Moving Forward: Four Trends Remaking Public Schooling and how the Obama Administration Manages the Changes

Abstract

For public education, it is either the best of times or the worst of times. For certain, the times are changing. Predictable EIC policy dominance is gradually giving way to something else, more quickly than most predicted. Even now, in out of the way places such as Exton, Pennsylvania, the unthinkable is happening. The lead author, who lives in Arkansas, serves on the (unpaid) board of Achievement House, a cyber charter school located in Exton that teaches students from more than a hundred school districts all across the Keystone State. The mere fact that someone in Arkansas can serve, and, if state laws were modified, even tutor or teach “in” a school a time zone away shows the potential for technology to change everything. At a recent physical visit to Achievement House, the author attended the 8:00 a.m. daily meeting of the tenth-grade at-risk team. In the meeting room, a screen showed a cyber class in progress, with images of the teacher and students flashing up as each made comments, their points scrolling down the screen for the rest of us to monitor if we wished. The team included the principal, the western site director (who attended via conference call), the special education coordinator, six teacher-advisors for the tenth grade, and the Chief Curriculum Officer (CCO). Each morning, a different grade-level at-risk meeting takes place, with the school attempting to employ behavioral contracts and frequent contact with students and parents before pressuring anyone to withdraw for tardiness or absence.KeywordsEducation ReformCharter SchoolCreative ClassPresident OBAMAAmerican Enterprise InstituteThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.