also expanding the definition to include missing policy pieces related to college access.

The underutilization of school counselors and classroom teachers as college access facilitators who can expand CCR for urban schools is addressed. The paper discusses recent Obama administration initiatives and recommendations for urban schools and higher education institutions.

The administration initiatives and recommendations recently put in place by the Obama administration for urban schools and higher education institutions, if integrated within urban schools, may facilitate the realization of one of President Obama’s educational reform goals of ensuring that every student graduates from high school well prepared for college and a career.

The drive to improve learning and safety in our nation’s public schools has resulted in the widespread adoption of zero-tolerance disciplinary policies. The practice of punishing any school infraction regardless of extenuating circumstances has been particularly detrimental to students of color. Black and Latino students are more likely to be suspended, expelled, and/or referred to law enforcement for nonviolent and/or minor infractions. Students who are removed from school fall behind academically and have an increased risk of being arrested and thrust into the criminal justice system. This reality has moved the Obama administration to urge school officials to abandon overly zealous disciplinary policies. However, the recommendations set forth by the Obama administration are nonbinding and fail to address the root causes of racially discriminatory school discipline practices.

Any meaningful effort to understand and/or disrupt the pattern of pushing students out of schools and funneling them into the criminal justice system must consider the adverse effects of the following three factors: (1) unchecked racial biases among school personnel, (2) inadequately resourced poor performing schools, and (3) the ever-expanding economic inequality in society. Omitting of any of these items from the guidelines and recommendations represents a glaring limitation of the Supportive School Discipline Initiative as a tool for addressing racial disparities in school discipline and the school to prison pipeline.

We aim to show that students of color would benefit from “need-based” educational reforms, a Presidential Administration that directly addresses racial inequality, and economic policies that target the most financially strapped communities.

President Obama positions community colleges as a linchpin of federal policy on education and training for citizens adversely affected by the recession. Chief among recommended reforms is the notion of career pathways that enable students, especially non-traditional age adults, to participate in postsecondary education directed at employment.

This paper reviews the literature on career pathway reforms to describe these programs and the students who enroll in them. It also presents evidence from two third-party evaluations of federal grants supporting career pathway implementation.

Results suggest career pathway programs are spreading throughout the United States through unprecedented levels of federal funding. Adult learners are a primary target group, but more data are needed to determine on a deeper level who these students are and whether they are being well served.

This paper offers new information to help readers consider whether President Obama’s agenda will achieve its goals and positively impact college completion and economic recovery.

This paper focuses on the Obama administration’s American Graduation Initiative (AGI) and the associated completion agenda.

In this paper, we provide an in-depth overview of the AGI with a focus on: (a) articulating the rationale that prompted the AGI; (b) describing the four primary components of the reform effort; (c) examining the political forces that led to its demise; (d) investigating the derivatives of the AGI in the form of private foundation and state-level efforts to bolster success rates; and (e) illuminating criticisms of the AGI that could have served to complicate the initiative’s success.

In the latter section of the paper, we also offer recommendations for future national and state policy.

This paper discusses how educational policies have shaped the development of large-scale educational data and reviews current practices on the educational data use in selected states. Our purposes are to: (1) analyze the common practice and use of educational data in postsecondary education institutions and identify challenges as the educational crossroads; (2) propose the concept of Data Literacy (DL) for teaching (Mandinach & Gummer, 2013a) and its relevance to researchers and stakeholders in postsecondary education; and (3) provide future implications for practices and research to increase educational DL among administrators, practitioners, and faculty in postsecondary education.

We used two guiding conceptual frameworks to analyze the common practice and use of educational data in postsecondary education institutions and identify challenges as the educational crossroads. First, we used the 4Vs of Big Data by Rajan (2012) to examine the misalignment between the policy mandate and the practices. The elements of the 4Vs of Big Data – volume, velocity, variety, and veracity – help us to depict how Big Data enables educators to organize, store, manage, and manipulate vast amounts of educational data at the right moment and at the right time. Second, we used the conceptual framework for DL proposed by Gummer and Mandinach (in press). They interpret DL “as the collection, examination, analysis, and interpretation of data to inform some sort of decision in an educational setting” (p. 1, in press).

Using the guiding frameworks, we identified four educational data crossroads as follows:

Crossroad 1: Unintended Increase in Workload Volume;

Crossroad 2: Unrealistic Expectations of Data Velocity;

Crossroad 3: Data Variety in Silos; and

Crossroad 4: Data Veracity and Policy Agenda Mismatch.

In this paper, we explain each of these crossroads in more detail with some examples.

Much of the existing body of literature, exemplary practices, as well as federal and state funding has been focused on K-12 education contexts. In this paper, we identify current practices and challenges of educational data in the institutions of higher education. Additionally, this paper presents the application of the exemplary practices of data literacy development in postsecondary education and implications for future practices of data literacy development in postsecondary education.

To provide an informative review of the gainful employment legislation proposed by the Obama Administration which seeks to reform higher education by making colleges and universities more accountable in their institutional practices.

This paper provides a thorough review of a breadth of recently published works and notice of proposed rulemakings (NPRMs) on gainful employment legislation providing a practical understanding of the proposed policy. The sources are sorted into the following sections: background of rulemaking proceedings, who are the students, proposed measures, challenges, policy recommendations, implications for practice, and future research.

An analysis of the information reviewed is presented providing policy recommendations that could potentially circumvent some of the challenges presented as well as satisfy the government’s need to hold institutions more accountable. Offered as an amenable solution to stakeholders is to better inform students about program outcomes, financial aid packages, and financial obligations to mitigate the need for regulation and for institutions to perform continuous evaluation of their programs to align with workforce needs.

This paper serves as an informative resource to college/university administrators, students, parents, and policymakers offering practical recommendations to achieve the goals of all stakeholders by employing approaches to better inform students in their decision making.

Obviously affirmative action has had a presence in presidential politics since the Kennedy Administration; however, the focus of this paper is not to chronicle the treatment of affirmative action policy in each presidency since the 1960s, but rather to take a different look at affirmative action from the context of contemporary times during the Obama Administration, with both Clinton and Bush Administrations as reference points.

In addition to noting how the Clinton and Bush Administrations responded to critics of the 50 +  year old policy framework of acting affirmatively, this paper explores how the Obama Administration has advanced access by supporting race-conscious admissions and principles of the diversity rationale.

This paper also argues that the Obama Administration has acted affirmatively by establishing and/or promoting economic policies that seek to address the legacy of poverty, thereby expanding access further.

Recent educational initiatives by the Obama Administration have highlighted the need for more racial and ethnic diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields (The White House, 2011). While African Americans are underrepresented in faculty positions nationally, accounting for only 5.2% of all academic faculty across all disciplines (Harvey, W. B., & Anderson, E. L. (2005). Minorities in higher education: Twenty-first annual status report. Washington, DC: American Council on Education), the underrepresentation of African Americans in STEM fields such as computing science is even more severe. According to a recent Computing Research Association (CRA) Taulbee Survey, African Americans represent just 1.3% of all computing sciences faculty (CRA, 2006).

This paper examines the benefits of one program that specifically seeks to fulfill the Obama Administration’s initiatives by addressing this disparity in higher education.

The program helps prepare doctoral students for the academic job search process in an effort to increase the ranks of African American faculty in computing sciences.

Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are among the least empirically examined institutional cohorts in American higher education. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize extant research on the historical, public, and social realities related to HBCU institutional strength and survival. Attention is given to the manifestation of race-neutral ideology in public sector in the aftermath of the election of the nation’s first African American president – Barack Obama.

A bricolage of policy case study, meta-analysis, and critical race theory.

Highlight current perceptions on the disparate impact of federal policy on institutional sustainability and the issue of representation in presidential cabinet appointments incident to HBCUs.

This paper provides a useful resource for educators, policymakers, and researchers.

This paper is concerned with the obstacles of educational reform in a racial climate and the acceptance of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States.

As a result, while the president’s positions on educational reform are important, the question still remains; can the majority of Whites support an agenda coming from a Black president? Moreover, as a Black man, can the president really be “allowed” to be a “representative” of all of the people? Do many people think that the election of Mr. Obama ushered in a “postracial” society; in that he is the living testament that we no longer need to focus on social justice, civil rights, and educational reform, especially for underperforming minority schools? Is race a factor among Whites and Blacks regarding President Obama’s approval ratings? How much success can any president expect to have when a significant majority of the population is resistant to his vision of “change?”

Based upon these lingering questions, the issue of race has been and will remain a factor in the Obama presidency that no other president has had to contend. Obfuscation, control, and fear appear to be the raison d’être regarding a strategy of resistance toward President Obama and his interest in “change.” These are the reasons why President Obama’s time is significantly spent on negotiating racial obstacles to change.

The goal of this paper is to provide a sociological and psychological context within a historical framing to understand obstacles to change faced by President Barack Hussein Obama.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive summary of the current status of undocumented immigrants in the United States, with a particular focus on the DREAM Act, as a policy option to confront the realities of immigration in our nation.

A literature review is presented providing the context to understand the livelihood of undocumented immigrants in the United States. This summary is supported by an analysis of the benefits and shortcomings of the DREAM Act.

It is clear that immigration reform has emerged as one of the most compelling issues in our country. This examination highlights that the DREAM Act cannot be enacted as a policy in a vacuum. Rather, the DREAM Act will need to operate in concert with other policies (i.e., education, economic, health care, immigration) to offer a foundation for future immigration reform policies.

Several states support policies that welcome undocumented immigrants seeking a college education. This paper presents valuable information highlighting the need for reform and action considering current demographic and immigration trends.

This paper serves as a resource providing a detailed summary of the current status of undocumented immigrants in the United States. In addition, it provides an analysis of the benefits and shortcomings of the DREAM Act.

This paper provides an overview of the Post 9/11 GI Bill and outlines the steps that the Obama administration has taken to provide for the educational and training needs of veterans and other eligible dependents.

This paper offers a policy analytic review of the extant literature on veterans’ education and regulations pertaining to the Post 9/11 GI Bill.

It is found that although the Post 9/11 GI Bill was enacted with the right intentions, several changes had to be made to protect both veterans and tax payers as well as the integrity of the GI Bill.

To help educators understand the role that the Obama administration has played in advancing veteran education and training.

Systematic oppression and marginalization of queer (sometimes also referred to as LGBTQ) people has affected all aspects of U.S. society, including education at all levels. Despite the heavy policing of queer sexuality and gender both inside and outside higher education, these aspects of identity have been overlooked in educational policy. This paper discusses federal educational policy that affects queer students, faculty, and staff in higher education.

Discussion in this paper is informed by three guiding tenets: sexuality is both central and marginal to queer identities; trans* identities are both inclusive of and beyond those who are in the process of confirming their gender identity through hormones and/or surgery; discussion of educational policy must acknowledge queer theory’s utility and nonutility.

The status of queer people in colleges and universities is reviewed first. Then, challenges of developing policy to address queer issues are acknowledged, while also illustrating recent policy changes and judicial rulings that have positive implications for queer people in higher education.

The paper concludes by identifying remaining gaps and recommendations for future policy development, including the need for federal nondiscrimination laws that cover sexual and gender minorities and restructuring policies for queer inclusion.

This paper explores the National Study on Women in Higher Education and Student Affairs.

It includes a collectively written diary, archives, focus groups, and interviews with a diverse group of women leaders from across the country. The women are diverse in terms of their self-identified race, class, age, sexual orientation, position on college campuses, and additional identities.

The author’s feminist approach to the review of these materials highlights notions of pay inequity, intersectionality of identities, and the power of women’s groups in educational settings.

The author’s research identifies areas critical to intentional change in educational policy and programs that have the potential to increase access and equity for women in higher education.

Is health care a right or an entitlement? This question persists in the ongoing political, legal, and social turbulence surrounding efforts toward accessible and affordable health care in the United States.

The analysis is drawn from a review of the literature and interviewing a subject matter expert employed by a health maintenance organization in Michigan.

Since the early 1900s, federal legislation has been proposed to establish some type of health care structure that could sufficiently address the varying health care needs of Americans. These multiple attempts toward national health care reform invoke the inquiry of the federal government’s role and function to facilitate access to and management of health care. The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) amplifies the conditions and consequences of implementing health care reform effectively.

For college students, the complexities of both the health care and higher education systems can be overwhelming, especially for those students who may already be struggling to pay for and/or finance their schooling and satisfy academic requirements to matriculate while simultaneously striving to maintain a reasonable level of health to complete their education. College students are but one of many vulnerable populations in the United States impacted by the complicated policies and procedures of accessing, delivering, funding, and paying for health care.