著者

津田 昌宏

出版者

日本教育政策学会

雑誌

日本教育政策学会年報

巻号頁・発行日

no.22, pp.118-131, 2015-07-15

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This essay presents a review of the way of implementing educational poliy by the Obama Administration, which succeeds in upholding the spirit of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to improve social inequality by closing achievement gaps. Contrary to the Bush Administration's hierarchical style of implementing educational policy, Obama's way is fully putting educational interest group's activities and advice to practical use and constructing a policy network among them. Especially, the administration's strategy to improve labor-management relations accelerated the construction of policy network among 8 influential interest groups, including the National Education Association (NEA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). The Administration believes the network will help improve social inequality. Inspired by this policy network among leading national organizations, the Obama administration acknowledged the importance of the teaching profession, and committed itself to comprehensive improvements of the profession, including the teacher preparation and pay system. These approaches lead to the cooperation between states and districts governments and labor unions like the NEA, and to promoting motivation for attaining the above mentioned ESEA goal. We can see an example of such developments in the State of Wisconsin.