Dive Brief:

• Hayley Glatter and Alia Wong at The Atlantic compiled a list of 10 ed tech buzzwords that got a foothold during the Obama administration, even if they weren’t invented in the last eight years, and while some of them might go out of style, they expect the next administration might embrace some of them.
• Measuring achievement gaps (potentially as an argument for expanding school choice), using flipped classroom, and highlighting the positive trait grit all seem ripe for being embraced by President Donald Trump and his prospective Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, while the Every Student Succeeds Act is likely to preserve a focus on social-emotional learning, noncognitive skills and the idea of educating the whole child.
• Other terms outlined by The Atlantic are data-driven instruction, the idea of failure as a stepping stone to success, growth mindset, and STEM/STEAM.

Dive Insight:

Every administration has its own buzzwords in the education sphere, aligned with key priorities when it comes to education reform. While the Obama administration supported the concept of “school choice” through the expansion of high-performing charter schools, the Trump administration is set to make a broadened version of school choice its top issue.

Trump and DeVos have both pledged their support for voucher programs that would support student transfers to not only public charter schools but private and religious schools. Their support from the federal level could encourage policy changes among the states that expand access to vouchers. As of March 2016, 12 states – Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin – and D.C. had voucher programs.