After No Child Left Behind has failed to improve public schools as hoped, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has taken a leadership role in keeping what works and replacing what doesn’t work with new expectations. Duncan made a nation-wide tour in the spring of 2010 announcing the changes to NCLB. Questions poured from the audiences filled with educators and parents. Duncan is still answering questions. In the shadow of Waiting for Superman, public perception is that major changes need to occur.
Duncan Comments on How to Fix a Broken Educational System
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Arne Duncan gives honest comments about the broken educational system and the attempts to repair it. Rebecca Blumenstein asks Duncan some pointed questions about budget cuts, teacher unions, charter schools, reforming No Child Left Behind, and declining college graduation rates.
When asked about budget cuts, tax freezes, and union involvement, Duncan side-stepped the questions. Duncan told Blumenstein that because of Race to the Top, 37 states that had dumbed down standards have raised them. Duncan also stated that the lowered standards were based on political pressures and not the unions. Currently, states are raising standards to be college and career ready. Duncan states that this is a major change. “And we’re going to continue to push for dramatic change.” [1]
Over three dozen states have now allowed charter schools and innovation instead of the status quo. The few states that prohibited linking teacher evaluations to student scores have now removed this barrier. Judging teachers on the performance of their students is a very controversial section of the “value added” No Child Left Behind reform piece. The concern for many teachers is their accountability for issues out of their control. Many are concerned that teachers will abandon teaching the severely disadvantaged students that tend to get lower scores and head for the suburbs where there is more support.
Duncan Comments on Teacher Layoffs
When asked if schools should honor seniority in times of budget cuts, Duncan again did not directly answer the question. Blumenstein’s question was worded, “New York Major Michael Bloomberg just said that when layoffs do happen, that many states have laws that basically require that the most senior teachers are kept and the least senior teachers go.
Often, the best, most energetic teachers are young and the schools don’t have an ability to get rid of who they want to. Are you going to push for changes to those laws?” Bloomberg’s statement may be true some of the time, but veteran teachers often have the best results in the classroom from many years of experience in spite of young teachers having more “energy.” There is no replacement for experience.
Duncan’s response was, “We’ve had very few incentives and lots of disincentives for the best teachers and the best principals to go to neighborhoods that need the most help. We’re putting a huge amount of resources into figuring out how to systematically get the hardest-working, the most committed teachers and principals into underserved communities.” [1] This statement could possibly contradict Bloomberg’s. What if the hardest-working teachers with the top scores are those with the most experience?
Duncan on Teacher’s Unions
Blumenstein asked Duncan if the president (well-known for his loyalty to unions) would be willing to confront unions if they are obstacles in the process. Duncan’s responded, “We’re going to confront everybody and have been – including the unions. We have to challenge parents; we have to challenge students themselves; we have to challenge school-board members; we have to challenge politicians at the local, state and federal level.” [1]
Duncan on No Child Left Behind
When asked what parts of No Child Left Behind actually worked, Duncan responded, “What worked in No Child Left Behind is there was a laser-like focus on the achievement gap and disaggregating data. Historically, our country loved to sweep those sorts of tough facts under the rug. And thanks to No Child Left Behind, that’s never going to be the case.” [1] Duncan went on to say that NCLB was very punitive and gave little to no rewards for success. He is concerned that some portions of NCLB caused curriculums to narrow and standards to decline. He wants to reverse the top down management from Washington.
Duncan closed the interview by stating that school reform must begin at the preschool level and continue all the way through college. “Cradle to Career” is the new reform cheer. The concern on the part of teachers and the unions is how “good teachers” are determined. Will there be age discrimination involved? Will veteran teachers be seen merely as “expensive” and dismissed in spite of good performance?
Many answers are unknown and unanswered.
[1] Blumenstein, Rebecca. “Teach Your Children…Better.” The Wall Street Journal, November 22, 2010.
Barbara Pytel - Email me Experience Although I was never particularly fond of going to school as an ELL student, I ironically became a teacher, ...
