Arne says he wants a "more humble, realistic federal role in education reform"

madfloridian

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Wed Jul-28-10 01:21 PM
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Arne says he wants a "more humble, realistic federal role in education reform"

He also says:

One-sized-fits-all remedies from the federal government don�t work. In fact, one-sized-fits-all remedies tend to stifle creativity at the local level.�

Yes, to all that. However he just doesn't come across as taking a "more humble" role. Sorry about that, but he does not.

I felt a little dumbfounded reading this from his latest speech. I must have misunderstood the poor guy when he called for more testing, more merit based testing, and more testing databases tying teachers to student scores. And for more charter schools.

His words from today:

Race to the Top is part of the Obama administration�s effort to offer incentives to higher performing schools.

�As you guys know, our world has changed, our economy has changed,� said Duncan. �The days of telling kids to go home at 2:30 and having mom there with a peanut butter sandwich, those days are gone. Whether it�s a single parent working one, two, three jobs or two parents working, the hours from 3 o�clock to 7 o�clock are a huge anxiety, and that�s why we have to keep our schools open longer.�

But Duncan explained that although he intends to use the leverage of the federal government to drive reform, he intends to give officials and teachers at the local level the flexibility to improve while also holding them accountable.

�Our blueprint envisions a more humble, realistic federal role in education reform,� Duncan said. �We are a long way in our nation�s capital from our nation�s classrooms. One-sized-fits-all remedies from the federal government don�t work. In fact, one-sized-fits-all remedies tend to stifle creativity at the local level.�

The Daily Caller

I must have misunderstood him last year.

Arne Duncan's goal for the stimulus money is for more testing and for charter schools.

"Part of the stimulus money, he told Sam Dillon of The New York Times, will be used so that states can develop data systems, which will enable them to tie individual student test scores to individual teachers, greasing the way for merit pay. Another part of the stimulus plan will support charters and entrepreneurs."

..."At the charter school, Duncan endorsed the core principles of the Bush education program. According to the account in the Times, Secretary Duncan said that "increasing the use of testing across the country should also be a spending priority."

All that even though there is no proven basis for doing so. In fact studies have proven otherwise. Here is one provided by Derrick Z. Jackson in 2005.

"Published on Wednesday, March 30, 2005 by the Boston Globe
Charter Schools' Troubled Waters
by Derrick Z. Jackson

"Proponents of charter schools have a deregulationist view of education that says the marketplace leads to better schools," Lawrence Mishel, president of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, said over the telephone. "The facts of the matter suggest that this view is without merit."

Mishel and three other university researchers from Columbia and Stanford universities are authors of the forthcoming book "The Charter School Dust-Up." The researchers reviewed federal data and the results from 19 studies in 11 states and the District of Columbia. They found that charter school students, on the whole, "have the same or lower scores than other public school students in nearly every demographic category."

In a politically charged environment where the White House and many governors, including Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, are pushing charter schools, the authors found that federal data "fail to confirm claims that the performance of charter schools improves as these schools accumulate experience." Charter schools four years or older "report lower scores than new charter schools."

..."Also, many charter schools rely on less-experienced, uncertified, and often less-well-paid teachers. In a regular central city school, 75 percent of the teachers have more than five years' experience. In a charter school the percentage is only 34 percent. In public high schools, 70 percent of the math teachers either majored or minored in math in college. In a charter high school, the percentage is 56 percent.

Maybe I thought Arne was on the side of the reformers because he appears to have adopted the Gates agenda for education.

The U.S. Department of Education under Arne Duncan has bought into the Gates' agenda completely. Former Gates Foundation officials now serve in the department; including Jim Shelton, former education program director for Gates and now Assistant Deputy Secretary for "Innovation and Improvement". Joan Weiss, former COO of the NewSchools Venture Fund - financier of charter schools with Gates' dollars - joined Duncan's ranks heading the Race to the Top program and has since been promoted to Duncan's Chief of Staff.

Not coincidentally, the $4.3 billion Race to the Top program requires states to eliminate caps on charter schools, forcibly close traditional schools, and even mandate wholesale firing of teachers and turning schools over to charter school operators. The Gates Foundation even "helped" states write their applications for Race to the Top funds - changing laws on charter schools and teacher evaluation in exchange for a long-shot gamble on what is essentially bribe money.

Well-respected principals are losing their jobs to meet the terms of Arne's requirements, another requirement is that teachers have to be replaced at failing schools.

Whether he believes in these remedies or not is becoming a moot topic to those paying the price by losing jobs as the private sector invades public schooling with his blessing.