Transforming American Education System - Essay Sample

Introduction

During the Obama administration, the "Race to the Top" agenda marked an important milestone in the American education for its intended systemic reforms to learning and teaching within America's schools. The incentive offered rising promises to the standards of education in line with the policies set by the career developers and colleges. Race to the Top enabled the American states to follow the quest for higher education standards, expand the effectiveness of tutors, account for classroom data, as well as to adopt strategies to assist the besieged institutions. Such opportunities created ground on which the less privileged and the Americans minority in the society acquired quality education policies that had supported by three presidents before Trump (Mone, 2016).

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In the rise of the Trump administration, the presidency reauthorized three groups entrusted in recommending issues related to education among the people of color. By failing to extend the President's Advisory Commission on Hispanics and African Americans Education Excellence, the future of education in America is at stake. The commission members are obliged to give expert advice on issues related to education to environment, healthcare, and technology. A failure to renew their contracts puts the important dockets at an unknown fate that may compromise the quality of education.

When the Race to the Top was functioning, huge plans were set in place. More than $4 billion rolled out within 19 states that brought robust educational reforms. The funds supported over 22 million students and hired 1.5 million tutors in 42,000 institutions that represented 42% of minority students in America. The Race to the Top reforms allowed demanding standards and better assessment in the schools, better data systems within schools, school leadership became effective, and there was an increased highlighting on the numerous interventions put in low performing schools to improve their fairing. The District of Columbia and 46 states had submitted their plans to participate in the Race to the Top competition with 19 states having successfully being funded. Thirty-four states had already streamlined their policies in education to foster the necessary change. Together, 48 states had been actively creating standards for career and college curriculum (Shaughnessy, 2013).

The Trump administration, however, came with its policies that have threatened the progress that the Race to the Top was making. As such, the advisory committees cannot make recommendations to the president who in turn reports to the Congress on the response and actions to take. There have not been any communications between Department of Education and the Race to the Top commissions that have gashed any commitment in leadership from the federal or the white house level. As Gandara states, "The commissioners don't have the wherewithal to meet on their own, and I guess there's a real question about what purpose that would serve if it's an advisory commission and there's nobody to take the advice" (Fuchus & Lee, 2017).

With such inconsistency from the current government, the American community through the commissions cannot bring fourth any agenda since they do not have any wherewithal on their own. Moreover, the current president is obliged to appoint the commissioners-a thing that the current leadership has assumed. The role of President Advisory Commissions on education initiatives, therefore, stands in a vacuum a thing that might bring the accomplishments achieved in the previous governments to a halt. The trump administration should, therefore, consider appointing thoughtful and experienced personnel who are mindful of the concerned communities to address the education issues.

References

Shaughnessy, M. F. (2013, April 15). An Interview with Joel Spring: Are We Racing to the Top or Sinking to the Bottom? Retrieved from http://www.educationviews.org/an-interview-with-joel-spring-are-we-racing-to-the-top-or-sinking-to-the-bottom/Mone, I. (2016, November 8). Race to the Top and student achievement. Retrieved from https://edexcellence.net/articles/race-to-the-top-and-student-achievement

Fuchs, C., & Lee, T. (2017, September 18). Presidential advisory commissioners question educational initiatives' futures. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/presidential-advisory-commissioners-question-educational-initiatives-futures-n802136