Arne Duncan is stepping down. John King, former State Superintendent in New York, will take his place. In New York, King became extremely controversial because of his dogged support for the Common Core, for high-stakes testing, and for a badly flawed teacher evaluation system. King previously worked in “no excuses” charter schools.
WASHINGTON—Education Secretary Arne Duncan, one of the longest-serving
members of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, will step down in
December, officials said Friday.
In a letter to his staff obtained by the Associated Press, Duncan said
he’s returning to Chicago to live with his family. He said he isn’t
sure what he will do next, but that he hopes his future will “continue
to involve the work of expanding opportunity for children.”
Mr. Obama has tapped John King Jr., a senior official at the Education
Department, to run the department for the remainder of his
administration. Obama doesn’t intend to nominate Mr. King or to
nominate another education secretary during the rest of his
presidency, but will instead ask Mr. King to serve in an acting
capacity, said a White House official, who wasn’t authorized to
comment by name and requested anonymity.
That approach will spare Mr. Obama a confirmation fight over a nominee
in the Senate.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Did King know this all along? From a failure in NYS to a national disaster?
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John King Acting Secretary. Excuse me, I have to go throw up.
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“Acting” being the key word. If we’re hiring actors, why not Matt Damon?
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Matt Damon actually has a clue about education. Definitely a better choice.
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Matt Damon w ould be a much better choice than John King.
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I got your Emeticon right here …
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Perfect!
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Time to cash in for Arne. Bet his old buddy Rahm will help him get a job with one of the companies dismantling CPS. At least he won’t be coming to Los Angeles to help Eli Broad eviscerate LAUSD.
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Good riddance to Duncan. Feel sorry for Chicago since he and Rahm will continue to screw up public education there.
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Actually Arne “reformed” Chicago, remember?
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What? They can’t just shut the place down for a year and save the taxpayers some money?
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Seven years too late, replaced by another useless corporatist idiot. Obama’s educational policies will forever be a blight on his legacy. He should be ashamed. I know I am. Or perhaps more accurately in my case, appalled.
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Another entry into the parade of Highly Unqualifieds.
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This had to be a setup. Interim is sort of meaningless, since it’s only a year left. But this could be a campaign issue for both sides and all candidates.
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The fact that the President will not officially nominate King “or…nominate another education secretary during the rest of his presidency” sends a signal that it’s full steam ahead for this administration’s failed policies and the predatory agenda of the charter school financiers. Let’s hope some of the few in Congress who actually care about education will push back. Not that they have yet. I’m sure some of the Broad, Walton or the Brennan acolytes have packed a nice golden parachute for Arne. Time to cash in.
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Good point. It will become perfectly clear (as if it hadn’t already) that Duncan was never the root of the problem.
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Correct, he was just a place holder for all things reformy, and his replacement shows that the real Lemon Dance, that of botched, failed leadership and policies, continues unabated at the top. Thanks for nothing Obama, actually for less than nothing in this case.
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The teachers union will be so happy,as they were with King’s replacement in New York. It is not easy to find someone beneath Duncan on the evolutionary scale, where their knuckles to not touch the ground.
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Cue up the music, “I will remember you”
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I’m so sad. I read the headline and thought optimistically that perhaps Obama would nominate someone who would have the courage to stand up for children and public education. Oh well. Back to the fight.
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There is NO HOPE … Sickening and no surprise here!
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So the fella that gave us the example par excellence of word salad and cognitive dissonance—
Arne Duncan, “Choosing the Right Battles: Remarks and a Conversation” on 4-30-2013 to the annual AERA meeting where (among other inanities) he chastised some of his harshest and most cogent critics for the testing madness he above almost anyone else was responsible for imposing—
Link: http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/choosing-right-battles-remarks-and-conversation
—Is going to be replaced by a fella that thinks that Common Core is a lot like Montessori? [See this blog, 11-3-2013, “Montessori Teacher to John King: Montessori is Not About Testing and Common Core.”]
Just when you think the rheephormsters couldn’t go any lower…
I rarely wade into partisan political battles on this blog, but I fail to see how this choice makes those running the Dems significantly different than those running the Repubs. The selection of John King shows a remarkable if painful consistency in the current—and past—policies of various administrations.
It’s all about the benjamins. And those aren’t little tykes. It’s a few adults gobbling up ever-increasing amounts of $tudent $ucce$$ at the expense of the vast majority of students and parents and school staffs and their associated communities.
Just my dos centavitos worth…
😎
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In a letter to his staff obtained by the Associated Press, Duncan said
he’s returning to Chicago to live with his family. He said he isn’t
sure what he will do next, but that he hopes his future will “continue
to involve the work of expanding opportunity for children.”
Mr. Duncan…..You have just expanded opportunity for children…YOU RESIGNED! Doesn’t sound like the replacement will be much better…. but at least you’re GONE!
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The lunatic is in the hall.
The lunatics are in my hall.
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more.
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It’s a good time to watch the movies The Man Who Would Be King with Sean Connery and Michael Caine, and The Great McGinty starring Brian Donlevy, to get a good appreciation of how life imitates art!
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We lose one devil to only see him replaced by another.
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Amen!
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It’s devils all the way down
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Failing up seems to be the order of the day…..Dunning-Kruger effect on a federal level.
I have to go throw up now…..
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Alison Bianco,
Absolutely Right!
J Pers Soc Psychol. 1999 Dec;77(6):1121-34.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10626367
Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments.
Kruger J, Dunning D.
Abstract
“People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it.”
“Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. Several analyses linked this miscalibration to deficits in metacognitive skill, or the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error.”
“Paradoxically, improving the skills of participants, and thus increasing their metacognitive competence, helped them recognize the limitations of their abilities.”
One can but hope that the last sentence comes to pass with King, but with Duncan, there was no apparent skill improvement; no increased metacognitive competence (especially the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error!), nor was there any evidence of increased recognition of limited ability – unless through his resignation.
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“When people disagreed with him he urged them to be objective.”
Joseph Heller
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I think we should all have a virtual farewell party for Arne! Post your 30 second videos to youtube, facebook and right here so we can all celebrate together. Good riddance. I’m sorry it’s John King who will finish out the term.
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If Clint Eastwood can talk to an empty chair, how about a, dept. of ed national listening tour featuring the empty chair titled, “We’re listening, tell it to the chair”
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“Duncan said he’s returning to Chicago to live with his family”
Does that mean he’s moving in with Rahm?
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Oh, heck, they’ve been sharing a bed for years.
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He said he isn’t sure what he will do next, but that he hopes his future will “continue to involve the work of expanding opportunity for
childrenArne Duncan.”Fixed
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Hahaha …
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Mike Klonsky has a prediction: http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2015/10/did-duncan-just-feather-his-nest-in.html
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Does it matter? Ed reform top management seem completely interchangeable, which goes a long way towards explaining how they play musical chairs with these top jobs.
It’s basically a “movement” insider line of succession. You can switch ’em out and you get the same stuff, up to and including words and whole phrases.
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This is where the real Lemon Dance is taking place, at the top.
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No wonder voters are fed up and going with the “outsiders”.
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So the usual bitter irony holds in Washington education circles as it does in feudal lands of old.
The King is dead.
Long live the King.
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John King’s Bio:
meteoric mediocrity
race to the top
non-stop
and celebrate democracy
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I cannot believe King is replacing Duncan. We suffered through John King’s disastrous reign in NY. He was just awful, a total champion of the Common Core and a buffoon who ignored students, parents and the public.
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Nobody expects the “Spanish Inquisition”
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I don’t wish to spoil a solemn occasion, but it does appear that — after six loooong years — the bridge has finally collapsed…
“Duncan Bridge is falling down”
Duncan Bridge is falling down,
falling down, falling down.
Duncan Bridge is falling down,
Full tilt lately.
Common Core is on the floor,
on the floor, on the floor,
Common Core is on the floor,
Full tilt lately.
Built it up with tests and VAMs,
tests and VAMs, tests and VAMs,
Built it up with tests and VAMs,
Full tilt lately.
Tests and VAMs and other shams
Other shams, other shams,
Tests and VAMs and other shams,
Full tilt lately.
Built it up with charter schools,
charter schools, charter schools,
Built it up with charter schools,
Full tilt lately.
Charter schools are breaking rules,
Breaking rules, breaking rules
Charter schools are breaking rules,
Full tilt lately.
Built it up with carrots and sticks,
carrots and sticks, carrots and sticks,
Built it up with carrots and sticks,
Full tilt lately.
Race to the Top and other tricks,
other tricks, other tricks,
Race to the Top and other tricks,
Full tilt lately.
Got Bill Gates to fund the ruse,
fund the ruse, fund the ruse
Got Bill Gates to fund the ruse,
Full tilt lately.
But the parents did refuse,
Did refuse, did refuse
But the parents did refuse,
Full tilt lately.
Duncan Bridge is falling down,
falling down, falling down.
Duncan Bridge is falling down,
Full tilt lately.
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Arne is resigning while ESEA is in limbo. We have a totally dysfunctional Congress.
I imagine John White, like Arne, will extract as many power plays as he can in this environment.
Arne is likely to leave some cash on the table for discretionary grants that will continue the “reign of error.”
In December 2014, when John King left New York to become an officer in USDE, Kati Haycock, president of The Education Trust, issued this statement” “John King is a brilliant educator, with unparalleled insight into what good teaching and good schools look like. …His compass was always guided by what was right for kids, particularly the low-income children and children of color whose very futures depended on high quality education…..His departure is a loss for the students….. “We’ll be glad to welcome him to Washington. Leaders with passion, urgency, and deep knowledge are in short supply here.”
If King continues to support Common Core and high stakes tests, he will enjoy the support of many inside-the-beltway pundits, including the Education Trust and all of the foundations that support it.
In case you have not heard, The Education Trust wants to have inspections of teacher lessons for compliance with the Common Core Standards for LITERACY having found, by a dubious “pilot study,” that too many teachers assigned students tasks that were non-compliant. The authors of this study view non-compliance as case of perpetuating inequity in the education of “students of color and low-income students (p.1).” They want to see the literacy lessons prepared by teachers of science, social studies/history, ELA and “technical subjects.”
If Freud were alive he would have an unflattering label for this compulsion for control. More at https://edtrust.org/resource/classroomassignments/
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With the new report about Chicago cooking the books on graduation rates, and other Chicago school problems can blaming Arne be far behind?
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Checking the calendar . . .
Nope, it’s not April 1. Dang!
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Whenever you think that things can’t get any worse, they do. 😦
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I have to wonder if this was Cuomo’s and Duncan’s plan all along. Shame on Obama for promoting someone who took parents concerns for granted and blaming them. King was bad for NY and now he will be bad for the nation. If this is not a wake-up call to every parent and teacher, it should be. But like everything else, I doubt there will be a national outcry over this.
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Great question for Hillary. It really gets at where she stands on education.
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For a few, brief minutes I was celebrating. Then I read Arne’s replacement. Oh dear God, things are worse.
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So, are we going from bad to worse?
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it is understading that Obama, my resident is in lock step with the opressors and supremacist to destroy public schools. The 14th admendment that gave Public Schools life in existence to educate slaves when they were so-called freed by the opressors and the supremacist. Obama has a historical link with the Coptic Egyptians who sold out to the European Oppressors and Supremacist in their break with the Ancient Egyptians who were the 1st civilization,,,,research Alexandria the terriost during his terror of that civilization. It’s a daisy chain of those who deceives the people globaly and my President is of no exception.
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“. . . the Ancient Egyptians who were the 1st civilization,,,”
Not sure where you’re getting your information from Eddie but that statement is ludicrous and risible. The concept of a “1st civilization” might be considered as a relic of colonial, neocolonial or Western European type of thinking. Many different groups of humans over a large part of the earth at varying times in the past can easily have been considered “civilizations” from those who first populated Australia (way before any Indo-European civilizations) to the Natufians on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean to those who settled the Indus Valley, to a place like Caral in Peru and on and on.
To base a narrative such as you propose on a “1st civilization” leaves much to be desired.
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It’s kinda of like when a district PD session was held in a social studies teacher room and all around the top of the walls of the room was a “timeline of civilization” looking real pretty, colorful and authoritative. Didn’t take this Spanish teacher long to see it had absolutely nothing about any of the multitude of civilizations/nations/states/cultures that had thrived for hundreds of years, come and gone, over the last 4-5 millennia in the “New World” (not so new to the folks who were here before the Western Europeans, eh).
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King as commissioner made a number of requests to the USDOE that were refused, he can now approve his own requests … did he learn from his abrupt demise in NYS …
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This is like some crazy slow motion accident….NNOOOOOOOoooooOOOOOOOooooooooOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOO
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What a stupid and sad decision. If Arnie Duncan isn’t bad enough, the reports suggest the President is thinking about the past NY State Commissioner of Education, John King. Yes, Mr. King… the man who relied on his “positional authority” when he and his team made significant strategic and leadership mistakes with how NYS introduced the Common Core State Standards… most of these mistakes could have been written in the chapter called, “What not to do ” from the in the Book of Obvious. I would hope the President would actually study the Rhetoric-Reality Gap of Mr. King’s educational leadership history and actually use the REAL data to inform this decision…
Nothing like using the rear-view mirror to drive forward… I am shocked and deeply, deeply saddened… It is clear that all the research on school change strongly illustrates that leadership matters…. And yet, just when I thought the pendulum was swinging back, the president is adding another chapter to the US Department of Education’s Book of Stupid Decisions…. ugh.
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Another gushing profile from Politico:
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/education-secretary-arne-duncan-is-stepping-down-in-december-214374
Common Core is already a huge success in DC-lore, BTW. The ink is barely dry on those tests and they’re declaring victory. I’m still not clear on who their opponents are- people who actually have their children attend public schools?
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I suppose the results depend up in how you define success. In this case massive failure is the desired outcome.
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Wow. I was going to say finally some good news, but John King is simply the worst news I could imagine.
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I guess Mr. Duncan expanded opportunities for children…
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Will go to work for Pearson or Rupert Murdoch/Joel Klein? No matter what, he’ll profit from the misery of children.
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Amplify is for sale. Rupert could make a sales pitch to Arne.
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Here in Buffalo, King earned the disrespect of most teachers by preaching “no excuses” to the district and enforcing the draconian failure- and- takeover reformist gospel (by what/whom??!!) . The high school near me has students speaking 45 different languages, there are eight aides covering four non-English languages, but these students are expected to “perform.” Most come from impoverished households, attendance on some days is in the 30% range. But according to our fearless governor the school is failing, and the bad teachers must be got rid of since their largely decent evaluations must be “hogwash.” Enter enforcer King to do his bidding! There was some rejoicing when King was kicked upstairs to do Duncan’s bidding, but now…?
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Obama doesn’t want the visibility of a confirmation hearing. It would expose, for all Americans, the sale of public education to privatizers.
I’m curious if Duncan got Gates permission before resigning. IMO, yes.
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We should stage our own confirmation hearing. Air every bit of the dirty laundry and vote NOT to confirm.
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Agree.
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“In spite of themselves”
When Duncan leaves the fold
The spite will then take hold
Admitting wrong
Is not their song
Much easier to scold
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I know you probably don’t want the job, but I sure wish they would’ve tapped your shoulder, Diane.
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They would have to be sane.
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Diane–I sent a “snail mail” letter to your address asking about whether a letter writing campaign by parents across the country, or a change.org petition directed towards some of the monied interests could raise the visibility of our complaints. It seems like there are a lot of good articles and blogs, but the battles are separate, and we are not consolidating our forces. When there’s an attack on military benefits, MOAA appeals to vets to write (often with great affect). When there’s an attack on retiree benefits, AARP gets the seniors mobilized. Is there not a strategy that parents and teachers across the country could take that would get their attention, rather than lone voices “crying in the wilderness”?
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6,000 emails/letters sent to Congress and the White House to date.
http://www.petition2congress.com/15080/stop-common-core-testing/
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Thanks–just sent my e-mails. I’d still like to overwhelm Bill Gates and the Koch brothers with angry (or persuasive) letters.
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Don’t worry about the billionaires. This has always been about the force of federal and state LAW. An ESEA re-write that de-fangs the feds is our best hope for an eventual return to sanity. The proposed re-write will splinter the force of the unconstitutional NCLB waiver agenda put in place by the USDOE. Testing will become a political football at the state level and one of the unshakable truths about public schools will win out: angry, vocal. and relentless parents always get their way!
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And from the WAPO-
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/10/02/if-you-thought-arne-duncan-was-controversial-meet-his-successor/
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The reason I wanted a letter writing campaign to Gates & the other education profiteers is that their $ have so much political influence. It might make a difference if they realized their “charitable” work was harming the causes they purport to support–and that we are not happy about it. The letter to Congress was only about NCLB and Common Core, not the whole crazy standardized testing industry, the for-profit Charter Schools, the pay-for-performance model. I may be naive, but I think they really believe they are doing things that will help eventually (at least Bill Gates, not so sure about the others). I’d love to send them a copy of “Creative Schools” or “The Leader in Me” for ideas that would really help education. I would assume they’ve read Diane’s books–but couldn’t tell by their actions.
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Out of the frying pan into the fire –
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So Obama is willing to switch from Frankenstein to John the VAMdrug Kingpin for Ed Freak show?
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please – no ! say it isn’t true !
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I understand the frustration, but I don’t understand the surprise value of the post. We are talking about an educational leadership position, and qualification in education to such a position has never been a requirement. All you need is leadership credentials.
Obama is in the ultimate leadership position, which means he is qualified to lead anything, and, in particular, he is choosing other people to sub-leadership positions.
Simlarly, Trump will know nothing about the stuff he’ll lead us into. 🙂
If we want to end the rule of dilettants, we have to stop believing in leadership.
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And what exactly were Arne’s “leadership credentials”? Captain of a basketball team? Yeah, there’s some leadership which easily translates into the top position of the Chicago Public Schools and the the entire USDOE.
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Yupp, I say he was perfectly well qualified for USDOE—and he’ll be perfectly qualified for the next leadership position he’ll take.
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Oh, fudge. Why doesn’t Obama just go ahead and name Eli Broad, Bill Gates, and Michelle Rhee as Co-Secretaries of Education? At least that would be an honest choice on his part.
i will NEVER support another candidate from either of the major two parties again. NEVER. Third party all the way. At least those candidates are honest.
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oldmom “but I think they really believe they are doing things that will help eventually (at least Bill Gates, not so sure about the others).”
Has there been any example for Gates changing his mind about any of his experiments with the whole country just because people didn’t feel good about them? He made his fortune by devouring the competition and bribing politicians both here and abroad.
The only way these guys will back down if they don’t see profit in what they do—or if they are put to jail.
Since there’s close to $1 trillion a year in public education, the scent of profit will not let them rest. So there’s only one choice.
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Why is Duncan really leaving? Could it be that Obama was asking something of him that is so egregious he cannot bring himself to do it but King will? Time will tell. Arne’s resignation was sudden and allegedly for family reasons. Two red flags. Stay tuned.
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