Paul Thomas has invited his fellow educators to help compile The Arne Duncan Reader.
This would be a reading list for Secretary Duncan of books, even articles and essays, that he could read during his summer vacation.
Given his devotion to testing, data, choice, competition, and charters, what should he read to broaden his understanding of children and education?
What would you add to Secretary Duncan’s reading list?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Horace Mann, Piaget, and Howard Gardner would be a good start.
The Book Whisperer
I would respectfully recommend The Teachers’ Lounge (Uncensored): A Funny, Edgy, Poignant Look at Life in the Classroom, by Kelly Flynn. The book includes a badass foreword by Nancy Carlsson-Paige. It was also chosen by the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International as one of its Top 5 Must Reads for 2013. The book honors teachers and recognizes their challenges, takes policymakers to task for passing destructive education policy, and has a strong anti-testing message.
Raising the Curve and perhaps he should volunteer to read to children at a local library.
The Courage to Teach
real short version, from John Dewey more than a century ago: “What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children.”
if you want more but are in a hurry Mr Secretary, this is a short and sweet one by the NY Times reporter Michael Brick:
http://nyti.ms/T9TcKA
much longer, but well worth reading f you have the time, is his book:
http://www.savingtheschool.com/
“Across the country, public schools face the threat of extinction in the numerically ordained churn of the accountability movement. Now, for the first time, we can tally the human cost of rankings and scores. In this powerful rejoinder to the prevailing winds of American education policy, Michael Brick takes us inside the high-pressure world of a school on the brink. Compelling, character-driven narrative journalism, Saving the School pays overdue tribute to the great American high school, and to the people inside.”
of course the books by Ravitch and Darling-Hammond would do you some good too. And the Cliff’s Notes versions are here:
http://bit.ly/13pQF9G
http://bit.ly/14SwYDb
Something very simple, with lots of pictures. Maybe Dr. Seuss?
That one with the Star-bellied Sneetches seems appropriate.
Two articles for his consideration: Merrow’s article, ‘Meeting Superman,” about George Albano, an inspirational principal in Mount Vernon, NY, and “Leading with Soul and Spirit,” by Bolman and Deal.
The US Constitution.
: )
Errors and Expectations: A Guide for the Teaching of Basic Writing by Mina P. Shaughnessy. Because sometimes the classics are the best.
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/plunkett-george/tammany-hall/
Chapters 3 and 9.
He must start with books by Diane Ravitch. Those reads would give him a perspective on American Education. He should read Dr. Edward F. Berger’s book: Vital Lies, The Irrelevance of our Schools in the Information Age, for perspective on saving what works in our schools and evolving/changing what does not work. I’m certain he has never read: Milton Schwebel. Remaking America’s Three School Systems, Now Separate And Unequal. There are also many good books on Ethics he should be familiar with.
I’ve had the good pleasure to meet Dr. Schwebel. He even visited my school a couple of years ago.
He should read The Death and Life of the Great American School System. And he should really read it, not have his flunkies do it and tell him what they thought it meant. Then he should take a test on it, and if he fails, he should be fired. Then he should teach a class on it, and if his students fail the test, he should be fired. Finally, if either he or his students pass the test, he should still be fired.
LOL!
I agree…Diane Ravitch. 🙂 and Daniel Pink. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future and Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Lies,Damn Lies and Statistics.
Andrew Summers, Me the Flunkie.
More damn lies and statistics
Now WAIT a minute!
In Arne Duncan’s defense, he HAS had extensive experience, as I’ve just discovered, with children in an educational setting. According to his Wikki bio:
“While growing up, Duncan spent much of his free time at his mother’s center tutoring or playing with students there.”
Let’s please give credit where credit is due.
For his reading list, I recomment the very effective Judith Whipple series from (I think it was) the Chicago Public Schools, starting with “Laugh with Larry” and ending with “Sunny Days on City Streets” . . . .
We want Mr. Duncan to feel empowered, not overwhelmed.
Correction: It was “Gertrude Whipple”, not “Judith”. . . .
Top of the list:
Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, by Diane Ravitch
He would learn a lot from this book about failed top-down, totalitarian “reform.”
Stuck in the Shallow End by Margolis
He should definitely read the first chapter of The Having of Wonderful Ideas.
“Horace’s Compromise,” by Theodore Sizer.
Anything by John Holt.
“The Trouble With Ed Schools,” by David Labaree
“Teaching as a Conserving Activity” and “Teaching as a Subversive Activity,” both by Neil Postman.
Etc.
Stuck in the Shallow in by Jane Margolis
Why, all of your books, of course, Dr. Ravitch. And all of Jonathan Kozol’s.
And–last but certainly not least!–Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry, by Todd Farley. Not too long (242 pages), hilarious in numerous parts, and excellent conclusions. Could this be the book that would convince Arne to get rid of Pear$on once and for all? (Nah.Won’t happen.)
The Reader, the Text and the Poem, by Louise Rosenblatt
Start here: http://www.mymontessoriacademy.com/newsletters/websitebronfenbrennerecologicaltheory.pdf
Anything Bronfenbrenner would help as a start. Only then, can a general thought be that we are the SECOND step in development. The first is home.
My child devpt professor!
Let’s keep it simple and a pop up book too:
“Why is Corporate America Bashing Our Public Schools?” by Susan Ohanian and Kathy Emery. Very well documented book.
Oh also “On the Death of Childhood and the Destruction of Public Schools” by Gerald Bracey.
Clearly, he’s read 1984, but it’s not supposed to be an instruction manual.
Good one!
Kozol. Definitely.
“The Mathematician’s Lament,” by Paul Lockhart
Click to access lockhartslament.pdf
Intelligence and How to Get It, by Richard E. Nisbett
I recommend Mark Kriegel’s recent biography of Ray Mancini.
Powerful Teacher Education by Darling-Hammond, The Open Classroom by Kohl
How about “Animal School – TimelessA Parable by George Reavis, 1948,” written so simple that he and his boss and Congress people everywhere may actually understand what we have been saying: http://agsc.tamu.edu/384/AnimalSchool.pdf
Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts by Sam Wineburg
Compulsory Mis-education. (New York: Horizon Press, 1964) by Paul Goodman.
Amazingly prescient book that could have been written yesterday.
The Emperor’s New Clothes.
“The Lorax” and, if it is a book “Wall-E”
Both deal with homogenization and lower quality of human life resulting from the careless greed of a few.
I would tell him to read Noel Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700 . But then again I think it would be way over his head, you know with talk of epistemology and ontology and all. Maybe something simpler like: http://www.mcguffeyreaders.com/pics/1stmgreaderhb.jpg
Thanks for the comment; I hope to read that EPAA article in depth. I especially want to read more about his “test land” and “psychometric fudge” so I saved the url on my desk top for when I have more time this week….. thanks again, j
Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life Bowles and Gintis
Volume 63, Issue 03 (July-August) of Monthly Review ; Education Under Fire issue
and http://monthlyreview.org/2013/06/01/mr-065-02-2013-06 Public School Teachers Fighting Back issue
and anything by Henry A. Giroux
Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities. Still relevant.
Cathy Davidson’s Now You See It
It wouldn’t matter. Like so many other corporate “reformers,” he could easily transform legitimate ideas into junk science and teacher demonizing. The move toward teaching skills that can be applied across different scenarios was a fantastic one, for instance. However, people like Duncan read that as a gutting of all content knowledge (both for students and teachers) and the creation of a hollowed-out checklist approach to education. He could read Freire or Jacotot and see nothing but a justification for mass replacement of experienced teachers by eager two-and-outers.
Mr. Duncan might want to start with letters from teachers, parents, and students voicing their concerns with high stakes testing and the reform movement!