Caleb Rossiter taught in both the charter schools and public schools of Washington, D.C.
In this post, he reviews Arne Duncan’s recent book about his seven years as Secretary of Education.
He came away from the experience convinced that everyone lies.
Rossiter wonders what he learned.
“”Duncan says he first encountered school lies 30 years ago, when during college he tutored at his mother’s after-school program in a poor black neighborhood in Southside Chicago. Duncan, who is white, also lived on the Southside, near his father’s job as a professor at the elite University of Chicago. His tutee was a black high school basketball star who assumed that his “B” average guaranteed a college scholarship. Duncan soon realized that the boy’s pathetic academic level meant he had no hope of even getting into college.
“The memoir makes it clear that schools are still at it, hiding from poor parents their children’s low effort, achievement, and readiness for college or work, which will keep them trapped in the underclass. That’s a depressing conclusion coming from someone who presided over a generation of accountability policies as head of the Chicago schools and then as President Obama’s secretary of education.”
Apparently, he sees nothing wrong about the high-stakes Testing and accountability regime that he promoted and has no regrets. Reflection is not his thing. He remains all in for the principles behind No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Nice review.
If Arne Duncan looked in the mirror closely, maybe he’d see a tinge of orange in his hair and weird, insult spewing jowls developing. Because that’s what his boneheaded leadership has helped bring us to: President Trump. Duncan and his ilk helped make this stinking bed we are stuck in at the moment.
Arne, have you no shame? If you can’t apologize, at least be quiet.
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“Self Reflection”
One-way mirror
Little help
For finding error
In oneself
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Love it.
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It is simply bizarre to see him writing a book about how everyone is lying. He had seven years as Secretary of Education and used his power to make NCLB harsher towards teachers and schools and to wrap the standardized tests more tightly around children’s necks.
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Arnie Duncan was a basketball buddy of obama. Any questions?
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Arne Duncan is undoubtedly an expert on liars.
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Diane I have seen this over and over again in Congresspeople and book-writers. Too-often (and this applies to Gates et al also), they raise THEIR OWN EXPERIENCE to the level of THE GENERAL RULE; use that experience as a governing analogy, and then draw their politics and policy FOR EVERYONE in terms of that LIMITED experience. It’s a form of rank amateurism. It goes along with ideas like: “I learned and speak English, so I am qualified to teach it in a formal setting.” Or “I am a grownup, so I am qualified to teach ethics.”
The same occurred this morning on BookTV,org when Andrew Puzder talked about his book, “The Capitalist Comeback: The Trump Boom and the Left’s Plot to Stop It.” Puzder starts with his own family history and entrepreneurial experience. These are interesting but not so rich as to be necessarily generalize-able to the entire population of the United States. He then uses it, and it alone, to frame his (extremely shallow and lopsided) political views; and then, God forbid, to set policy that governs EVERYONE. (I have to wonder if he and Duncan are related to Ayn Rand.)
The anti-theoretical, anti-expertise import of such “thinking” reaches over into a disregard for teacher-training and experience. “If they teach children, then they must be child-like.” And if it doesn’t match THEIR shallow-analogy drawn from THEIR limited experience, it has no basis in the human reality that THEY recognize (only their own) and so it doesn’t count. Stupid is as stupid does. CBK
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There’s also a tinge of misogyny in the callous disregard of teachers by members of both parties. They believe that a career dominated by women is less valuable and important than finance or tech. They believe they can push teachers around, but they are learning the hard way that everyone has a breaking point.
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retired teacher Yes, it’s a layer-cake of influences. I think we are all aware that one of those deeper and long-term layers is sexism–it’s so subtle too, and in part, because women birth children. CBK
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Arne has to rewrite history. We won’t forget.
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Unfortunately, Arne Duncan will get away with the rewrite because he has lots of help from Democratic party leaders like Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Cory Booker.
Lots of Dumbocrats simply can’t see through the BS. They will forever believe that Duncan and Obama s education policies were both scientific and noble (Civil Rights issue of our Time (TM) and all that)
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That is why it is important to reiterate that Obama in education was the same as Bush. We need a Democratic Party position on education, not a super-charged Republican policy adopted by Duncan.
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Does anyone know how many progressive Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were elected to the US Congress and state legislatures in 2018?
If about 40 elected Tea Party Republicans (I think this is the the block that calls itself the Freedom Caucus) can control the GOP like the mad tail wagging the rest of the dog, maybe a block of younger organized progressives in the Democratic Party will do the same thing.
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Catherine King:
You have put your finger on an essential feature, perhaps best expressed as a starting point, of those leading the charge for corporate education reform—they consider themselves as being so very special from the get go that their very limited [if any] experience and training is (in their own minds) no barrier at all to being obviously superior to all others in anything to do with teaching and learning.
So they are genuinely offended when the rest of the world doesn’t genuflect before their nostrums and gimmicks and failed experiments.
As they see it, where’s the thanks for their heartfelt and self-sacrificing noblesse oblige?
🙄
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KrazyTA Regarding genuflecting before the oligarchs: Only if Money is King, which is what underpins that kind of thinking. CBK
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I find it interesting and dangerous how limited people like Duncan are when he takes a few experiences he had first hand when he was younger and relates those few incidents to an entire nation or world and then sets about to fix something his perception got wrong.
For instance, I taught in a Southern California public school district for thirty years 1975 – 2005 and although there was always pressure from parents and administrators because of those parents to inflate grades so a child’s self esteem wouldn’t take a hit, there is no way a parent would not know their child was reading below grade level.
Even around 1980, parents were informed of their child’s reading level especially when they were falling behind. The schools also implemented classes and after school programs to help those kids catch up.
And eventually California had a high school graduate exit exam that required high school graduates to read at least at the 9th grade level to earn a high school degree.
I think that test is gone now thanks to parents ganging up and going to court and fighting the test as a requirement to graduate from high school.
And before anyone jumps on a 9th grade reading level as too low to graduate from high school, that bar was one of or the highest if not the highest in the country for states (I recall that at least 26 states had one of those exit exams) that used tests to determine if students were ready to earn and not be given a HS degree.
For instance, Texas, when G. W. Bush was its governor, set that bar for its exit exam at 4th grade reading level and Bush bragged about all the kids in Texas that passed the test and qualified to graduate from HS … Bush didn’t mention that the bar was set so low and I don’t think any of the parents cared or questioned it.
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“…there is no way a parent would not know their child was reading below grade level.”
“And eventually California had a high school graduate exit exam that required high school graduates to read at least at the 9th grade level to earn a high school degree.”
When the parents are functionally illiterate, judging their child’s level of accomplishment is near impossible. If their kid can read a newspaper, they are a genius.
I’m not quite sure how to take the statement about the exit exam. At first you sound proud that California demanded such a high standard compared to everyone else, and then you are relieved that parents got it nixed. Recent reports out that students who take the AP exams (as opposed to those who only take the courses and not the exams) are the only ones who benefit from the AP experience. I’m not sure what to make of that other than there may be a value to testing in terms of how well material is learned. I know I studied more intensely when there was a test attached to my efforts. (Yes, I was a child raised to value grades as a way to rate my learning.)
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By the way, I don’t agree with Arne’s policies, but I think I know where he was coming from. His solutions did nothing to correct the problems especially when they did not address the underlying causes of poor performance on tests, however rough an indicator of learning a test might be.
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speduktr says about me, Lloyd, “first you sound proud that California demanded such a high standard compared to everyone else and then you are relieved that parents got it nixed”
I never said I was proud!
I never said I was relieved!
Speduktr is reading into my comment what he/she wants me to think/feel but those are speduktr’s thoughts not mine.
Here is my actual response to speduktrs interpretation of what I was thinking and feeling:
Wrong on both counts — I was only saying it like it was to make a point >>>>> that Duncan was wrong too. How did Duncan come up with such ignorant conclusion based on his limited experiences where he went to school when the fact is more than half of the states had a HS exit exam and students that failed to meet the minimum requirements for HS graduation in those states, according to the scores on that test, meant those parents had to know their child was not reading, comprehending and writing at grade level or anywhere near it?
Fair Test reports:
“States That Recently Eliminated or Scaled Back High School Exit Exams
“The number of states requiring high school graduation exams in language arts and math has declined rapidly over the past few years. Only twelve states have graduation tests in place for the high school class of 2019, down from a high of 27 that had or planned such tests. The current number is the lowest level since at least the mid-1990s.”
https://www.fairtest.org/graduation-test-update-states-recently-eliminated
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He learned…NOTHING!!!!
Arne has proven himself to be incapable of learning. &, also, those who can’t teach* (!) should be allowed nowhere near the D.o.Ed., let alone be appointed S.o.Ed.
*(That describes Arne, as well.)
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Arne went Harvard.
That means you don’t ever have to learn anything.
You can just force your ideas and policies down other people s throats and they have to listen because, you know, you went to Haawvid and they did not.
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Oh, & BTW, borrowing from the next post, I suggest that Arne Duncan be ignored.
I do notice that his book hasn’t exactly been flying off the shelves (or crashing the Amazon site for the deluge of book orders).
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The big lie isn’t that teachers and schools are being dishonest with parents about student academic achievement. The big lie is that policy makers pretend that schools have the resources to deal with the extreme social and emotional challenges they face on a daily basis; and that class size doesn’t matter; and that schools and teachers will compensate for all of a familie’s failings. The big lie is that children and their families, and their parents income, education, and ability to advocate for themselves has no impact on student performance. The big lie is that teachers can and should be all things to all children all the time- a parent, mentor, social worker, councilor, and savior. The big lie is that a student’s lack of academic achievement is simply academic.
Apparently after years of running the education department Arnie still doesn’t know this.
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And Duncan, like all die-hard test-based school reformers, carefully surrounds himself only with those who tell him how wonderful his ideas/policies are.
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You’re talking about all of Duncan’s paid staff minions who have tongues stained dark brown that smell like a steaming turd in Death Valley heat.
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Jonathan says: “The big lie is that a student’s lack of academic achievement is simply academic.”
Exactly. Academic achievement is an important thing; but it’s not the only thing; and rarely even the biggest thing. Students don’t come to school as academic blank slates. Their potential and actual achievement is in CONSTANT interaction and dialogue with their home life, the culture they live in, and their personal character development and comportment. It’s different for everyone and for each group defined by all sorts of variables, including income, race, gender, neighborhood, sociopolitical class, etc., etc. If these people who (I believe in some cases) earnestly want to help, then they must start with understanding that “students’ lack of academic achievement” is NEVER “simply academic.”
.
Qualified teachers “meet each student where they are” and go from there; and “where they are” is never exactly the same, even for children from the same family. And this is but ONE reason why smaller classes are so essential to student achievement. Even qualified teachers cannot do their best work when there isn’t enough time in the day . . . . CBK
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Dearest Catherine King:
Thank you for your expertise and years of experience in teaching. Yes, I completely agree with your expression.
IMHO, If teachers truly want to help students, then they always need to emphasize three aspects in each individual: body, mind and spirit. After teachers examine thoroughly the strength and weakness in each aspect, they can have an idea of the real motivation or the yearning of person going after.
There are two kinds of true helps. One is from authority and other is from assistance.
From authority viewpoint (= professors/teachers), help means to shows all pros and cons to followers (= students) to choose with responsibilities and consequences. For instance, students needs to understand thoroughly time and money management in the long term and short term as well as the effect of their health and marriage life with or without children.
From assistance viewpoint (=TA/substitute teachers/ tutors), help means to show a support students, with or without interference. However, assistance can withdraw his/her support and stay away quietly without criticizing to damage students’ dignity.
Similarly, University or states cannot overpower professors as well as professors cannot overpower TA/ substitute teacher because they want to please rude and arrogant RICH students or POOR athlete students for political reason. Back2basic
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m4potw “If teachers truly want to help students, then they always need to emphasize three aspects in each individual: body, mind and spirit. After teachers examine thoroughly the strength and weakness in each aspect, they can have an idea of the real motivation or the yearning of person going after. . . . ”
And, of course, it’s as easy to follow well-researched protocols and practices, and to provide such service well, with 15 students as it is with 40. CBK
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Many teachers worked to get Obama elected. …and we got Arne. Arne is very much responsible for the charter invasion we are experiencing now. …and he is a hack…when he speaks he does not know what he is saying with any depth of knowledge or wisdom on education. He is that guy at your work where you ask…how did he get in that position ?
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Arne wrote an op-ed in a major California paper endorsing Marshall Tuck, the voice of the charter industry. Or someone wrote it for him. Maybe Peter Cunningham.
Arne works for Laurene Powell Jobs.
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Gary, Indiana schools need money. Where is more money coming from since Indiana doesn’t fulfill its duties to public schools? This is a poverty area and all the elementary schools earned F’s on the standardized tests. [I’m sure the repeated testing really makes poor students want to work harder.] The state takeover didn’t work. Are we supposed to be surprised?
………………………
Gary schools manager tells state board that district’s focus is on class sizes and curriculum – Post-Tribune
New Gary Schools emergency manager Peter Morikis said focus will be on reducing class sizes and improving curriculum in the school district during a meeting in Indianapolis on Thursday….
The Gary Community School Corp.’s seven elementary schools earned all Fs in grades in 2017-18. The district is looking to improve curriculum and teaching skills, he said.
Near the meeting’s end, Smith criticized former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett’s connection to MGT, the company that now manages Gary schools.
“We want no part of him,” Smith said. “People also feel he was a key player in the demise of the Gary Community School Corp.”…
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-gary-duab-dec-13-st-20181213-story.html#share=email~story
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Gary Indiana needs money? Call the Jackson 5 who grew up there. Do they not give money to the public schools which launched their careers and money? Where is Michael Jackson when they need him
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Duncan was ridiculously, ludicrously biased towards charter schools and against public schools.
The only reason he got away with saying he wasn’t is because he operated inside the ed reform echo chamber, hired ONLY fellow travelers, and dismissed all criticism or dissenting views.
Go read anything he wrote while he was Sec of Ed- if it’s a public school it’s negative and if it’s a charter school it’s positive. An absolute true believer.
He did not provide ANY returned value to any existing public school in this country. Race to the Top actually cost them money. The cost of the “reforms” FAR exceeded the grants. What schools spent on their ridiculous teacher measurement system alone is outrageous.
Consultants did very, very well, however.
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I am struck by the notion that Dumcan’s [sic] whole premise is an either or proposition. Either a person is ready for further education or they are not. This is a false premise, based on a narrow definition of readiness. There are students who are ready for one program or another.There are students who are ready for anything.
One thing I have noticed is that there are many students who mature after high school in ways you never expected. I doubt Arne Duncan ever experienced being wrong about his assessment of a student. I doubt there is a teacher who has not experienced this feeling.
Mr. Duncan is probably quite capable of doing good academic work if he was able to matriculate in one of our fine universities. He achieved little, however, if it only served to make him aware of the divide between the rest of us and himself. Such an educational experience suggests he was unfortunate to have added ego rather than understanding.
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Roy Turrentine I always wonder about the political education Arne (et al) received early on–little to none, e.g., civics and history?
It leaves us with an either/or about it: EITHER they didn’t get a good grounding in how democracy works and how it differs from other kinds of political orders (with pictures), and included in this is that they were taught, but just didn’t “get it;” OR they just were not taught–it wasn’t a part of the curriculum in high school or in their core college courses; OR they were taught and “got it,” at least partly, but then turned away from it for one reason or another, which is always a potential part of why democracy is called an experiment–some just don’t see its value.
But then there’s Obama–who is a lawyer, but who, for all that I admire him for, it seems he still didn’t get it that the privatization movement, and for many, the so-called public-private partnerships, are a scam for people who hate democracy and who want to abolish the institutions that support it. “I’ve got mine.” CBK
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Arne has a point. My first teaching job was in a Title I school where graduating 12th graders told me they planned to go to community college to “get the basics”. The school system could have done MUCH better. Of course poverty is a huge factor. But curriculum matters a ton, and that’s where our public schools are failing.
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