In this essay, Jeff Duncan-Andrade explores the concept of hope, which was central to the Obama campaign, as essential for nurturing urban youth. He first identifies three forms of "false hope"--hokey hope, mythical hope, and hope deferred--pervasive in and peddled by many urban schools. Discussion of these false hopes then gives way to…

The following essay is a dialogue between two high school English teachers at a small, progressive public school on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Throughout their dialogue, Jen, whose voice appears in italics, and Kim, whose voice appears in plain text, discuss the factors that motivated their decisions to become teachers, tell of the distinct…

From the unique perspective gained heading Obama's education policy transition team, Darling-Hammond describes President Obama's commitment to making the education of every child a collective responsibility and reviews the major tenets of the new administration's plans for education. She reflects on the importance of suggested policy changes,…

In this essay, Charles Payne and Tim Knowles argue that given President Obama's support of charter schools, it is time for educators and policymakers to closely consider both the possibilities and the limitations of these schools in the context of urban school reform. The authors discuss the unique flexibility of charter schools--namely in…

High school teacher Megan Behrent reflects on the impact of Obama's election on the students in her high school classroom. Obliged to temper her students' joyful exuberance on the morning of November 5, 2008, Behrent found that the election fervor highlighted for her the ways that schooling under NCLB has constrained both educators and students,…

In this essay, Vanessa Siddle Walker invokes the voices of black educators who challenged the diluted and failed vision for an integrated South after the 1954 "Brown v. Board of Education" decision mandating school desegregation. Through collaboration and activism, these educators fought against the second-class integration implemented in the…

Reflecting on the 2008 election, Prudence Carter challenges the popular notion that President Obama's victory is symbolic of a postracial society in the United States. Citing statistics about the opportunity gap that still exists in our nation's schools--as well as the recent Supreme Court cases that served to halt racial desegregation--Carter…

In this essay, Wayne Au carefully considers the educational stance of Barack Obama by exploring the president's speeches and his personnel and policy choices. Au considers the election of Obama as a moment of possibility for change in American education, but also questions whether Obama's hopeful message about education will be fully realized,…

When she received our call for submissions, high school educator Ariane White saw it as a pedagogical as well as an artistic opportunity. Moved by the shift in the country's leadership, she chose to express her reaction in the following poem. She then used her poem as a teaching and organizing tool, sharing it with colleagues and students in an…

In this essay, Carola Suarez-Orozco and Marcelo Suarez-Orozco address one of the most critical challenges facing President Obama's administration: meeting the educational needs of Latino and other immigrant children in the United States. The authors first provide a brief overview of past policies and agendas that have created a situation in which…

In this essay, Gloria Ladson-Billings describes her reaction to Barack Obama's election and her desire to share these historic moments with folks she considers "everyday people." She then looks to the future of education in the United States and highlights obstacles to the Obama administration's meaningful engagement with education issues.…

The Baltimore Algebra Project is a student-run, student-staffed nonprofit that employs public high schoolers and recent graduates as math study group leaders and as organized advocates for quality education as a constitutional right. In this essay Jay Gillen draws on his experiences as a facilitator of the Algebra Project to argue that only a…

In the following pages, Robert Moses tells the history of the early civil rights movement in Mississippi, focusing on the individuals, alliances, and strategies that brought about fundamental change in the United States and ultimately made possible the election of Barack Obama to the presidency. Moses describes how the efforts of Justice…

In this essay, William Ayers calls for a more vital and effective public education system, one guided by the basic democratic principle that all human beings are of incalculable and irreducible value. Ayers argues that to achieve such a system we must reclaim schools from the industrial model of the twentieth century and build classrooms that…

The author began writing this essay the day after waves of euphoria swept over what appeared to be a profoundly altered public space. Americans had seen the most diverse gathering of people coming freely together to affirm a common purpose no one could quite yet define. No one had instructed them to come out in the cold of that inauguration…