Recently in Arne Duncan Category

Barack Obama will stop in Wisconsin tomorrow--one year and one day after being elected to the presidency--in advance of a key vote expected Thursday in the state legislature that could put Wisconsin in a better position to compete for the Race to the Top Fund.

Obama will cheer on the legislature as it considers a proposal to lift the ban on using student test scores for teacher evaluations, which would lift the so-called "data firewall" that stands between any state and being eligible for a slice of $4 billion in Race to the Top grants.

In a conference call today, White House Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes said the Obama Administration is taking direct credit for spurring education-reform moves in several states--including similar data firewall actions in California and Indiana, and efforts to improve the charter school climates in Illinois, Louisiana, Tennessee, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Ohio and Rhode Island.

Obama is expected to praise states for taking these steps, and encourage Wisconsin to follow along. Barnes did not mention anything about legislation in the Wisconsin legislature to allow the mayor of Milwaukee to take over the city's schools. That's something Obama's Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, champions.

If you'll remember from the draft regulations on Race to the Top, while not having a data firewall is a must for Race to the Top, a state's charter school environment is just part of the larger overall criteria by which states will be judged.

However, any of this could change as the U.S. Department of Education continues to make changes after receiving a slew of comments.

Barnes wouldn't even give us a hint as to what changes are coming for Race to the Top. And as to when we might see final regulations, applications, and how the criteria will be weighted, she said the administration isn't at a "final, final" place yet.

So stay tuned here for final, final regulations.

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John White, who was hired in May to be the press secretary for the U.S. Department Education, has left that post and is now the deputy assistant secretary for rural outreach.

Peter Cunningham, the chief public relations strategist for Education Secretary Arne Duncan, told me that the press office was "overstaffed." (Really? I can come up with plenty more things for them to do, if needed!)

Rural outreach is an area where the department, which has been criticized for overlooking the rural perspective on issues, certainly needs some help. And, so, White is filling a void, said Cunningham, who is officially the assistant secretary for communications and outreach. He added: "Arne's not a rural guy. I'm not a rural guy." (I'm not sure White, who is a former spokesman for Prince George's County Public Schools, is a "rural guy" either, but lots of folks will stand ready to school him in all things rural.)

Cunningham (who is, like his boss, a Chicago guy) also said this is part of a broader strategy to improve outreach as reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act approaches. "The media is critically important, but outreach is where you build support for the agenda."

He noted that he has department staffers who specialize in outreach to associations, to other government entities, now to the rural schools, and he's hiring someone from Los Angeles to tackle outreach at the community level.

As a result of White's departure from the press office, deputy press secretaries Sandra Abrevaya and Justin Hamilton have been promoted and will be sharing the title of press secretary. That also means they're graduating from cubicle offices to a real office, although they'll have to share it.

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In honor of National School Lunch Week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited D.C. Prep Edgewood Elementary and Middle School Campuses in northeast Washington, D.C., last week, touting the department's "Fueled and Fit: Ready to Learn" campaign. He'll be making other school stops in the coming weeks as part of this initiative to promote nutrition and fitness.

So, this seems like a fitting time to resurrect the photo above, which features Arne's lunch tray during a May stop at a West Virginia school. These foods, while likely mainstays of school cafeterias, sure look like they'd make a good example of what not to eat. But then again, the lunch could be healthier than it looks, and I'm not sure I can even identify all of the foods. I see ketchup and mustard, a carrot-and-bean salad, perhaps, and definitely onion rings. But is his main course a steak sandwich? And what's next to it, potatoes? (Click on the photo to enlarge it.) UPDATE: Eagle-eyed commenter Stafford has made a convincing case that my "potatoes" are actually a peach or apple cobbler.

(Photo: U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan adds ketchup to his lunch with students at Eagle School in Martinsburg, W.Va., on May 5, 2009. Alex Brandon/AP)

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Just because California has removed its teacher-student data fire wall, thereby making itself eligible to compete for Race to the Top Fund grants, that doesn't mean the state is a shoe-in for the money.

In fact, it seems that Education Secretary Arne Duncan is trying to temper expectations by building a larger narrative that any changes prompted by Race to the Top also could put states in better position for other stimulus-related education grant competitions. After all, the Education Department realizes it can't give $4 billion in Race to the Top money to every state. (But, it's worth pointing out that California was often singled out by Duncan for having the firewall, and did act swiftly to get rid of it.)

"This is a piece of a much larger package," he said in a phone interview today, pointing to some $10 billion in discretionary funds under the stimulus program, such as the school-improvement grants, or the "i3" innovation grants.

And, in specifically speaking about California and other states that have made changes to put themselves in better position for Race to the Top, Duncan tried to downplay the motivation behind these changes: the money. "This money is going to be gone two to four years from now. This is a victory for schoolchildren," he said.

But for cash-strapped states, it is also about the money.

Earlier this year, when I traveled with Duncan in Florida, he said that one of the reasons he peeled off $350 million from the Race to the Top Fund to award to states for common assessments was to spread the stimulus love around -- to give states that may not be competitive for Race to the Top grants a shot at some stimulus prize money.

Clearly, Duncan & Crew are cognizant that states will need to be rewarded, one way or another, for their education-reform efforts. And he has a large portfolio of award money with which to work. Still, the department has successfully made Race to the Top the most prestigious education stimulus prize of them all.

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Kevin Jennings, was appointed to his job at the helm of the U.S. Department of Education's office of safe and drug free schools more than three months ago, amid criticism from some socially conservative groups that sought to derail the appointment. Now, some controversial statements he made years ago to a gay student are stirring up those critics once again.

Warren Throckmorton, a conservative psychology professor at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, and an independent blogger, recently posted an audio interview on his Web site, in which Jennings recounts that while he was a high school teacher he told a sophomore, who picked up an older man in a bus station and went home with him, that he hoped the student used a condom.

Jennings now said he wishes he had handled the situation differently.

"I should have asked for more information and consulted medical or legal authorities," Jennings said in a statement to the Associated Press in the wake of recent criticism. "Teachers back then had little training and guidance about this kind of thing. All teachers should have a basic level of preparedness. I would like to see the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools play a bigger role in helping to prepare teachers."

Still, some conservative-leaning news outlets have sharply criticized Jennings, including the Washington Times.

But Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has backed Jennings, telling the Associated Press that he's "honored to have [Jennings] on the team."

Alexander Russo posted a pretty interesting graphic on the subject here.

UPDATE: A lot of groups in the education community are throwing their support behind Jennings. The National Association of School Psychologists put out this statement. And Learning First has this supportive statement.

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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which handpicked 15 states for $250,000 each in funding to help them prepare their Race to the Top Fund applications, is going to offer assistance to the remaining 35 states—if they meet eight education reform criteria.

That's according to a memo Vicki Phillips, the foundation's director of education, college ready, sent yesterday to the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

But before states can get an unspecified amount of money, they must meet eight criteria (outlined in Phillips' memo) that mirror the criteria by which the U.S. Department of Education has proposed judging applications for $4 billion in aid under the education-reform competition.

The Gates Foundation criteria includes whether states have signed onto the NGA-CCSSO common standards effort, whether they have alternative routes to teacher certification, and whether they have no firewall barring the use of student achievement data in teacher evaluations.

Chris Williams, a spokesman for the foundation, said he couldn't say how much money states might receive, either individually or collectively. He also wouldn't elaborate on why the Gates Foundation decided to open up its resources to the rest of the country.

However, Phillips' email gives a clue, indicating that whatever the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers said to foundation officials in response to the Chosen 15 was effective. In her email, Phillips indicates the change was the result of "much discussion and careful consideration of your feedback."

UPDATE: Dane Linn, the education division director of the NGA's Center for Best Practices, said that there was concern—especially in this economic downturn—that some states would have an advantage over others. "We are really pleased that Gates will make investments that will put everyone on equal footing," he said this morning. "We've got to create national momentum. We can't have reform in just [a few] states."

The foundation's initial Chosen 15 were: Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas.

After these states were chosen, there was a lot of discussion in the ed policy world that these 15 had an early edge in Race to the Top.

It's clear these states are still foundation favorites. Phillips' email says: "These states...are poised to successfully scale reform efforts that can dramatically improve student achievement. Accordingly, these states will be targets for further foundation investment provided they continue to follow through on these commitments."

UPDATE: I should point out that Gates is going to use the Arabella Legacy Fund to serve as the middleman for this grant. This is a grant management group that Gates has used before for some of its global health initiatives. Arabella staff will be the ones to run what seems to be the official warm-up to the Race to the Top—they will, on behalf of Gates, review the grant proposals from the states, answer questions, make the awards, and execute contracts.

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Steve Robinson, who was hired by Education Secretary Arne Duncan as a special adviser on math, science and other issues, is moving to the White House—a small but not insignificant shift in job duties.

The education department says he's still working as a special assistant in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, but will be doing so from the White House's Domestic Policy Council.

"Having Steve over there allows the [department] to maximize coordination" between the education department, the White House, and other agencies, an Education Department spokeswoman said.

Just last week, Robinson, a former high school science teacher who worked for Obama when he was in the U.S. Senate, was a focus of an EdWeek story on Washington fellowships for teachers.

What's interesting about Robinson's shift is that it further signals that STEM is a really big issue for President Obama, but perhaps not as significant for his education secretary. (UPDATE: The department wants to stress that STEM is just as significant for Duncan as it is for Obama, and that Robinson's move is more of a re-location than anything else.)

President Obama has talked about science, technology, engineering and math (the STEM subjects) a lot in major speeches. Today, President Obama spoke at a New York community college to emphasize innovation and technology, according to prepared remarks.

In an August speech on the economy, he said: "Right now, our schools continue to trail many of our competitors, and that's why I've challenged states to dramatically improve achievement by raising standards and modernizing science labs, upgrading curriculum, forming new partnerships to promote math and science, and improving the use of technology in the classroom."

In the many, many, many speeches Obama's education secretary has given, Duncan doesn't often focus on things like modernizing science labs, or improving technology. That's not to say Duncan isn't in favor of these things. (UPDATE: I was neglectful in not highlighting the March speech he gave to the National Science Teachers Association, when he stressed getting great talent into STEM subjects. Or his Aug. 25 remarks to the National Science Board panel.) It's just that he's much more keenly focused on teacher quality, data systems, academic standards, and low-performing schools. And probably rightly so, since Congress identified those areas, or "assurances", as priorities in implementing the $787 billion economic-stimulus act, $100 billion of which is for education.

So in many ways, it seems Robinson is a better fit for the White House than the Education Department.

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So, remember that listening-and-learning tour that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan embarked on to get a sense of what Americans think of the No Child Left Behind Act? Well, he took the tour to the airwaves (sort of) earlier this week, holding a national town hall meeting that was televised in many places. Check it out online here.

There wasn't much said at Tuesday's event that was new to me. The criticisms he heard of NCLB were important, but relatively predictable (too much testing, too much focus on the core subjects at the expense of physical education, art, and other interests).

And Duncan's answers were similar to what he's said on those topics before. He wants tighter control from the federal government on what states' goals should be, but would like to consider how there can be more flexibility in how they get students there. (Is that attitude evident in the guidance the department has put out so far, dealing with Race to the Top Fund and other programs? Discuss.)

When it comes to teachers, he thinks student achievement data should be part of the equation in measuring effectiveness, but he also said that it doesn't tell the whole story. Principal observations and peer feedback counts too, he said.

"We need a menu of options," he said.

Duncan took questions from folks in Hillsborough County, Fla., school system, which includes Tampa. The superintendent there, MaryEllen Elia, recommended national standards, to allow for better comparisons across state lines.

"Amen," said Duncan.

Interesting factoid: Duncan did not have a TV in his house growing up. Instead, his parents read to him and his sibilings from classic literature, including the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Huckleberry Finn, and Moby Dick. Makes me wonder if his own children have a television.

Speaking of TV, despite lots of help from the U.S. Department of Education, I had a tough time finding a place to watch live on television. It's not clear that the event was broadcast in Washington, D.C., or in parts of suburban Maryland, for instance, just a few miles from where it was being taped in Shirlington, Va. Although Duncan said the program was being broadcast on 800 stations nationwide, I guess mine wasn't one of them. I suspect that's at the discretion of local providers...there probably wasn't much the department could have done about it.

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Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said today at Wakefield High School, where President Obama is set to deliver his back-to-school speech at noon, that the controversy surrounding the remarks has “absolutely not” undermined the president’s intended message of personal responsibility and the need for students to stay in school and stay focused. He said such controversies roll off him like “water off a duck’s back,” and said that one of the problems in education policy today is that we “focus on adult issues and adult drama,” instead of paying attention to the huge challenges facing school systems. (This is similar to what Duncan told Bob Schieffer on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday.)

Duncan stressed that watching the speech is entirely voluntary—students can watch in school today, online later, or not at all. As for the suggested lesson plans and classroom activities that some conservative critics have said violate restrictions against the federal government setting curriculum, Duncan said the lessons were put together by “some of the best teachers in the country”—participants in the Education Department’s Teaching Ambassador fellowship program. He conceded that some the original wording of those activities focused too heavily on the president’s goals and that the wording was modified in some cases to focus more heavily on students’ goals.

Before the speech, Secretary Duncan and President Obama planned to hold a round-table discussion with ninth-graders at Wakefield High School to listen to their concerns about their own educations. And he wasn’t the only cabinet secretary planning to visit a school—nearly two dozen cabinet secretaries and other high administration officials were expected to fan out today in support of the president’s pep rally.

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To push states into undertaking education reform, President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are using $4 billion from the Race to the Top Fund as leverage.

But when it comes to making students and parents take more responsibility for their own educational futures, Obama and Duncan have little more than their bully pulpits—and now a $1,000 cash prize.

When Obama delivers a Sept. 8 back-to-school speech, he will emphasize personal responsibility on the part of students and parents and urge the nation's schoolchildren to set short-term and long-term goals. These are themes that he touted during his campaign. The noon EDT speech will be carried live on C-SPAN and on whitehouse.gov. (UPDATE: By the way, Obama will deliver his speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., which has gotten some love from his administration before.)

UPDATE: The speech, and accompanying "lesson plans" that the education department shared with teachers and school districts, is already causing quite a stir. The department is having to retract one lesson plan that asked students to write letters on how they might "help" the president, according to the Washington Times and Talking Points Memo. Meanwhile, school districts, such as those in the Dallas, Texas area, are struggling with concerns from parents who may not want their children to watch the speech.

In helping the White House gear up for the speech, Duncan taped a promo this morning in his office that will run on MTV on Sept. 8, urging kids to watch the speech by tuning into C-SPAN (and urging MTV viewers to flip to C-SPAN is no easy pitch).

And as part of this back-to-school message, Duncan also taped a commercial that will be featured on YouTube and on a new Web site promoting a contest the department will run called "I Am What I Learn." (The filming of this was a low-budget operation—no teleprompters. Picture Duncan's assistant Liz Utrup standing on a chair, holding print-outs of the script, in 40-plus-point-size, taped to a big flip chart.)

The month-long contest, which starts the day of Obama's speech and ends Oct. 8, invites students to submit videos of up to two minutes long on YouTube that will highlight their personal stories about how they will improve their educations this school year and the "role it will play to fulfilling their dreams," according to the department. A few celebrity judges (to be named later) will narrow the entries down to 20, and then the public will vote for the winner of the $1,000 prize.

This notion of personal responsibility in education reform hasn't been raised just by Obama and Duncan. It was raised, albeit in a less-than-tactful way, by an Atlanta-area teachers' union leader in an Aug. 31 piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Metro Association of Classroom Educators Chairman John Trotter was quoted as saying, in reference to proposed regulations by the Education Department for turning around the nation's worst schools that call for firing staff: “He [Duncan] wants to replace everyone ... except the ones who matter, the children ... The problem starts with the students. What is Duncan going to do with some so-called students who act like miscreants each day?”

Those statements lit up the blogsphere and Twitter feeds.

But Duncan, who would surely quibble with most of what Trotter had to say, also acknowledged when I asked him about this today, that "unquestionably, without a doubt" students bear responsibility, too, for the state of the nation's most struggling schools. And that broader message of personal responsibility is what you'll hear from him and Obama next week.

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