A Critical Exploration of "Innovation and Reform" in a Race to the Top and the Subjective Policy Positioning of Classroom Teachers

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Education Policy Making Ranging From Cities, States, and Presidents

Abstract

This research paper is a critical exploration of the school education policy shift to “innovation and reform” in the Obama administration’s Race To The Top (RTTT) legislative agenda regarding the improvement of student achievement. The paper suggests that the discursive shift to “innovation and reform” in RTTT largely ignores addressing other contributing influences to student achievement linked primarily to social disadvantage. The explicit focus on “innovation and reform” in RTTT prioritizes State based intervention via monetary reward (financial inducement) in creating the conditions for change to enhance student achievement. The study undertaken in this paper aims to understand how the argument for “innovation and reform” in RTTT is prosecuted and what it may mean for classroom teachers.

Author

• Andrew Skourdoumbis, Deakin University