Leveraging social innovation in US educational reform: a review of legislation and policy recommendations

President Obama’s State of the Union Address in January 2011 included a commitment to re-authorise the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. NCLB had been criticised by education leaders (Berliner, 2009; Noddings, 2007), policymakers and practitioners, while others had noted benefits in its implementation. Critics, hoped that instead of abandoning NCLB, a new administration would make substantial improvements to it. This paper proposes to review major principles of the act, explain some of the benefits and disadvantages of the mandates for accountability as perceived by educational experts, and summarise what is known currently about President Obama’s proposals to address accountability in re-authorising ESEA.