Stephanie Simon describes the political minefields that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has run into as he seeks to remake American education.
She does not mention that Duncan’s program dovetails with No Child Left Behind, which is now widely acknowledged to be a failed approach.
Nor does she mention that Duncan’s tenure in Chicago, where he honed his present ideas about reform, was unsuccessful.
Duncan is generously praised by the hedge fund managers’ group Democrats for Education Reform.
But critics call him out for micromanagement:
Critics, however, say his strategies have been shortsighted, even naive. States are backing away from promises they made to secure grants and waivers; just this month, Arkansas said it couldn’t stick to its timetable for improving student performance or raising the quality of its teaching force. In most cases, the secretary has little leverage to make states uphold their pledges. In a ritual that strikes even some bureaucrats as absurd, he has begun granting waivers to his own waivers.
“In 2009, Arne was the new sheriff in town, with big boxes of ammunition and a shiny new gun,” said Frederick Hess, an education analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “Now, it’s later in the movie and he’s all out of bullets and he’s trying to scare states by shaking a stick at them.”
So many other questions are unasked:
Did his efforts to replace the principle of equity with the strategy of competition for federal aid makes any sense?
Why did a Democratic administration accept the ideology and strategies of its Republican predecessors?
How could Duncan say he wants to raise standards for teaching while giving $50+ million to Teach for America?
What have been the results of Duncan’s unprecedented support for shifting public dollars to privately managed charters?
Why has Duncan been silent as more and more state legislatures enacted anti-teacher legislation?
Why has Duncan been silent as more and more states authorized vouchers?
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/arne-duncan-education-secretary-100372.html#ixzz2lr23niys
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Did his efforts to replace the principle of equity with the strategy of competition for federal aid makes any sense?”
H*ll no! Race to the Top Competition, the name alone should have been sufficient to prompt rioting in the streets and to invite President Obama to a meeting out behind the woodshed.
Duncan as symptom, Obama as cause.
And to a great extent, fast-boil ACA pales in comparison to, and distracts from sufficiently noticing, slower-boil happenings to public education.
Duncan is also generously praised by Stephanie Simon. She only criticizes his strategy and tactics, not the actual reform measures themselves. Hers might be the least article I’ve read about Duncan.
“It’s fascinating to watch a lot of armchair quarterbacking” about Duncan’s competitive grant and waiver programs, Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman said. “
People never want to critique money that goes to prop up the status quo.”
“The status quo”. Ed reform is the status quo, and a ton of money has gone to “prop up” ed reform over the last decade. We’ve been following this lock-step blueprint for 13 years and two presidents now. Also, huge shocker that Duncan promotes Huffman constantly and thus Huffman promotes Duncan. A mutual admiration society. You know what would be really cage-busting and innovative? Finding an ed reformer who supports public schools.
I also noticed that the hedge fund group DFER lavish praise on Duncan. No group that supports public schools are quoted, understandably enough, given Duncan’s abandoning of existing public schools, or, 90% of children.
“elite college graduates into teaching. . .”
OK, so, if I’m looking for someone to spend quality time that is meaningful, structured, nurturing, respectful of childhood needs (like affirmation, attention, sometimes silly play time and songs and finger plays) for my child, I am not interested in elite college pedigrees. In fact I would question an elite college graduate looking to do work with a child (unless they had some specific type of training or related work purpose in doing so, like they wanted experience with children so they could write a book or they had studied art or music and enjoyed teaching it to beginners—that type of thing).
Teachers of K-5 spend their day with CHILDREN. They will automatically know more than children and have something to teach them because they have been on earth longer. That, in and of itself, is a start in being qualified (albeit not enough–which is why we established teachers’ colleges and “normal” schools to begin with). But from there, given the person knows how to read and do math and has an understanding of social sciences and science that a lay person would have (and knows what books and resources help teach those to younger children), they need to understand CHILDREN and the resources available for helping children. If nothing else, their elite college experience would not have afforded them the time to properly acquire that information (and unless they went back and studied education or child development, they will be lacking in these skill sets). They need to know children’s authors, and children’s songs, and children’s games and how to get children to listen to them and how to properly redirect children. The elite college part might be relevant in high school, but for elementary I think that is an over-rated qualification.
An elite college degree doth not a skill set for everything provide.
Surely when you decide to carve out the path of attending an elite college, you understand that you are closing a few doors, just as certain as you are opening MANY. And it seems to me the doors (well, maybe in a good economy) would be, for the graduate of an elite college, doors that others might never be able to even approach. So let the ones who did not go that route have work in the areas where their skill sets are valuable. Such as working with children (if they studied education and child development). Every person in the United States has something to offer. We all have gifts to offer the community at large. And a degree from an elite college does not mean that you will automatically outshine everyone in every area. It is hard for elite college graduates to accept that sometimes (their drive and ambition alone means they will not necessarily acquiesce to the notion that someone with a lower IQ might be better at something than they are).
Again, the emphasis on recruiting elite college graduates into teaching (at least for elementary children) is very likely over-rated. Unless they are willing to acquire, by hard work, the skill sets that would give them mastery at doing so (maybe they worked with kids during their college summers. . .something like that), I would think their elite college degree would point them in a different direction (without a pitstop with a missionary mentality of trying out something you have no skill set for on the way). But just because they went to the elite college does not automatically mean they will be a better teacher.
Nurses make good nurses and not doctors and vice versa because of what their skill sets are. There has to be compassion for the child if you are an elementary teacher. Walking down the hall with twenty children, figuring out a system for them to use the bathroom, get water, get their lunch boxes, put on their coats when it’s cold, keeping up with whether they are carpool riders or buses, knowing if they tend to say they have a stomach ache if they are nervous about something. . . child development, etc. that it is likely was not studied at an elite college.
Elite college graduates cannot have everything. And they should not have everything.
And as we accept this factor, we can also accept that all colleges are not made equally. And that’s OK. But there has to be a place for everyone on the other side. Elite college graduates should not expect to hog it all. And instead of stopping off on their pit stops and then assuming they have all the answers, maybe they could listen to the people who have worked hard on those skill sets and who have put in the years nurturing children and we could all work together on making our PUBLIC schools truly great.
What a train wreck. It makes me so sad.
Why is this able to happen? Why do mainstream Democratics continue to support this agenda? Why are there few exposes about this? Why does corporate America continue to have the blessings of the O administration? Why does this continue? Lots of WHY QUESTIONS with few answers. Very frustrating to see the field get ripped apart and maligned by people who have never walked into a public school, let alone stood in the front of a classroom. Why indeed? We had 12 years with Ivy elitists in NYC. How did that work out?
Duncan says and does what he wants like his boss…He is getting away with it like his boss…They are arrogant..They do anything for the Almighty dollar….When the grassroots people figure that out and not vote for politicians who support these people, the ALEC people, the Chiefs for Change people, the charter/voucher online people, the privatization schemers, then the idiots like Duncan won’t be so powerful..Duncan insulting white women doesn’t say much for him, does it? But he is getting away with it….and with no one stopping him and Obama’s right wing Republican education agenda playbook, you can rest assure he will do even more damage to public education.. First you have to stop the money from flowing to the politicians who rewrite the laws so they gain control of schools. Then you stop the insane policies destroying schools and the creativity/imagination and even the “liking of school” of children. Parents need to be made aware their politicians are doing this to them and to their children. The politicians tell them they have school choice…They don;t have school choice…The privatization people have the choice…the choice to keep their children in their charter or to throw them back to the public schools if the parents don;t follow the rules and do what they are told…..This is choice???? Not in my book!
Duncan says and does what he wants like his boss…He is getting away with it like his boss…They are arrogant…They are Chicago thugs…just like the Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel who also closed down many public schools and they aren’t in the affluent sections of Chicago, either.
They do anything for the Almighty dollar….When the grassroots people figure that out and not vote for politicians who support these people, the ALEC people, the Chiefs for Change people, the charter/voucher online people, the privatization schemers, then the idiots like Duncan won’t be so powerful..Duncan insulting white women doesn’t say much for him, does it? But he is getting away with it….and with no one stopping him and Obama’s right wing Republican education agenda playbook, you can rest assure he will do even more damage to public education.. First you have to stop the money from flowing to the politicians who rewrite the laws so they gain control of schools. Then you stop the insane policies destroying schools and the creativity/imagination and even the “liking of school” of children. Parents need to be made aware their politicians are doing this to them and to their children. The politicians tell them they have school choice…They don’t have school choice…The privatization people have the choice…the choice to keep their children in their charter or to throw them back to the public schools if the parents don’t follow the rules and do what they are told…..This is choice???? Not in my book!
His agenda hits speed bumps? If it were only so minor…
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is a gigantic sinkhole of mandated policy failures that will suck us all into a catastrophe bigger than LAUSD’s iPad meltdown.
And it’s not “his” agenda. That gives him wayyyy too much credit. After years of his pompous declamations there is only one conclusion: he follows the script given him even when it makes no sense whatsoever.
His speech of April 30, 2013 to the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in which he invoked Campbell’s Law in his defense [!] as he supported, opposed, and both supported & opposed high-stakes standardized testing will lead off his soon-to-be released coloring book series: WORD SALAD AND ME: IT RHEEALLY MAKES ₵ENT₵!
Link: http://www.ed.gov//news/speeches/choosing-right-battles-remarks-and-conversation
It would all be so funny if the joke weren’t on us…
😡
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
Has anyone compiled statistics on the degree that charter schools are resegregating public schools? Arne Duncan sometimes refers to his Quaker upbringing. Some Quakers were helpful in opposing segregation. It’s a shame that he is promoting segregation by promoting charter schools. He is not living his Quaker upbringing.
A while back UCLA study has shown
that charter school expansion have
caused massive re-segregation… yet
corporate reformers invoked the name
of Rosa Parks, and associated her
with charter schools.
In the godawful charter-porn movie
WON’T BACK DOWN, the miracle
charter school was called “The
Rosa Parks Charter School.”
According to the film, this
school was touted as the
highest-achieving school in
Pennsylvania (the movie
was shot / set in Pittsburgh).
This school does not exist. It was
a totally fictional creation of the
corporate reform film makers. There
is no charter school that is the highest
achieving school in Pennsylvania.
Mind you, the opening credits said,
“Inspired by a true story.” With that
vague disclaimer, the film makers
can make up whatever shit they want,
but unsuspecting viewers will think that
it’s all true.
Indeed, in one of the blogs written
against the movie, the writer overheard
someone walking out of the movie say,
“They should have had some ‘where-are-
they-now’ update credits at the end of
the movie so you know how they’re doing.”
DUDE! THE WHOLE THING IS
MADE UP!!! IT’S ALL PHONY!!!
The main question I have is this, “When is Arne Duncan’s failed policy going to HIT A BRICK WALL?”
The answer is: when the new tests are given nationwide.
And that is why the FEDS have not investigated LAUSD. They’re all in on it!
You might, if not already review these 3 reports…
• Many states are in the process of connecting their education evaluation systems to inform compensation and tenure decisions, improve instruction, better target professional development, and assign effective teachers to work with the students who need them most, according to a recent report (PDF) by the National Council on Teacher Quality. The report also includes state policy recommendations. • Forty-five states report that their districts assess students for career readiness, yet only 14 states have a set definition of what it means for a student to be career- or work-ready. The latest report from the Center on Education Policy also shows that just 11 states have aligned (or are aligning) their career-readiness tests to the Common Core standards. • How can states and school districts help principals be more successful? By matching the correct principal to the appropriate school, using high-quality systems to evaluate principals, adjusting the level of principal autonomy, and providing principals with the necessary support staff and resources to produce better education outcomes, explains a new RAND report .
Make It A Great Day!
JScheidell
“I look to the diffusion of light and education as the resource to be relied on for ameliorating the condition, promoting the virtue, and advancing the happiness of man,” wrote Thomas Jefferson.
Your questions are so interesting and thought provoking.
Has anyone asked him to answer those questions?
It really would be a pleasant surprise to see Arne Duncan, at least once, engage in the critical thinking skills that he says Common Core tests will measure.
Duncan has said that schools in rural areas and inner cities are “overcoming poverty and family breakdown to create high-performing schools.” He, of course, doesn’t mention any of them. Worse, Duncan repeats the disproved and utterly ignorant statement that American student scores on international tests are the basis for the nation’s economic competitiveness. Duncan repeats the “rising tide of mediocrity” myth that America’s economic and national security are “at risk” because of public education.
It’s almost as though Arne Duncan has been asleep for the last 30 years.
Public school students and teachers did not quadruple the national debt between 1981 and 1993 (Reagan and Bush1 did). Nor did they off-shore millions of jobs, or sell toxic, collateralized securities, or turn Wall Street into a casino, or engage in two unfunded wars, or again double the national debt between 2001 and 2009, or leave a final budget containing another $1+ trillion deficit. Nor did they wreck the economy.
When the U.S. dropped from 2nd to 4th in the World Economic Forum competitive index rankings in 2010-11, four factors were cited by the WEF for the decline: (1) weak corporate auditing and reporting standards, (2) suspect corporate ethics, (3) big deficits (brought on by Wall Street’s financial implosion) and (4) unsustainable levels of debt. A more recent slide was attributed to a “business community” and business leaders who are “critical toward public and private institutions,” a lack of trust in politicians and the political process with a lack of transparency in policy-making, and “a lack of macroeconomic stability” caused by decades of fiscal deficits, especially deficits and debt accrued over the last decade that “are likely to weigh heavily on the country’s future growth.”
THESE are the things that threaten the nation’s economic competitiveness and economic security. We know exactly where to look to properly place the blame, and the accountability.
But Duncan and corporate “reformers’ point the finger of blame at public schools and teachers.
Why is Arne Duncan so unwilling to or incapable of telling the truth?
And why is he still Secretary of Education?
“. . . Arne Duncan, at least once, engage in the critical thinking skills that he says Common Core tests will measure.”
And I wish for enough money to drop into my lap so that I may pay off all my back debts quicker than what I can now afford. I probably have a greater chance of that happening than the Dunkster “engaging in critical thinking skills.”
http://www.amazon.com/The-Killing-History-Theorists-Murdering/dp/1893554120