Articles tagged with Arne Duncan

Late graduates to be counted

Note: This entry was orignially posted on National School Boards Association’s (NSBA) Center for Public Education’s blog The Edifier.

It took awhile but states will finally be able to count those students who take longer than four years to earn a high school diploma (late graduates) as graduates through a common graduation rate formula that all states must use starting this summer. NSBA has been fighting for this change ever since the Center released its Better Late Than Never: Examining late high school graduates report over two and half years ago which showed that late graduate’s were more successful after high school in terms of earning a college degree, finding a good job, civic engagement and living healthier than those students who earned a GED or never earned a high school credential. As a matter for fact, late graduates’ postsecondary outcomes outcomes did not differ much from those students who graduated on-time. So there was little reason why late graduates shouldn’t have been counted as graduates.

The adoption of the common rate enables states to report an extended-year rate which would include late graduates that are currently not counted in most state gradation rates. In a press release announcing the common rate the U.S. Department of Education declared:

States may also opt to use an extended-year adjusted cohort, allowing states, districts and schools to account for students who complete high school in more than four years.

Moreover, in the release Secretary Arne Duncan stated that a common rate “…will also encourage states to account for students who need more than four years to earn a diploma.”

This is a major step forward in giving districts credit where credit is due by counting all students who earn a standard high school diploma as graduates not just those who earn a diploma in four years. However, how districts get credit, if any, for their late graduates under Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) / No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and most state accountability systems is still unclear. Hopefully Congress will reauthorize ESEA soon and put into law that indeed late graduates are graduates even for accountability sake.

Jim Hull|July 29th, 2011|Categories: Boardbuzz, Center for Public Education, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, High Schools, Reports, Student Achievement|Tags: , , , , , , |

The week in blogs

Here are two unsettling statistics on school discipline, based on an unprecedented study of nearly 1 million Texas secondary school students: Nearly 60 percent of these children were suspended or expelled over the course of the six-year study, and African-American students were disproportionately disciplined for infractions that the researchers described as “discretionary” – that is, the school had the option of not suspending or expelling the student but chose the harsher path.

As it turns out, it’s not as much the behavior of the students that leads to vastly different kinds of discipline, says the study by The Council of State Government’s Justice Center and Texas A&M University’s Public Policy Research Institute. It’s the policies of school leaders.

“The bottom line is that schools can get different outcomes with very similar student bodies,” Michael D. Thompson, a co-author of the report, told the Washington Post. “School superintendents and teachers can have a dramatic impact.”

To that list we should also add school board members, who hire the superintendent and, through their policy-making decisions, have significant authority over the way schools handle discipline.

The day after that report was made public, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder issued a new Supportive School Discipline Initiative that aims to dismantle the “School-to-Prison Pipeline” that pushes students into the juvenile justice system for school infractions that could be handled in other ways.

Citing the Texas report and the high number of suspensions and expulsions it found, Holder said, “I think these numbers are kind of a wake-up call. It’s obvious we can do better.”

In yet another critical look at school discipline, journalist Annette Fuentes, in her new book, Lockdown High, examines the heightened national concern about school safety – and its negative consequences – since 9/11 and Columbine.

“The Columbine scenario is terrifying, but the odds of it occurring in your hometown are about one in two million,” Fuentes told the Post.

In a later interview, she makes another point that is well known to most school board members: School is among the safest places for children and young people to be.

So how about those ultra-safe playgrounds, with nothing too high or too hard, too fast or too rickety? Not good for kids, says Ellen Sandseter, a professor of psychology at Queen Maud University of Norway. Yes, they may prevent a few physical injuries (and even that is open to debate) but the psychological toll – in children becoming more fearful because they’re not given the chance to adequately explore their world — outweighs the benefits, she says in a New York Times article.

So too safe is bad – psychologically. What about too extravagant, for example, the $248,000 playhouse a former CEO built for his grandchildren? Not a great idea, notes the Post’s Ruth Marcus. Could make for overly indulged, uncreative kids. Imagine that?

At least that’s one problem cashed-strapped school districts don’t have to worry about.

Lawrence Hardy|July 22nd, 2011|Categories: Reports, School Climate, School Security, Teachers, Uncategorized, Week in Blogs|Tags: , , , , , , |

Is NCLB leading to cheating?

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke out this week in The Washington Post on the recent standardized tests cheating scandals and noted that “testing and teaching are not at odds.”

But could No Child Left Behind (NCLB) be to blame on these high profile cheating scandals?

As Duncan noted “Now as NCLB’s deadline for 100-percent proficiency approaches and performance goals grow steeper, we learn of egregious, systemic cheating in Atlanta and suspected cheating elsewhere.”

Duncan stated that “poorly designed laws” are “part of the problem” and that “NCLB has created the wrong incentives for boosting student achievement.”

Duncan promoted the need for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and stated “we are working with Congress to fix the law by instead measuring individual student growth against college and career-ready standards.”

BoardBuzz thinks it’s time Congress moves forward on ESEA, but wonders when that will happen. Instead as the 2011-2012 school year is about to begin shortly, schools are stuck with a flawed accountability system.

Alexis Rice|July 21st, 2011|Categories: Boardbuzz, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Student Achievement, Teachers, Urban Schools|Tags: , , , , |

Tracking civil rights into the 21st century

Photo courtesy of ED

Photo courtesy of ED

A few weeks ago, at the 45th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” when a peacful protest turned violent in Selma, Alab., Education Secretary Arne Duncan promised to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement in schools, which under the auspices of the Office of Civil Rights had stalled.

“The struggle for equal opportunity in our nation’s schools and universities is not at an end,” Duncan said at the historic site. “We will work with schools and enforce laws to ensure that all children— no matter what their race, gender, disability or native origin– have a fair chance at a good future.” 

But with compliance reviews on those objectives having diminished to little more than a look at the system’s current procedures and protocol, what does “reinvigorate” mean in the 21st century?

Well, first off, we learned it meant that compliance investigators would be reviewing and closing grievances made against 32 school districts by the end of the fiscal year, and launching a major investigation of a large urban district, which we soon discovered was Los Angeles Unified.
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Naomi Dillon|March 31st, 2010|Categories: Governance, Leading Source, Policy Formation|Tags: , , , |

A new role for the Office of Civil Rights

Photo courtesy of Stockvault

Photo courtesy of Stockvault

It’s been more than 10 years since I visited the small city of Perry, Iowa, to do a story on how its public schools were adapting to a large influx of Hispanic students. There had been friction in this little railroad town over the new immigrants, but the schools were a refuge for all.

I remember how impressed I was by the dedication of the superintendent, the principals, and the ESL teachers: They were truly committed to giving the newcomers from places like Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala the very best education they could provide.

I wrote a pretty glowing story — and rightly so. Yet I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to some of these foreign-born students in a few years, especially those who had come to Iowa as middle or high schoolers with limited English skills. How many of them would graduate and go on to college or decent-paying jobs?   
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Lawrence Hardy|March 10th, 2010|Categories: Curriculum, Diversity, Leading Source|Tags: , , , , |

308 days and counting

1209homepageartAsk seven experts about the economy, and you’ll get seven different answers. Same for health care, the war in Afghanistan, and other pressing national concerns that don’t lend themselves to simple “either/or” answers.

The same is true for education policy, as we illustrate this month in Year One, ASBJ‘s assessment of just where the Obama administration is headed with regard to public education and whether that direction is the right one.

To put it mildly, experts differ.

“I think there is more possibility of change today than anytime since A Nation at Risk,” says a cautiously optimistic Jack Jennings, president and CEO of the Center on Education Policy.

Diane Ravitch, by contrast, is resoundingly pessimistic. The university professor, education researcher, and Brookings Institution Senior Fellow says, “We are on the wrong track and headed in the wrong direction.”

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Lawrence Hardy|November 24th, 2009|Categories: Curriculum, Governance, Leading Source, Policy Formation, Student Achievement|Tags: , , |

Dunkin with Duncan? New ed secretary already fielding offers to play ball

What do you say to the new U.S. education secretary — a bona fide basketball star — after you’ve just learned he’s decided to send his children to your school district, the Arlington (Va.) Public Schools?

Well, naturally, you invite him to the venerable and long-running Wednesday night “fathers, friends, and hangers-on” pickup basketball games at your daughter’s elementary school.

What do you say if you’re the new U.S. education secretary and a former co-captain of Harvard’s basketball team, who’s accustomed to playing ball with the president, and you’ve just been asked to play in a pint-sized elementary school gym with a host of (can’t really call them “weekend,” — let’s say “Wednesday night”) athletes in various sizes and shades of in- and out-of shape-ness?

You demur.

“Well, I, ah, haven’t really thought that part out yet,” the Secretary graciously said.

Last week, I talked about my recent interview with Arne Duncan, which will appear in the April issue of ASBJ. Most of the interview concerned education policy and the stimulus package. This week I wanted to add something about why Duncan chose the Arlington Public Schools, which won’t make it into the magazine.

“My family’s obviously sacrificing a lot for me to do this work, and it’s so critical that we find great schools,” he said. ”There are great schools here [in Duncan's Chicago neighborhood] and it’s also important for me that the schools be diverse. We come from a very diverse community — Hyde Park- – on the south side of Chicago. And that’s just extraordinarily important that my children continue to grow up in that type of environment. And what we found here [in Arlington] was that combination of both real academic rigor and diversity.”

I asked him what it was like playing basketball with the president.
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Naomi Dillon|March 3rd, 2009|Categories: Leading Source, Student Achievement|Tags: , , |

New Ed secretary full of superlatives, ideas for the future

The new head of the U.S. Department of Education kept using superlatives— words like “staggering” and “extraordinary”— to describe the opportunity presented him by the billions in stimulus money destined for the nation’s schools. At the same time, Arne Duncan — friend of the president, magna cum laud Harvard graduate, former pro basketball player (in Australia), and much-lauded former head of the Chicago Public Schools — was downright humble in describing his own good fortune in being appointed Education Secretary. Twice he remarked on how extraordinarily “lucky” he was to serve at such a critical time.

After interviewing Arne Duncan for an April ASBJ “Newsmaker” column, I can only think one thing: We’re lucky, too.

I can’t say that in a news story (objectivity and all). But in a blog, I can. And after talking to Duncan for just a few minutes, I was impressed by his down-to-earth style, his willingness to listen, and his admission that he doesn’t have all the answers and will need the input of people who work in, and on behalf of, the schools. One of his first acts as secretary, he said, will be to travel the country and get people’s ideas on how No Child Left Behind might be improved when it is reauthorized.

Having been an urban school superintendent himself, Duncan should understand when educators complain about some of the more onerous provisions of NCLB. He is not, however, going to make it easier for them– just different.

Listen to Duncan’s description of the $5 billion Race to the Top Fund, which will support states that are interested in creating stronger standards for their schools:
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Naomi Dillon|February 24th, 2009|Categories: Leading Source, Student Achievement|Tags: , |

Obama relies on Chicago ties for education secretary

Daniel Schorr, the remarkably ageless 90-something news analyst for National Public Radio put it best last week when asked what he thought Barack Obama was looking for in his Cabinet appointments. 

 The president elect wasn’t looking for liberals or conservatives, Democrats or Republicans (although his appointments are almost all Democrats), Schorr said. He was looking for pragmatists, doers, people with expertise who know how to get jobs done and put ideas into practice.

It is, therefore, fitting that today Obama found just such a pragmatist in Arne Duncan to lead the U.S. Department of Education. The head of the Chicago Public Schools — and Obama basketball buddy — is receiving praise from all quarters.

“He’s gotten the job done in Chicago” Allan R. Odden, a University of Wisconsin education professor, told the New York Times. “There’s more to be done, but he’s done a great job of reaching out and recruiting and improving the talent of both teachers and principals.

Last week, I talked about the intense debate in education circles over whom Obama should appoint – an “establishment” candidate such as Stanford University professor and teacher union favorite Linda Darling-Hammond, or a “reformer” like controversial New York Schools chief, Joel I. Klein.

 Wisely, the president-elect sidestepped both those options.

 ”Obama found the sweet spot with Arne Duncan,” Susan Traiman, of the Business Roundtable, told the Times. “Both camps will be O.K. with the pick.”

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Naomi Dillon|December 16th, 2008|Categories: Governance, Leading Source, Policy Formation|Tags: , , |
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