College of Education News

Dr. William Cope

Research Professor
Department of Educational Policy Studies

Although his voice did not count in the electoral process, Bill Cope made a statement about U.S. politics by attending the presidential inauguration. The Australian citizen said he joined the masses in Washington, D.C. to experience a gala unlike any other because "no country in the world does political transitions like this."

Why did you attend the inauguration?

I'm also a citizen of the world, and now a permanent resident of the United States, and from both these perspectives, too, this is an event I wanted to witness.

How will your attending this event affect your role at the college of education?

This is a time of enormous change in education. The previous administration's No Child Left Behind Act, for better and/or for worse, was the largest-ever intervention in school education by a U.S. Federal Government. There is reason to believe that the new administration will both extend the NCLB process, and also depart from it in some significant ways. So this is a defining moment for educators. We need to think what this moment means for education, and how we need to respond to a rapidly changing national and world order.

What was the highlight of the event?

The strange calm in this crowd of two million - its civility, its manifest diversity, its good cheer.

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