What I read
Arne Duncan’s Bio on ED.gov
Interview with Arne Duncan by National Journal Magazine
Profile on NY Times site
Interview with Arne Duncan
Meet Arne Duncan on YouTube

Thank you readers for having patience waiting for this blog entry. I have had an interesting time learning about Secretary of Education Arne (pronounced Ar-nee) Duncan and a challenging time processing it all.

The Lowdown

  1. Duncan grew up in Chicago & played basketball through college
  2. His dad was a professor & mom ran a tutoring center
  3. Duncan graduated from Harvard in 1987 with a degree in sociology
  4. Duncan & Obama have known each other for over 20 years
  5. Duncan’s 2 kids attend public school
  6. Prior to his current position, Duncan was CEO of Chicago Public Schools
  7. Many improvements to schools & teachers, as well as remarkable test score gains were made during his tenure as CEO
  8. Duncan’s policies on education are primarily what is shaping the direction of education today
  9. Duncan says preparing kids for success is and “economic imperative.”
  10. Duncan believes in a punishment & reward system for teachers

As many of you are aware, once a person steps into the political limelight, the general public tears them apart, criticizes their actions and opinions and are quick to judge. The main reason for this of course is that it’s a political game and everybody is scrambling for attention and power.

There is definitely some criticism out there. Some postulate that Duncan’s success improving the statistics of Chicago’s education system is just another Rod Paige scandal (Paige was appointed Secretary of Education by former President G.W. Bush and vacated the office after it was discovered he had taken unethical action to get his results). I don’t buy into unfounded assertions like this.

Some too, criticize Duncan’s exuberant support of Charter Schools. What will happen to our public schools if all the economically advantaged choose private, alternative and charter schools? Duncan says of charter schools that the good ones are part of the solution and the bad ones are part of the problem. He believes that all families should have choices for where there kids are educated. Right now it is limited to those with economic advantage. Duncan maintains that education is a civil rights issue. I would love to see him expand on this statement.

I appreciate that the education goals of the Obama Administration including Secretary Duncan, are focused on bringing low-income kids up out of poverty through education though I’m not convinced it would be a priority if not for our failing economy. It seems like a good plan for the economy, but is it the best way forward for education? I do believe, given Duncan’s upbringing in his mom’s tutoring center in Chicago serving under-privileged kids and his statement on ED.gov that education is also a “moral obligation,” as well as a “civil rights issue,” that Duncan really has genuinely positive intentions, despite his recent remarks about Hurricane Katrina being the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans. I know it is an easy thing to jump on and it was a political blunder on Duncan’s part but to me, it is obvious that he is trying to focus on the positive, something we all need to do just to get by sometimes. I highly doubt that Duncan was glad that Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

I am absolutely against a punishment and reward system for teachers. Duncan says we need to reward good teachers with financial incentives and get rid of teachers who are ineffective. His saving grace for me is that he says we need to get rid of them after we try to help them and if then they still are ineffective. This is another one of those issues that may sound great in theory, but in practice it is going to be a giant, painful belly flop. Being an effective teacher is a skill that is developed over many, many years. We already have a teacher pay scale that increases with time and experience. Given the average teacher salary, we all know that teacher’s aren’t in it for the money. What will be the system that decides which teachers get merit pay and based on what results? Most of us have figured out by now that judging a student based on a single, multiple choice test can have misleading results to say the least. The most horrendous consequence of all is that the punishment/reward system will scare off new teachers and (possibly) attract teachers who want to get in on the merit pay. Speaking from experience, new teachers already have such unrealistic expectations placed on them and for the most part they are going to naturally be the ones who don’t have lots of success with their students in the first couple of years because they have yet to find their path and to gain the experience they need. Fear of inadequacy and the possibility of having to make a career change mid-life if someone deems you unworthy of being a teacher will drive off teacher candidates.

What does need to happen instead is high quality, useful, meaningful professional development for teachers at differing levels of the trade. Teachers, especially early career ones, are not given sufficient time for collaboration, reflection and learning new content and skills. Early career teachers should have more time for professional development, working with mentor teachers and co-teaching experiences. Late career teachers should be sharing their knowledge and skills through mentoring, conducting research and publishing. School Districts should provide high quality substitute teachers who are familiar with the school to give classroom teachers the time they need to learn and improve. The money for the substitute teachers should come from a tiny portion of the $4 billion dollars from the federal government for education without compromising state rights in education.

For me, watching Secretary Duncan is a wait and see game.

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